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want ro raise the rear

moparfanUSA

moparfanUSA

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It sits a little low in the rear and I want to lift it just a little.....69 GTX what is the best way to do it?
 
Quick and dirty would be to put air shocks on, but your best bet would probably to be to get the leaf springs re-arched, add a leaf, or just get a custom set made. You can take the set on right now down to a shop, and tell them you want it to sit x-inches higher.
 
IF you use air shocks, use separate lines to each shock. This will make them act independently of each other in turns. Other words, the shock that's in compression won't force air into the shock that's in extension and making the car lean even more. You can also 'preload' the suspension with them by putting a bit more air into the right side. I used to crank up the left front torsion bar just a bit and ran 12 lbs more air in the right shock and my single track rear end would act like it had a Sure Grip in it. If you understand why a non limited slip rear spins the right side tire, they you'll understand why this works....
 
cranky gives good advice on using independent lines. HOWEVER, the shock mounts on these cars were never meant to carry the weight of the car and will crack the uppers.

Best advice is new/rearched springs.
 
69 Runner said:
cranky gives good advice on using independent lines. HOWEVER, the shock mounts on these cars were never meant to carry the weight of the car and will crack the uppers.

Best advice is new/rearched springs.
Click to expand...
Yup, new or rearched is good advice and have heard about people breaking the upper mount but I've never broke one and have used air shocks in the past and did a lot of playing around with several cars. One had 3" lowering blocks then air shocks to the max lol. Had a 67 Dart that was used as a truck. Even delivered a complete 383 in it's trunk across town one day. Air shocks aired up to the max to make the car level at best lol. I used to be really abusive to my cars back in the day! I finally bought a truck and quit doing that sort of thing to my cars but I've used air shocks for many years and never had a problem but generally, I didn't run em maxed out either...well, except for the Dart and one other car lol
 
"Technically" speaking... as the prior posts indicate, the leaf spring method is the proper way (re-arch, MP SS springs,etc)... BUT, back then... Thrush mufflers & Gabriel hi-jackers were the first things we put in the rear of our cars !! (and I ain't never done broke no shock mounts in back ! )... we did, however, draw the line on spring shackles ( BARF ! )....
 
Anyone reading this who has never seen a broken upper shock mount needs to look very closely at their car. Pull the shocks and bolts out of the way, and you may see a crack in that upper mount.

Easy to miss. I've seen quite a few in my almost 40 years of MOPAR driving/restoring/racing
 
Can you beef up the mount? Mine are dead but I plan on replacing them til I decide what way to go.
 
Never did run shackles either....and wasn't a fan of glass packs either but straight pipes were another story lol. Nearly every car I've ever had got em. And I have inspected my shocks mounts after I first heard it might be a problem and yeah, it's not easy to inspect with the shocks in the way.

69, don't see why you couldn't beef up the mount....or even replace it.
 
69clone said:
Can you beef up the mount? Mine are dead but I plan on replacing them til I decide what way to go.
Click to expand...

You bet.......On my Roadrunner I ended up making a template out of cardboard and cutting out 4 spar style stiffiner's out of 16 ga steel and welded them in. Also, where the shock crossmember welds up to the bottom of the frame rails and the factory goobered them on, I cleaned up the edge and put a nice clean full weld on top/bottom. Along with all of that I backsided the shock mount holes with 4" long 16 ga 304 Stainless Steel welded on with 309.

There is aftermarket custom shock crossmembers for custom's and drag racers.. Seen a Charger last week with one that had coil overs installed.
 
I don't use air shocks anymore after breaking two upper mounts (73 Dart and 68 B body) and bending a lower mount shaft. Air shocks, particularly when maxed out, restrict much of the work of the leaf springs and take over most of the road shock. Besides, once you buy the shocks, run the lines, and if necessary beef up the mounts, you've spent more then the cost of good replacement or high lift springs, or rearching.
 
2 things here.
1: Im pretty sure running separate air shock lines is illegal because if one shock line breaks you could roll the car, where if both shocks lose air the whole rear would just go down.
2: Put on longer shackles and use the top whole and cut off the bottoms and shape to look factory and no one will know, this will raise the car a couple of inches and look just fine.
 
I used a set of Mopar Performance HD (not SS) on my Road Runner. This raised the rear about 1/2 inch from stock. Also if you put taller tires on the back, this will also help without doing any modifications. 275/60/15's are 28" tall which is more than the stock heighth would have been. Depends on how high you want.
 
S.I. Coronet said:
2 things here.
1: Im pretty sure running separate air shock lines is illegal because if one shock line breaks you could roll the car, where if both shocks lose air the whole rear would just go down.
2: Put on longer shackles and use the top whole and cut off the bottoms and shape to look factory and no one will know, this will raise the car a couple of inches and look just fine.
Click to expand...
Had a line melt on the exhaust pipe once...one of the hazards of air shocks....and nothing even coming close to what you mentioned happened and using longer shackles is way worse than using any air shock. Roll a car because a shock fails? You got to be kidding.....I guess we need to quit using springs because of fear of them failing too. Tell ya what, an ill handling car is far more dangerous and anyone using air shocks with a common line setup will have just that and if AZ sells dangerous parts, it leaves them wide open for lawsuits so if you think they are not aware of DOT laws, then you really are without a clue.
 
i like the MP XHD leafs myself. they raise the rear of my cars about 1 inch. they ride great,and,unless you,or someone else has previously replaced them,your rear springs are 40+ years old and are probably due for bushings,pads,a few clamps,etc. gives a good reason to do some painting and detailing to a few parts while your under there.
 
I'm new to Mopar suspensions, but have experience with coils. I see all the advise about spring fixes, but nothing about "progressive" springs. Is that not possible to do with leaf springs?
 
Leaf springs due to the way they are stacked makes them a progressive spring......
 
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