Last month, we built and installed the rearend in Amy Coleman's Barracuda bracket racer. This month, we'll show you why the front suspension is equally important in a drag or street car.
Before tackling any suspension job, we take the pressure off the torsion bars by backing off the adjuster bolts until they are completely loose. The torsion bars were then removed after we removed the rear retaining clips.
After we removed the cotter pins and retaining nuts, a tie-rod separator was used to break loose the factory suspension components.
After we removed the factory spindles, the upper and lower control arms were removed as well.
With the suspension out of the way, we cleaned and painted the inner fenders, frames, and K-member.
Like most cars this age, the roll pins that keep the strut-rod nuts from backing off were corroded beyond recognition. We used a hammer, punch, and lots of penetrating oil to remove ours.
Since we're using a motor plate to mount our engine, the motor mount pads were cut off to give us additional clearance for the engine. Plus this saves weight, every ounce counts!
After cleaning our upper control arms, we used a press to remove the old bushings and replaced them with new Just Suspension components. If you don't have a press, Just Suspension offers an inexpensive tool to accomplish this task.
We replaced our upper ball joints with new ones from our Just Suspension kit. These are quality units and will last for years if properly maintained. Much better than the made-in-China units you'll find at the discount parts stores.
Our kit even included new travel limiting snubbers; we'll add spacers under these snubbers if needed to limit front-end travel even more.
The lower ball joints come ready to install on the spindle.
The previous owner had already installed '73-and-up A-body disc brakes on our Barracuda. This is an easy swap and the spindles, rotors, and calipers can usually be had for around a hundred bucks. Although the discs have more drag and are heavier than drum brakes, they will greatly improve the safety of our race car by reducing stopping distances.
After cleaning and repacking the wheel bearings, our rotors and calipers were installed with new brake pads. We didn't get fancy here, even the cheapest brake pads will last for years on a dedicated drag car.