Coil over convertion? safe to just bolt on? sounds a little scary!

[4406]

I like my tortionbar set up, it lets me adjust ride height with the turn of two bolts but what if I wanted to go to a coil over set up? I am talking about for the street, Do I need a full blown front end convertion? I had seen a guy at milan dragway use Afco front coilovers and shocks last year.
He had bolted these on and it appeared he had removed the tortion bars but Im sure that is not all he had done.
I mean it would seem the tortion bar plays an intrical part in keeping the front end together, Am I correct in assuming this?

[70 Dustpan]

MF sales a set-up like that, but it has the load of the car going to the inner fenders and they are not made to hold up to that type of loads.

[Jim_Lusk]

The torsion bars really don't keep the front end together unless you have poly LCA bushings and even then it isn't much. That doesn't mean there aren't other problems with those.

[olof]

I wonder to if for example the Magnumforce coil over conversion is a good one?Loosing the torsionbars really make header fabrication easier.Anyone here using it?


Dart 69

[Jim_Lusk]

From everything I have heard I would not buy anything from MF.

[bOb shingler]

big johnson from what i hear DON'T even think about it.

[mopartranman]

A friend of mine bought a 70 cuda drag car with a magnumforce front end under it. I wasn't inmpressed at all. I wouldn't buy one.

[Lars]

Yeah, I've never heard anything good about the MF setup either. Note "heard".

[fourspeed]

Do I need a full blown front end convertion?

Unfortunately, yes. You could use the MF arrangement, but you would have to reinforce the shock towers by welding in some sort of reinforcement. The AlterKtion is the only bolt-in I've seen (so far) that addresses that problem.

[olof]

Sounds like the AlterK is a better way to go than MF.Is anyone using it and in that case what coilovers?My car has the inner fenders removed and the schocks connected to the extended cage that goes down to the framerail.


Thanks Olof

[4406]

I was talking about the Afco set up.
I read somewhere that they sell and bolt in coil over kit.

[Bill_Reilly]

Afco and QA1 both offer shocks that are the correct length to use in the Mopars. Neither of them make a "kit" for Mopars.

Both require a particular bushing on the bottom to be a bolt on - that's the biggest "trick" to it that we do here. The tops can be a normal stud-type, although I recently found a neat swivel top that gets rid of the little top bushing on the stud. It's actually a whole new stud top that has a ball-socket instead of the bushings.

To use the coil-overs, you have to use tubular uppers and put a notch in the frame rail for spring clearance. Then the shock tower needs to be tied in to the roll cage strut so the frame rail doesn't bend in. If you don't have a front roll cage tube, I don't recommend doing this - the frame rails twist in from the weight of the car, which will eventually put your fenders against the hood.

In a nutshell, we can put together the group of parts that you'd need, put there's metal work necessary, so it's not a bolt-on.
The Alterktion is basically a bolt-in, but that a whole different ballgame.

[DEMON ROB]

I BOUGHT A MF COIL OVER CONVERSION KIT I DIDN'T USE IT.  NOT HAPPY WITH THE WAY IT LOOKED I JUST USED IT WHEN I HAD THE HEADERS MADE.  THEY DON'T TELL YOU HOW TO BRACE THE LOWER CONTROL ARM AFTER YOU PULL THE TORTION BAR OUT.IT JUST DOESN'T LOOK SAFE TO ME.  I HAVE A RMS ALTERKTION UNDER IT NOW AND IT WORKS GREAT.  I STILL HAVE THE COIL OVERS AND MOUNTS IF YOUR INTERESTED.    http://www.reillymotorsports.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=516  THIS IS MY CAR WITH THE ALTERKTION KIT

[4406]

That looks awesome.

[B1Valiant]

I have converted a few cars to coil over fronts. Not a huge problem. All had the front shock mounts tied into the front cage struts as well.

[Ciscodog]

What kit did you use for it - the MF stuff?  I'm just concerned because there's only 2.7" of travel using their kit.  I'd like more travel before the front tires lift.