Mopar Suspension

[Chris Barnes]

Our bracket car is a 4000 pound Chrysler T&C. It runs low elevens and will eventually run low tens. The rear suspension is the original leaf springs, Rancho shocks and Caltrac bars. The front is stock with an old set of KYB shocks. The car gets decent 1.52 60' times but it leaves weird--the back of the car actually rises as it leaves. I'm planning on ordering up a set of the split mono leaves when I get a little time. Of course there is no such thing as front drag shocks for this big old boat. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks
Chris Barnes
Wagons of Steel
Stock 6621

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Chris Barnes

Our bracket car is a 4000 pound Chrysler T&C. It runs low elevens and will eventually run low tens. The rear suspension is the original leaf springs, Rancho shocks and Caltrac bars. The front is stock with an old set of KYB shocks. The car gets decent 1.52 60' times but it leaves weird--the back of the car actually rises as it leaves. I'm planning on ordering up a set of the split mono leaves when I get a little time. Of course there is no such thing as front drag shocks for this big old boat. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks
Chris Barnes
Wagons of Steel
Stock 6621

Take them off and measure them...open and closed...you might find that that other plus sized cars use the same size....and then your options will be a plenty......sure its not the same size shock as say a B-Body?

Good luck

[GTX JOHN]

Chris:
Our Mopars with leaf springs ( prior to Calvert Bars ), due to shortness of front
leaf segment and pinion angle, often looked like an elevator when they left the line.
The short/stiff front spring segment worked like a traction bar. A lot of the time
racers would remove all the rear clamps (Behind Axle Housing) which made the
rear springs separate and feather out. For safety you should probably have
the bottom spring clamped to at least second spring. I loved all the monkey motion,
BUT Calverts are much lighte/adjustable/resistant to marginal track surfaces!
Looking forward to seeing you again.

John Irving

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by Eric Merryfield

Take them off and measure them...open and closed...you might find that that other plus sized cars use the same size....and then your options will be a plenty......sure its not the same size shock as say a B-Body?

Good luck

I love this term! Jim


.

[Phillip marvetz]

I have a set of F body launcher springs laying around if you want to try them. They might work with the long Mopar spring mounts. or they might be just right for that AWB look, LOL

[Bill Edgeworth]

Originally Posted by GTX JOHN

Chris:
Our Mopars with leaf springs ( prior to Calvert Bars ), due to shortness of front
leaf segment and pinion angle, often looked like an elevator when they left the line.
The short/stiff front spring segment worked like a traction bar. A lot of the time
racers would remove all the rear clamps (Behind Axle Housing) which made the
rear springs separate and feather out. For safety you should probably have
the bottom spring clamped to at least second spring. I loved all the monkey motion,
BUT Calverts are much lighte/adjustable/resistant to marginal track surfaces!
Looking forward to seeing you again.

John Irving

John,
Maybe you can answer this; I seem to recall back when I had my Challenger about 25 years ago Direct Connection made a new front spring box that allowed the use of the SS springs that had shorter front segments than the stock springs.
Does this sound correct? I wonder if something like that would be an easy option for Chris if he can’t just bolt in a spring from an A, B, or E body?
He could maybe make new spring boxes for shorter springs??

[GTX JOHN]

There were several different spring boxes available from Mopar to adapt

the 20" segment SS Springs to Different Bodies. Most of the other cars had

around 22 to 24 inch front segment. However, I do not remember anything

specifically C Body. I do not think any advantage to shorter spring other than

to use the better engineered SS spring at that Time. We now use longer

springs with the Calvert combo, as John prefers longer front segment.

You can get most of the benefit of the SS springs on a budget by taking

all separators out of springs and clamping all front spring segment individual

springs to the next spring up and softening rear segment.

Unless you just love the cool elevator action!!

[Phillip marvetz]

Originally Posted by Bill Edgeworth

John,
Maybe you can answer this; I seem to recall back when I had my Challenger about 25 years ago Direct Connection made a new front spring box that allowed the use of the SS springs that had shorter front segments than the stock springs.
Does this sound correct? I wonder if something like that would be an easy option for Chris if he can’t just bolt in a spring from an A, B, or E body?
He could maybe make new spring boxes for shorter springs??

That is what I was saying. Mancini sells a bunch of different lenght spring mounts. My F body springs should work in a C body with the right mounts.

[Mark Maez]

let's cut the front end off and graft a B-body front end on it, and shorten the wheelbase at the same time. No sense in doing anything if you cant over complicate it right?...lol

[Phillip marvetz]

Originally Posted by Mark Maez

let's cut the front end off and graft a B-body front end on it, and shorten the wheelbase at the same time. No sense in doing anything if you cant over complicate it right?...lol

Well at least you don't want to put a mustang II front end in it. :-)