The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Had a squeak in the front end and after a few looks,the lower control arm bolt was loose ,just a little , snugged everything up, greased everything,checked all welds,bushings etc., still had the squeak ,pop sound

,so I disconnected the shock on the top and then bounced the car and sure enough the sound went away,

so I removed the front shocks and we have a shock guru here in town (Learys Race and shock shop great hours for them ( noon to 6 pm m-f ),

It turns out that the shims that hold the top seal in place were damaged,due to a high speed impact at some time( I dont drive that fast do I ?) a big bump or pot hole,

any way he said that they were not working properly at all

I noticed the pop last year before the trip and it slowly got worse until it just poped all the time,
so now it is fixed and I have the setting at 4 and it really drives nice ,better than before alot better,

so just a heads up if you have these shocks dont run them any more than 6 for the street, I like 6 at the track but kept them at 5 , but now i will try 4 for a while, still love these shocks


If you look closley at the pic you can see a small crease in it , which causes it to fold and bend and lose its seal

O.K. I see it now! Good heads up, Drew! Still using KYB's over here.

Because my suspension is doing most of the work my shocks are only set at position 2 on the street.

3 is about the same stiffness as my KYBs were.

4 is pretty damn stiff and there are another 8 settings to go!

dave-r wrote:Because my suspension is doing most of the work my shocks are only set at position 2 on the street.

3 is about the same stiffness as my KYBs were.

4 is pretty damn stiff and there are another 8 settings to go!

Do you know the difference in size of torsion bars,and spring rate from my r/t 383,to a r/t 440?

Not off the top of my head but have the info somewhere.

drewcrane wrote:Do you know the difference in size of torsion bars,and spring rate from my r/t 383,to a r/t 440?

I just posted this as I get asked the same question a couple of times a year.

http://challenger.mpoli.fi/forum/viewto ... 6547#56547

Spring rate and wheel rate are two different things. Because the LCA (and wheel offset) acts like a lever.

But going from a .86 to a .92 bar will give you about an extra 34lbs/inch in wheel rate.

I use a 1.00 inch bar.

dave-r wrote:Spring rate and wheel rate are two different things. Because the LCA (and wheel offset) acts like a lever.

But going from a .86 to a .92 bar will give you about an extra 34lbs/inch in wheel rate.

I use a 1.00 inch bar.

Thanks Dave, you are the first person that has put it in print so I can actually see what they had in these cars

well my car is a R/T 383 4 bbl,so it has a .90 bar, and with the ally heads ally brakes,etc it is a little lighter that stock.

I had a one inch bar I put on my a body and it was too much very stiff,and it was to stiff for that car IMO.


I drove the car a bit and i think i might go up to 5 clicks just for a little more road feel,but over all the shocks work much better, i guess my moral to this story is watch for pot holes at high speed
yea right

Probably would feel too stiff for an A-body. The front of an A-body is a hell of a lot ligher than the E-Body.

In fact I suspect a B-bodies front end is probably slightly lighter than the Challenger's.

Eddie has even thicker bars than me on his Challenger it that does not feel too stiff at all.

The thing is. You say a thicker bar would be too stiff but then you turn the shocks up really stiff to compensate for not having them.

The shocks were not designed to take the weight of the Challenger and do the work of the springs.

If you use thicker torsion bars you could take some of the stiffness out of the shocks and then they are not working as springs any more. They are supposed to be just dampers.

dave-r wrote:Probably would feel too stiff for an A-body. The front of an A-body is a hell of a lot ligher than the E-Body.

In fact I suspect a B-bodies front end is probably slightly lighter than the Challenger's.

Eddie has even thicker bars than me on his Challenger it that does not feel too stiff at all.

The thing is. You say a thicker bar would be too stiff but then you turn the shocks up really stiff to compensate for not having them.

The shocks were not designed to take the weight of the Challenger and do the work of the springs.

If you use thicker torsion bars you could take some of the stiffness out of the shocks and then they are not working as springs any more. They are supposed to be just dampers.

Oh yea im in total agreement with you im just trying to figure out exactly what i have and at least have a base line,

I agree the shocks are there to help the springs not add more spring,

Clearly I have been over stressing these shocks,and really need to get a bigger set of torsion bars for sure

and as far as the A body yea they are much lighter, and my point was, I over sprung the car ( it made me paranoid) but its apples and oranges between the 2 cars for sure,

so I should be able to find a set of larger bars and try them out, I know it will make a difference

And if Ed has bigger bars than they must be ok