anybody know someone who has switched an M-body's suspension before?

[Lightning]

the more I own my Chrysler, the pissed I am at chrysler's engineers for F-ing up the suspension on it.  These transverse T-bars are for the birds!  Anyhow, this brings me to my question: Does anybody around here know of somebody that has swapped their M-body's front suspension to one from a B-body? I want to keep my LeBaron as a engine and suspension parts "holder" until I can find a decent B-body somewhere. (they're Impossible to find in Volusia County!)

[chargerbr549]

I will have to agree the front suspension sucked on the F,J,M bodies, I had a 78 Diplomat and an 82 Mirada and I tried all kinds of different fixes and even entertained converting to the older B body suspension but I got tired of the poor handeling (bump steer) so I sold them 5 or 6 years ago and got something else. I believe one of the Mopar Mags had an article within the last year on an 89 Cop car where they boxed the lower control arm and boxed out the lower radiator support yoke area and then ran a strut rod between the two, giving stability to the lower control arm. When Chrysler rushed the suspension design into production they figured that the bent torsion bar could act as a strut arm also, but when you have a bar that twists and is mounted in rubber it allows the lower control arm to move around and causing a"guess what the car is going to do" in the corners or on bumpy roads. I think I would give that stut arm fix a try before trying major surgery. Just my two cent worth.

[tecmopar]

Heres my 2 cents worth. I spent a total of about 600.00 on the suspension on my '80 Mirada CMX with a 360 and done correctly, it was a great riding and handling car. If the front end is done right it works really nice and would out handle my Challenger anyday. I replaced the sway bar, torsion bars and frame bisqiuts with the Police parts, used all poly bushings, re-arched the rear springs to lower it a bit, installed an 8 3/4 rear and rear sway bar. That is one car I wish I had never sold and I'm still kinda looking for another one to do up the same. Good luck.

[Lightning]

I'm gonna do the Isolators(frame biscuits) for sure, but I just need something that actually has aftermarket parts for it; hence the idea about swapping it over.

[Mike DC]

(Isn't this a question for the suspension & chassis area?)

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I say just beef up the stock front end's worn-out bushings and then see how you feel about it.  Usually 90% of the problem is cured with the first 10% of the new parts.

If I were gonna retrofit anything, I'd probably go aftermarket and get some good stuff.  Coilovers, etc.  Trying to retrofit another old Mopar front end is probably just as much work for less payoff.

.

[tecmopar]

I haven't checked lately but the Isolators were still available from your local Mopar dealer, these are the steel ones, come with new K-frame bolts and weren't very expensive. Also, MikeDC is right, if you change the upper and lower bushings to poly, you'll be amazed at the difference, good luck.

[chargerbr549]

Personally I would shy away from using the cast iron k frame isolaters on a street car although I had never tried the poly ones before, I have used them before and I really didn't notice a difference in handeling but the ride harshness increased considerably, driving over railroad tracks and rough roads was sometimes brutal, I wouldn't recommend them for a daily driver but for a race car it wouldn't be an issue. I would probably give the poly isolaters a shot and see how they work.

[Mike DC]

Steel bushings? Poly? 
Heck, you could probably just install a fresh set of the stock rubber ones and find some real improvement.

Look under there & see how work out all the original bushings are after 25 years.

.

[Lightning]

well, right after I got the car I had checked the bushings about a year ago, they are shot all to hell.  I checked with the Dodge dealer closest to me and they told me that Mopar doesn't make them anymore (this was 2 months ago), so I'll probably be sourcing Firm Feel for all the bushings, isolators, and probably the rest of the suspension parts too.

One of the other reasons for wanting to switch the K-frame is because I've heard a lot of rumors that the '77 LeBaron's K's were made out of a thinner gauge steel than the later model M-body's,  so this lead to the idea of the B-body suspension.

I just got the new Mopar Muscle for this month and found an ad for the RMS Coilover & K-frame swap, I'm going to check out how much they want for one.

also, does anybody know if any different dashes fit in an M-body? is it possible they use the same bolt alignment as a A-, B-, or E-Body's?

(as to why this thread ended up in the Engine section, I have no idea. I could've sworn I posted it in the general section, maybe a mod moved it.)