raindance654

I've had a couple of emails asking how I got on with lowering my Fury. I thought I'd post a copy of an email I sent today in case anyone else was thinking of dropping their Mopar:

"With regard to lowering my Fury, I found it was possible to wind down the torsion bar bolts to get a 3 inch drop and still clear the factory bump stops. By removing material from the stock bump stops, I was able to go 4 1/2 to 5 inches drop. This seemed to be about the limit without encountering clearance, geometry and scrub line problems.

The rear was dropped 2 inches and gives a pleasing bracket car rake to the Plymouth. A corresponding 4 inch drop looks possible without running into prop clearance and geometry headaches. If you go for a 4 inch lowering block at the rear you'll need some tapered blocks/shims to claw back about 2 degrees of pinion angle -unless you want to change U/J's every couple of weeks.

Having had a chance to put some miles on my Fury now, I feel that a 4 inch drop at the front and a 2 inch at the rear works very well indeed. The car rode and drove extremely well with no nasty crashes over bumps(which was especially good news considering the car now rolls on 40 series 20's) and no geometry surprises. The car actually goes pretty well round corners quite well -even in the wet."

johnthegoalie

one tip, before you take breaker bar to torsions - spray the bolt and corresponding block with wd or some other lubricant. after 30-40 years sitting in one place they can seize up and snap off while lowering. and if your hand is in the wrong place

raindance654

Amen to that John. I soaked my torsion bar bolts for about 2 weeks with WD40 and it was still hard work to shift them. They weren't even particularly rusty but I still ended up using a 3/4" breaker bar and socket after I snapped a couple of my Chinese 1/2" extensions. Luckily I "Walked Away" with no injuries. This is an important consideration as with the amount of force you need to exert , a slip or breakage can give horrific injuries.
The reason is that Chrysler engineers appear to have given the block a slightly different pitch than that of the bolt, presumably in order to make sure that the torsion bolts can't back out. This means that it's unlikely you'll ever get those little rascals running easily no matter how much WD and wire brushing you use. If you do get them running very freely, then you have more problems:
First, how to prevent them backing out in use.
Second you've damaged (or badly worn) the threads -possibly to the point of failure.

It's do-able but take it steady.......!!!