Magnum Force Suspension "Don't Do It!"

[Garage Rat]

I just joined as I want to help someone else avoid all the headaches! I purchased a full front coil over and Dana 60 from them, about $10k, in January 2021. Starting late March I started questioning where things were by late April Jen indicated her supplier of rear ends (Strange) wasn't returning her call, possibly not paying but that's a guess. I looked into Moser and forwarded their response to her. Early May received a Moser Dana 60 but not powder coated as paid for. Where is the suspension? About same time received K-member, steering rack, some hardware and control arms. Whats missing, "no clue" since there is no packing list or instructions. Continued to complain and received a set of outdated instructions that were just bad! Been wrenching for 25 yrs have a bunch of experience so I am able to figure things out but COM'ON MAN! After going thru parts in detail, there was no coil overs, no steering knuckles, no zerk fitting for lower control arms, and no conical spacers for upper control arms. Not much of a suspension! After continued complaining I received the coil overs and steering knuckles. Never did receive any additional hardware, including conical spacers or zerk fittings. Started putting the thing together, wow now the fun starts, knuckles don't match the holes on the stock spindle as they indicated they would. Machined it so it know works. Tried to install onto lower ball joint but knuckle on left side is over reamed and knuckle on right is under reamed. Oh well used spacer on the left side and bought reamer from McMaster Carr for right side. Measured upper control arm mounts and bought spacers from McMaster Carr to install those. Instructions don't mention having to cut anything of the car, which was important since this car is an original 69 Road Runner, but no such luck you need to cut the bump stop bracket to allow there K member to fit. The hardware for the K member is 2" long 5/8" allen head bolts! OK so 2" long, do the math the steel on the K member is 1/8 and is doubled in the rear hole, then the internal bolt is at least 1/4 to 1/2 from the face of the frame, then there's the split washer, and get this no flat washer. Based on the head of the Allen (7/8") and hole on the k member (3/4") I'd say that's a bit sketchy. Also the motor mounts are stock Mopar with the 1/2 motor mount bolt (welded to mount) drilled out. This makes little sense to me, why not just use the welded bolt. Instead they drilled the bolt out and did it poorly. They apparently didn't put the item in a jig and just drilled, which bent the one side of the mount. To make these work I drilled the hole to 9/16 versus the 1/2 and to best of my ability bent the mount back. I've included a few key (insert comical) pictures. If you bought this kit and already laid out the cash, I can help with some pitfalls but like me you skrewed up "sorry". If your looking I say go to QA1 they just purchased Gerst Design. The rear of my car is all Hotchkiss and the stuff was right on and everything came on time with packing lists Please share this with any and all, while these people may be nice, they shouldn't be allowed to mess with people like this.

 

[funknut]

Thanks for sharing your experience, it sucks that it was such a disaster. There have been a couple other folks that have gotten burned by MF here. In addition to everything you covered there are stories of bad welds.

 

[yella71]

I wouldnt put that crap on my car on a bet.

 

[Ironbuilt]

Welcome from North Carolina. As mentioned above, there are quite a few threads on FBBO discussing horrible experiences with their products and their customer service. Sucks that you went through that.

 

[snakeyes]

We've had several threads on him and his company about his product and work , do a search

 

[chargervert]

Worman thinks MF is wonderful!

 

[Purepony]

I purchased some lower ring spindles from them and I can’t complain they work great but that’s like 2009

 

[Kern Dog]

Worman thinks MF is wonderful!

That is ....hard to defend.
I like that show BUT when he gushes over Ron Francis and the Magnum Farce products, I wince and look away.
I strongly suspect that Ron is at the absolute TOP of his game when he does the dance for Mark. ANY idiot can do a competent job IF they think that the world is watching.
Magnum Farce is the Harbor Freight of the suspension industry. Shitty welds, shitty concepts, shitty instructions and shitty performance. A friend of mine that was swimming in money bought a MF front end setup for his Valiant. Bad welds, incomplete instructions, NO motor mounts AND less suspension travel than stock! Great.....He paid $5000 to get better header clearance when an $800 set of TTI headers would have fit the stock torsion bar setup.

 

[Donakey]

It’s good you reported this. More people know, more people will stop buying from MF.

I used Gerst, best welds, best fabrication, best customer service most competitive pricing for Mopar cars. I have also bought parts from Reilly motor sports. Bills a good guy who answers a call or email.

 

[Ironbuilt]

It’s good you reported this. More people know, more people will stop buying from MF.

I used Gerst, best welds, best fabrication, best customer service most competitive pricing for Mopar cars. I have also bought parts from Reilly motor sports. Bills a good guy who answers a call or email.

Please post up some pictures of the Gerst setup and give a competent review for FBBO members. Thanks.

https://gerstsuspensions.com/

 

[Donakey]

 

[Donakey]

 

[Donakey]

Here are some pics. Everything fit well. All the parts where there. Nothing missing. In regards to the welding aspect I was impressed. I’m a ticketed welder certified in FCAW, SMAW, MCAW CWB and B pressure Primarily SMAW carbon TIG. I couldn’t find any weld faults. No undercut and worst of all notches or even spatter. I had my brother and I put the stuff together. It was straight forward. Nothing missing. We had something mounted can’t remember what it was. Called Gerst on the phone Sunday afternoon. He trouble shot the problem and we had it fixed in 10mins. I was happy with my stuff. I’m sure it will work well once I’m done. I read reviews from this site and the website. I’m happy

 

[70chall440]

I completely agree that MF is junk. I assisted in putting a MF front end on a 72 Cuda and it was a nightmare, wrong parts, missing parts, incorrect instructions, horrible engineering, etc. I'd rather run a straight axle than their crap... Just one more reason to hate GYC (as if there aren't enough already)

 

[Kern Dog]

I'm still not a fan of that outer tie rod spacer and long bolt. After all of these years, they can't make a spindle with a dropped arm to avoid that cantilevered tie rod connection?

 

[Donakey]

It’s a lot of money to spend. I’m trying to whine here but being outside at -45 or at my current job 400 miles north of the article circle welding in an iron ore mine, you expect to not be ripped off. I would gladly take MF with me as punishment. These guys don’t seem to care or understand what people go through to build these cars or how long it takes a guy to do it. I’m a normal person with out TV show budget like bill goldberg on wormans show.

 

[famous bob]

I'm still not a fan of that outer tie rod spacer and long bolt. After all of these years, they can't make a spindle with a dropped arm to avoid that cantilevered tie rod connection?

As I`ve said before , I have an older m.f tubular front end ,on my 68 fastback,
the only thing I really dont like is , it has no akerman built into it , but it was bulit for drag racing . been on for about 10ish yrs. , gave around $1900 shipped , all put together , havent had any problems w/ it , but doesn`t handle all that well on bad roads . Just replaced the rack and pinion and tierod ends , which are heim joints. Always inspect the welds and bolts every time I `m under it .

 

[vintage chromoly]

Torsion bars work just fine.

 

[barbee6043]

I always wonder what is wrong with stock Mopar TB suspension!? LOL

 

[Garage Rat]

Once the stuff was installed it's pretty solid but certainly I wouldn't do it again. I will keep an eye on the welds, since we all know while they may look pretty it doesn't guarantee quality. Will also keep an eye on the coilover mounts, I don't like that they mount to the stock sheet metal, I may fab something up to give it more support. As far as torsion bar, there isn't anything wrong with them but you can't get the adjustability (coil overs double adjustable) from them and stock ones really don't cut it. I suppose updating them to some modern ones (maybe Hotchkiss) would be fine, I think those have more adjustability built in. Also these modern kits change some of the key suspension geometry that you will notice when driving hard. It really depends on how you plan on using the car and what type of driving you like to do. But there is nothing "wrong" with torsion bars.