What should I do with my Front End?

[joflaig]

As usual I'm looking for the best of all worlds, which means making compomises in this case. Here's the rear end setup right now: 275/60/15 tires, 8 3/4 posi w/3.54 gears, 1"+ espo springs, QA1 adjustable shocks (on the front too), CE Slide-a-Links, Wilwood 4 Piston Discs, sub-frame connectors. Engine has been estimated for 540hp and 600 fp torque.

All that being said, this is a mostly street car SO what kind of things should I do to the front end to get better street handling in spite of what I did to the rear end? I'm obviously not going to get a pro touring handling. The only thing done to date is a FirmFeel Stage II steering box. What are some reasonable things I can do to improve handling noticbly without going too nuts?

[Chatt69chgr]

Firm Feel 1-1/8 inch front sway bar and their 3/4 inch rear sway bar to reduce body roll in corners.  Maybe increase the size of the front torsion bars.  Std in 440 R/T was .92 inch.  Mopar's next size up is .96 inch.  I don't know about shocks.  You can get anything from a set of Monroe's for $75 to a set of Koni's for $500.  I just don't know which shock makes the most sense.  I think the Koni's are adjustable for 50/50 action up and down.  And rebuildable if you can ever manage to wear them out.  Don't have any gas to leak out either.  I had them on my 66 Fairlane 390 GTA.  They definitely caused the ride to be a lot harsher.  Someone on here, I think Chris, had the KYB's and took them off because they were too harsh.  Changed to the Monroe's.  I think he is running stock sway bar and torsion bar setup.  Don't think he put on rear sway bar.  Would be interesting to hear how his car handles.

[71charger_fan]

I just replaced all my bushings with poly, added heavier torsion bars, put on new shocks and it was like a whole new, and much better, car. I also replaced the ball joints and tie rod ends at the same time.

[joflaig]

I just replaced all my bushings with poly, added heavier torsion bars, put on new shocks and it was like a whole new, and much better, car. I also replaced the ball joints and tie rod ends at the same time.

All my front suspension bushings are new rubber. The shocks are the same as the rear, QA1 adjustables. I'm intrigued by the idea of heavier torsion bars, but don't fully understand yet why going from .92 to .96 would introduce noticble improvements in handling. Just looking for the biggest bang for the buck, I guess.

[suntech]

I would have gone with the XV level I complete setup. Then you get something that is made for your car, and works, for a reasonable price 

[71charger_fan]

Reasonable price? That kit is around $2300 and, other than their shocks, what does it get you that you can't put together yourself for a whole lot less?

[joflaig]

Reasonable price? That kit is around $2300 and, other than their shocks, what does it get you that you can't put together yourself for a whole lot less?

I'm happy with what I've got on the back, just looking for maybe the equivilent of what headers would give you, but for the front suspension.

[suntech]

You get good shocks, rear leafs, and front torsions, with matching springrate, plus matching swaybars.
Thought that was a pretty good deal, consithering the effort putted in to making something that is working together, rather than pulling random parts off the shelf, and hope for the best.
OK..............I benefit from the extange rate on the usd now adays, plus the much higher pricelevels here in Europe, so i actually think 2300usd for a complete "handeling package" is reasonable.

[Mike DC]

 

--  If you don't have the chassis braced up then I would do that long before I did anything else on the front end.  Get decent subframe connectors of some kind and factory-style torque boxes.  Those are the biggest gains right out of the gate.  (After that, maybe the XV-type front rad brace, and then the next gain is the shock-tower braces.)



--  Add some caster in the front end.  It won't hurt much of anything to add a little more than stock.  (And when the car's stance is raked higher in the back & lower in the front, the caster needs to be increased just to put things back the way they felt from the factory.)  Adjust the stock alignment cams, maybe need to use aftermarket A-arms. 

--  Adding more negative camber than stock will help the handling a little when the car is leaning, but it wears out the tires faster as you add more negative camber. 



--  Torsion bars are worth replacing if you've got 40-year-old originals in the car.  (If you've got replacement torsion bars in there that were new within the last decade, then I wouldn't bother replacing them again.)  If you buy something new, start with the .96 bar size or stiffer.  The .96s don't really feel notably stiffer than the stock bars, but they seem to be compressed less easily when it counts.  The 1.00 inch bars are said to be a big step upwards over stock though. 

--  Aftermarket sway bars help but don't get crazy with the size.  A little more than stock in the front, and a little bit of anything in the back.  The Hotchkiss hollow-tube ones were nice if you can still find them for the '69 B-body platform. 

--  Shocks?  Hard to tell.  The Edelbrocks have some fans lately but they're not cheap.  They're supposedly a lot of handling gains for the mild amount of bump stiffness increase though.



--  Check the old rubber rag joint between the steering box and the rest of the column.  It basically functions like the block of isolating rubber on an engine mount.   It can be a source of slop especially when it gets old/worn.  And modern cars often have them made of stiffer stuff to begin with, like poly instead of rubber.