1970 Barracuda Front End Suspension Rebuild Questions

[elevenssc]

Tis the season for winter time upgrades...but where do I draw the line (the eternal question for every car enthusiast)

I'm planning to upgrade the front brakes on my 1970 Barracuda Convertible over the winter.  The car came with manual drums on all 4 corners, and I've already got the power front disk brake upgrade kit.  Since I'm going to be digging into the car for the front disk brake upgrade anyway, I'd really like to take the opportunity and dig a little further to upgrade the front suspension at the same time.  Given that the car is pushing 40 years old, and the car was driven in the Minnesota winters for about 7 years, I've got a few questions...

1)  I'm looking at replacing all the steering linkage and upgrade to polyurethane bushings...where is the best place to get good stuff.  I've priced Paddock and Master Power Brakes (mpbrakes.com) and they look comparable.  What about the Moog Front End Kit Part Number post above?

2) Replacing the upper and lower control arm ball joints...would I be better off getting new arms versus trying to remove the old ball joints out of the old arms?

3) Torsion bars and adjustment bolt.  Do I leave these alone or do I replace them.  I'm thinking that the bars may be just fine, but I need to ask the question.

4) How difficult are the torsion bars to remove.  This may answer my question about the torsion bars.

5) Front shocks...what do you recommend?

All these questions and options to consider, but the bank acount brings me back to reality.  My budget wont let me do everything I would like to do, but I can do a pretty good job with what I have.  Like everyone else, I want to be smart with this opportunity and I appreciate your input.

All it takes is time and money...when you've got one, you usually dont have the other

[72bluNblu]

Not sure about the UCA's and LCA's, I replaced mine with CAP products, worked pretty good. I didn't really want to mess with the upper ball joints either. No special tools needed for the lowers though, other than a pickle fork to break em loose. You won't be able to leave the adjustment bolts alone, you'll have to unload the t-bars so you'll have to take the tension off of the adjusters. Mine weren't hard, I just hit them with WD-40 and they were fine with the weight off the wheels. The torsion bars weren't really that hard to remove, I just undid the LCA and used a dead-blow hammer on it to drive the t-bars back without damaging them. Putting the new one's in was a little harder, too much powedercoating on the new LCA's and t-bars. As far as front shocks, how much do you have to spend? QA1's are one of the nicer one's, my car currently has KYB's on it (MUCH cheaper) and seems to do ok. I'm replacing them when I can afford the QA1's.

If you do upgrade the torsion bars, keep in mind as you go to a bigger bar you may want to go to a zero index bar (just suspension). I went with 1.12" bars from FFI, and basically can't lower the car beyond the stock height because I ran out of adjuster, the bars are just a little too stiff to be 30 degree indexed bars. Just Suspension sells a zero indexed bar in 1.09", which would probably be awesome. I like the 1.12" bars for the ride, but have to figure out a new way to lower the car a little.

[ChallengerHK]

2 - For the uppers, there's no big reason to replace them unless you want the extra caster from tubulars. You can get that cheaper with the offset bushings. If you're replacing the upper joints, be careful and go slow, because the stamped steel has a tendency to tear if you force that joint out.

For the lowers, I boxed mine. Like 72blunblu said, there are also CAP tubulars, which I'm guesing weigh a lot less than stock.

3 - My opinion, unless you're going for a full resto there's probably no reason to replace them.

4 - Difficulty is relative  . Took me about two hours per side, maybe a little more, working fairly slowly. I had asked a while back about the removal tools, but Neil advised me to just put a pry bar once the LCA was hanging and the torsion bar clip was removed, and that did the trick just fine.

I went with 1 inch torsion bars, and the difference with those alone has been night and night. I do have adequate adjustment with them, as well.

5 - Depends on what you want to do with the car. I've gone with Edelbrock IAS Performers, which for the moment are perfectly adequate, and are pretty cheap at about $85 a piece. As I get the suspension where I want it I may upgrade later.

[Chryco Psycho]

I would use top quality parts , generally I use Moog ,why do the job twice
 replacve the upper ball joints unless you want more caster adjustment as mentioned above
 no need to replace the T bar adjusters unless they are siezed
 the T bars are easily removed , upgrade gives a modern feel , your call
if you are going to pull the T bars remove the lower control arms & replace the bushings in them while you are in there

[elevenssc]

Here's a true newbie question...what diameter are the stock torsion bars?

[Chryco Psycho]

.86 small block or .92 R/T