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I'm very green to dealing with torsion-bar setups and what is out there for our Mopars. The purpose of putting my car together is going to be for some spirited driving and the occasional road course run...perhaps autocross as well.

I have the K-out and disassembled, I'll be cleaning it up and rebuilding a few things under there at the same time. The budget is really bang-for-buck, and "do it while it's apart" dependent. Things like upgrading LCA bushings [if avail] while it's apart or other changes that should be sternly considered while it's apart and out of the car. On the other end, I am interested in good bang-for-buck items, bar rate, perhaps UCAs[$$], etc. I'd say around $1,200 tops on upgrades, not including the steering box.

I would like to keep a good compromise of road manners, reliability, part-life and performance. I understand the benefits of reduced compliance of rod ends in various places, but I do not want to have a clicky suspension after a couple thousand street miles and have to be in the front end every year for maintenance/replacing ends. So perhaps keeping bushings with higher durometer would be better suited in a few places.

• My 0.9" bars will likely be going for 1.1" bars, from what I see that is the common upgrade diameter/rate for E-bodies. Brand? Mopar Performance? Other?
  
  
• My original strut rods are toast, bent up, chewed up threads, they'll be going. I would imagine there are aftermarket upgrades to reduce longitudinal compliance in the LCAs over what the factory was able to get done. Brand recommendation?
  
  
• The car has Cordoba 11-3/4" slider brakes on it, with the late B-body knuckles. I have to go back and check, but I think those are not the ideal knuckles to be running.
  
  
• LCA pivots, I see Hotchkis has some greasible units, worth the money? Someone else?
  
  
• Tie rods, my stockers are worn out and need replacing. The $350 ones Hotchkis has are sure nice, but I will have to look at DIYing those with some 5/8" rod ends, 4130 tubing and tube adapters. I could likely TIG a set of those up pretty quickly.
  
  
• UCAs - Worth replacing? My stockers have relatively new MOOG joints in them, I had an issue with the passenger side pushing the threads out, so it was tightened and tacked. Needless to say, I'm not trilled with the arms I have at the moment.
  
  
• Sway bar[s]. I have an OEM front sway bar, adding a rear would likely be worth upgrading. With the increase in torsion bar rate and perhaps some adjustable dampers, I may not dive into a front bar just yet.
  

Metal-work
As far as the K-member itself goes. I've been told to look it over for cracked welds, perhaps finishing up some factory welds as well. I am not aware of any areas that are prone to flexing around, does the steering box generally need any more support?

I will also be welding in some LCA reinforcement plates.


I hope I have most of the bases touched, I would like to have some input on which path to take on various parts for my budget/use.

Thanks!

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