Lowering plans.

[Dr. Benway]

Hell-o.

How's life? Nice. I was planning to lower my 73 newport and a came across with an information that somebody turned the torsion bars of a 66 coronet upfront which lowered the front. 1)What does it mean 2) how it is done. 3) Is that possible in my 73 Newport?

 

[oliver]

 

[detmatt]

Of course it’s possible. The process is laid out in the factory service manuals for all the torsion bar equipped vehicles so it’s the same across the board but the manual for your year, make & model will actually give you the proper height of the front end.

 

[Turboomni]

I would get one or study your factory service manual. I did that for quite awhile before I got my car. That way you have some basic knowledge on how it works and then ask away. The guys then would be more than happy to answer any specific questions you may have. As of now it sounds like all you know so far is that your car has four wheels.
Welcome to the forum by the way. Any pics of your car posted? Do you think the front end is too high?

 

[Davea Lux]

Hell-o.

How's life? Nice. I was planning to lower my 73 newport and a came across with an information that somebody turned the torsion bars of a 66 coronet upfront which lowered the front. 1)What does it mean 2) how it is done. 3) Is that possible in my 73 Newport?

A few questions pertaining to why you want to lower the front end:

If the front of the car is sitting higher that the back of the car, this is usually because the rear springs have "sagged" ie lost enough spring arch and tension to where the car no longer rides level. You should address the rear spring issue before making any changes to the front. If your rear springs are not too bad, you can install a set of load assist shocks, such as Monroe load levelers or their equivalent. These will usually raise the rear of the car about an inch or so. While you are under the car, check the condition of the rubber bushings on the ends of the rear leaf springs, they have a tendency to get flattened out and also get severely cracked over time to the point that they fall apart. This could be the source of the lower rear end height. If the bushings are badly degraded, they should be replaced before your springs go metal on metal and something breaks.

As noted above, the FSM gives a detailed explanation on how to adjust the torsion bars on the front of the vehicle. Be advised that this procedure is designed for relatively minor adjustments to the ride height. Adjusting the torsion bars too much either too high or too low will result in the rubber snubbers that limit front control arm travel getting beaten to death. Also improperly adjusted ride height messes up the steering geometry and that will adversely affect handling and tire wear.

Dave

 

[commando1]

You're all enablers. Oliver's got it right.

 

[Dr. Benway]

Ok. The rear is too high for my taste. Theres airshocks in the rear which seems to be stuck (just got the car). I'm changing the to a normal ones and then I take few leafs away from the rear and hammer rest to get the rear down. Then I put 5cm lowering blocks in the rear aswell. I will use the lower iso-clamp rubber in the back and toss the upper one. I welded spacers in the rear axle holes of the iso-clamp to fit the lowering block to the hole. And after the rear is down I'm gonna drop the front a bit. So I was planning to screw the torsion bars. The information that I was talking about in the original message was just a question that did the guy do something magical with the torsion bars or just used the old screw trick.

 

[Carmine]

I'm just going meme on this...

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

Keyword: "Absurdistan"

 

[detmatt]

Ok. The rear is too high for my taste. Theres airshocks in the rear which seems to be stuck (just got the car). I'm changing the to a normal ones and then I take few leafs away from the rear and hammer rest to get the rear down. Then I put 5cm lowering blocks in the rear aswell. I will use the lower iso-clamp rubber in the back and toss the upper one. I welded spacers in the rear axle holes of the iso-clamp to fit the lowering block to the hole. And after the rear is down I'm gonna drop the front a bit. So I was planning to screw the torsion bars. The information that I was talking about in the original message was just a question that did the guy do something magical with the torsion bars or just used the old screw trick.

Just ignore some of these guys Doc. What they’re not saying is that it’s kool that you have your own preference of how you want YOUR car to look and perform. I’d personally like to see some pics of what you started with and I applaud the effort you’re putting forth to make the car YOURS. A couple of my favorite cars on this site are all but slammed to the ground.

 

[Dr. Benway]

The ideology is DIY. I dont want to make major changes to the car, for example airbag system or such. I'll post pics on the way. Peace.

 

[Dr. Benway]

This is where we start the holy ****.

 

[Dr. Benway]

Pt.II

 

[GJS]

Gotta say, that *** is up there. Way too much for my liking. But just eyeballing it, if you get the *** down to a normal height, you may not need much adjustment in the front lest you really want it.

Damn, I love the taillights on that thing!

 

[detmatt]

I agree, take care of the rear first.

 

[Dr. Benway]

After screwing the torsion bars I need to get the front bit tighter so I was thinking to get a bit tighter pair of front shocks and if I take one more leaf away and use load carriers on the back it'll bring back some of the losed tightnes in the back but we still run low.

 

[Dr. Benway]

So I took it apart:

 

[Dr. Benway]

:

 

[Dr. Benway]

This is original. And thats the lower rubber I'll use to get the rear axle into right place.

 

[Carmine]

Posting a photo of how the car sits now helps quite a bit, lest you think it's just that people aren't "kool" with your thoughts... we've been asking for those pics through many postings.

Are the airshocks removed in that photo?

None of this talk of adjusting the t-bars until that is done. That's also not going to "tighten" your front end, if your are speaking to steering play.

You need to return the car to its stock condition before you lower it, not stack modifications to counteract other modifications. Otherwise you just end up with a clüstërfück to put it in terms you'll understand.