1972 Plymouth suspension

[danial]

Hi I just bought a 1972 Plymouth satellite and I want to change the front suspension .what is my options? I'm trying to spend no more than 1500ish .is there any modern cars that fit this vehicle? Please give me your opinion. Thank you

[mikedc]

Some well-chosen changes to the stock front end can fix A LOT on that car. I would wager that most or all of what's bothering you is fixable with bolt-on & overhauling work.

The Mopar front end is different from GM & Ford coilover stuff but it's not bad. You just have to know the quirks. The easily adjustable ride height, the inboard location of the front spring pressure on the chassis, the concentration of weight down low, and the lack of intruding shock towers are all assets.

The geometry is outdated because of the radial tire change but it's really not bad for being 50 years old. It's mostly some alignment issues. But the unibody is stiff (when it's not rusted to hell) and the camber gain is there.



The soft front spring rate? It needs stiffer front torsion bars. The OEM rates are definitely too soft.

Sway bars? The aftermarket has plenty of them now.


The "floating" feeling where the steering wont re-center itself when you let go? That's the lack of caster in the alignment. Use offset UCA bushings or aftermarket UCAs to add a few degrees of it.

The rest of the slop in the steering? Fresh rubber bushings everywhere. Bracing the PS box mount a little doesn't hurt either.

The over-assisted steering feel? Send the box off for a rebuild where they tighten the internal tolerances & reduce the assist level a notch ($300 I think?). Or swap to a smaller Saginaw(GM) style PS box with the Borgeson conversion ($700), which also loses about 12 lbs of weight.

The slow ratio of the steering? The stock Mopar PS box is 15.7:1. The Borgeson box conversion makes it 14:1. Or you can swap in Mopar's longer Pitman/Idler arms (from the TA/AAR E-bodies) and reduce the stock PS box's ratio down to 12:1. You aren't likely to want it any faster than 12:1.

There are also a few known weak spots that you can weld up on the K-frame while you have it apart. Long term metal-fatigue help.



Look up Firm Feel Inc for this sort of stuff.



There are some well-known chassis stiffening braces that will improve that unibody some more. Look up US Car Tool. They sell a package deal that covers all the prime spots to fix.

[813Demon340]

I'll second the products from Firm Feel. Mikedc pretty much nailed it on what you can do. Fox or Bilstein shocks along with BiG torsion bars can still ride good on the street. Theres not much you can do in that price range other than to modify and improve the stock stuff. Look up the "Green Brick Valiant" that killed a lot of the competition in the One Lap of America races back in the 90's, its used all stock Mopar T bar suspension.