Installing Dodge And Plymouth Suspension - Riding The Rails

We love the look and feel of a musclecar. Nothing gets our adrenalin flowing like the sound of a worked big-block rumbling at idle and ready to smoke the tires at the hit of the throttle. But is a '60s musclecar a true performance vehicle? By the standards of that era, Mopar's iron certainly held its own in the performance market. But by today's standards, even the best performing musclecar from the '60s comes up a little short. Sure, you could order a musclecar with disc brakes on the front, and a front sway bar was optional on certain models, but most cars produced in the '60s and early '70s came equipped with drum brakes and soft suspension components rendering them barely controllable through tight curves. Embarrassingly, even the cars that were equipped with disc brakes and a sway bar are easily out-handled today by a middle-aged mom driving her modern Chrysler Sebring. Such was the case with our '68 GTX clone, so we decided to rectify the problem and bring our car's handling into the 21st century by adding performance wheels and tires, new suspension bushings, torsion bars, and front and rear anti-sway bars.

Upgrading the suspension on your Mopar used to be more of a convenience than a necessity. It didn't matter that your car didn't handle that great because neither did any of the Ford Mavericks or Chevy Citations that were on the road. Modern cars, however, are built with performance in mind. Even midsize family cars are equipped with four-wheel disc brakes, front and rear sway bars, and computer-tuned suspension components that enable them to out-perform the best that Detroit had to offer in the '60s. This means that even though you smoked that soccer mom in her SUV from the stoplight, she will flat out embarrass you if you try to hang with her through the curves. This scenario is exactly what prompted us to upgrade our car's suspension. We love to drive our classic Mopars and don't want to feel like we're out-gunned by more modern iron (or should we say plastic). Improving the way our car drives and handles will make it more pleasurable to drive our car on a regular basis. Thankfully, companies like Performance Suspension Technology (PST), BFGoodrich, and Wheel Vintiques have what's needed to bring our car's handling into this century.

Before you consider upgrades such as adding sway bars to your suspension, you should first check the integrity of the factory components. Adding sway bars to a car with worn suspension bushings is really counterproductive. Our car still had most of its factory rubber bushings in place, so we decided to replace them with PST's polygraphite front-end kit. Polygraphite bushings won't give like the OEM rubber units, so they will tighten the front suspension considerably, which will greatly improve the handling of our car. New polygraphite bushings will also allow for a truer front end alignment, again improving handling while reducing tire wear. Remember that our goal with this build is all-out performance so we won't be too concerned with ride quality. If ride quality is a concern, you may want to consider rubber front-end bushings. Either way, don't let the front suspension intimidate you. In addition to a press to install the control arm bushings, the only specialty tools you'll need are a tie-rod/ball-joint separator and a ball joint socket. Both of these tools should be available at your local parts store or tool supply warehouse. If you don't have access to a press, you should be able to find a shop locally that will press the control arm bushings in for a reasonable price. A car lift is also a nice convenience, but all the work can be accomplished with a jack and jackstands as well.