LUVTruck.com

i'm thinking really hard about scrapping the whole torsion bar nightmare under the front of my 1976 2wd and going with the coil over route i've heard talked about here.......

tell me, if you know, do the torsion bars act as a locating device for the front a arms at all or will it be ok to just remove all of the torsion bar junk all together????

i see that there is a locating arm of some sort that comes off the very front crossmember behind the bumper (it mounts in rubber in a big metal bracket on either side of the truck) and runs back to the lower a arm. so i would assume that is all that will be required for locating the a-arm in the front to rear stress of driving and the rest can go away without any ill effects on handling.......

thanks for the help.......

Rich

I have read in the Body and Chassis Upgrade section of people doing this and I plan to do this also. It dosen't appear to be too hard to do. Check in that section and get with "1FastSSMonte"
Rick
1973 Midget
1980 Chevy LUV

You are correct the torsion bars have nothing to do with locating.The lower control arm is held at correct location by the strut bars that run to the front.They can be eliminated without any alignment problems.

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stripped and just a memory!

I know that is probably this stupidest question of the week I mean I have heard of them before but what exactly is a coil over and Would it be hard to install it on a luv? I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to suspension like I really dont know what a 4 link suspension is either! I know I have been living under a rock But honestly I have mainly done all my stuff on past vehicles was stuffing engines and not paying attention to suspension I have a 78 malibu classic that I took the V-6 out of an shoved a 4oo in her running 40 horse and it held together fine...... but know that I have been on this site i have been reading all about prety much eveything I am like a sponge soaking up everything I wanna know it all lol cause my Luv is gonna be getting a bunch of massaging done to her but I also want to try to do some things right and not cut corners like I used to. So help a brother out and dont make to much fun of him and fill the sponge

a whooping 40 hp on that 400 eh?
lol i cant help either, but hey gotta increase my post count somehow

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I like my steak like I like my women, young, tender and bloody.

All I need is my weed, women, and wine. -Edge City Outlaws

lol !!!!! Whoops maybe 400 horse will do !

a coil over is a shock with a coil over spring attatched to it.
here is what the shock looks like http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ ... rmenbr=361

you fit the coil over in between the mounts on the shock.

it is benificial to use because you have a height adjustment on the shock when you screw the coil over mount and it takes alot less space than conventional suspension.

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03Cobra

Ok now my next question is....... Well I know it would be better then stock but How easy would it be and what kind of mods would you have to do?

i dont know much detail about what i am posting here, but a guy in Monroe, wa, used to have some "weight transfer" shocks or something up front. It was on a Z car. Ive never seen anything like it. Youde think it was close to a wheel stand, but it wasnt even close. the whole front end would just 'lift',... totally. the car was quick, but It had to be some sort of weight transfer and he had a lot of it.

I will know everything about it............ next spring. Whatever he did, I will search it out. i will install it. It WILL BE MINE.

"G"

LOL! Good luck on your search.

They sound like 90/10 shocks which are fairly common and should be available from Summit or Jeg's.

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If at first you don't succeed, try it like your wife told you to do it.

I'm in the process of doin exactly what you guys are talking about. The torsion bars are a nightmare on a vehicle that your building for any racing and not real good in the Luv v8 conversion either. there are so many things happening in the swap that torsion bars become a problem. First it literally kills the exhaust options. Manifolds will work as I know because thats what i've had on here for a couple months now. BUT, you have some pretty tricky bends around the bars, then theres the power loss due to manifold ineffiency. then you've got problem of exhaust getting in the way of the oil filter and crossover problems that arise from the fuel tank getting in the way of a good dual system. You can always run the hooker conversion swap headers but I dont like the outside the frame tube. For me the only way was to do away with the bars. So Long Big tube headers for a 67-81 camaro works great. first youll need to remove and cut the bars about 1-1/2" from the lower arm. I am goin a little farther than most but I am threading the end of the bar and putting a castle nut and cotter pin. As for coilovers, The Koni SPA1-2660 about $130 ea works great QA1 7" springs JEGS # 122-7-250 250lb. about $40.00ea. any 2-1/2 spring will work. You get adjustable damping and rebound, & Ride height control.
This opens up alot of possibilities for exhaust and gives you all the ride control you'll ever need. As for the 90/10, 80/20 that is Old Skool technology for weight transfer. because it was thought if you lift the front of the car you will transfer weight to the back. the draw back is that you trap Air under the car and actually slow it down. it is very inefficient for aerodynamics. So, If you want to drive around town then torsion bars will work fine. If you want to go fast! really FAST! then open up your possibilities and go with the coilovers.

i had a guy spend a whole day getting my two pipes down through everything and out just in front of my rear tires. the one pipe on passenger side is so close to the floor, that it will make your foot hot. they dont hang down too far, and they both run in that one little space next to the block. Dang- I wish I knew how to post pics. I have a digital camera, and a high tech printer that dumps them right into my computer. i dont have a web page though to post them.

everyone who looks at the job says its a sweet install, but it has its draw backs. Anyone who dumps the bars for another set up, Id like to hear what you put in and how easy it was, or not.

as for the idea that weight transfer is old school, I only ask why some classes of current drag racers are all doing wheel stands, besides the fact that they unoad tremendous HP with massive traction. By the time the aerodynamics kick in.... they are back down. You know what- If i could pull off a wheel stand.... dude! but I havent run my luv at the track, so I am only yackin'.

i just use a yahoo account for my pics, just upload them and be sure to make the folder a public folder. open the pic (not just the thumbnail) right click it, select properites, copy the URL there, come back here to your message box, paste the url, select it again (highlight it) then ckick the Img button at the top

example

[img]*http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/a3e657fc/bc/luv/luv1.jpg?bcbts.9AVSDRO9fq*[/img]

remove the * will give you my lovely truck

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I like my steak like I like my women, young, tender and bloody.

All I need is my weed, women, and wine. -Edge City Outlaws

Well we went ahead and pulled the torsion bars today. Much to my Surprise, The bars came out of the lower Control arm and just behind the bar insert right at the splines there is this wonderful threaded pin.... We were thinking we would have to cut and weld the bar end or thread it. Then we thought we would just pull it and put a bolt in the arm. But then, VOILA. No fabs required!!!! Simply unbolt and remove the bars, remove the stock shocks, and bolt in a shiny new pair of coilovers!!!! WEEEE HAWWWW! Now we get those GREAT BIG TUBE HEADERS i've been talking about.
Laterz, G

What coilovers, and do you have any pics? Bryan

so let me get this straight, you just yanked the torsion bars and put a lovely set of coil overs right back in. thats it!

nice

Yeah see y'all have gotten me interested in the whole coil over thing but I want to know if you can put em in the stock spot for the original shocks or is there any mods you gotta do ?

man!!!!

i am so glad i asked this question!!!!

the ideas and exchange of knowledge on this website rocks!!!!!

now i have decided to sell my 75 and build my 76 with a coil over front end!!!!!!

i hated my exhaust and oil filter clearance problems on my last conversion and this will fix them all!!!!!!

i am totally stoked with the drsire to build!!!!!!

that's it......i'm going for it!!!!!

thanks guys.........

rich jerozal

Please give us some more info on the coilovers you used. I'm sure everybody's interested! I haven't slept for three days thinking about how this is such a simple solution to the torsion bar mess!! do the coilovers affect the ride height?

I've considered doing what your talking about doing.

My feeling is that in order for the whole thing to work long term, the shock tower needs to be reinforced and the crossmember under the engine needs to be beefed up. You would want to prevent the shock towers from bending up/in and you would want to prevent the frame rails from twisting in.

I used to run "helper" springs over my front shocks and it has slowly bent the shock towers in and twisted the frame rails over the last 8 years. It's a slight bend, only noticeable when you go to align the truck. I took the helper springs off now and everything seems to have straightened up a little. But still, the problem would accelerate if all the weight was on the shock tower.

I think it's totally doable. Who wants to go first?

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If at first you don't succeed, try it like your wife told you to do it.