What choices for drop spindles on a '72 Satellite?

Geesh! $440.00 for a set of drop spindles from Magnum Force is too much dough for my budget. Anyone know of a better deal from another vendor?

I also understand that C-body spindles are an option. Has anyone done that swap or know about the details of what else needs to be done, and what can be gained by using the C-body method?

Thanks for hopefully making my day!

Don't buy the Fatman spindles that are flat steel with welded ends. Low quality, interference issues, etc. I don't think they sell them anymore anyways. But you never know.

Note to self... Drop Fatman from the list.

PST for $499

You might someone reselling a set form one of these two vendors, but you probably aren't going to find any screaming deals.

Some C body units are an inch drop, but are not a direct bolt in either because of differing ball joint tapers and bolt patterns.

Don't buy the cheapest spindles you can find. Your continued existence in this life will thank you.

Don't know how much you want to drop... but stock spindles, crank down the T bar adjuster somewhat and stiffer T bars can provide a meaningful amount of drop without bad side effects.

I'm not sure what material the Magnum Force spindle/knuckles are made from, but beware: A buddy of mine has them on his 71 Challenger and wheel bearing failures caused excessive wear to the spindle portion. He said a groove formed approx 1/3 of the way through the spindle.
I agree that stiffer T bars plus a modest 1 inch to 1.25 drop is a far better idea.

I have the Magnum Force spindles on my 69 Barracuda. 5 years 2 long haul Hot Rod Power Tours later, it's the only way I would lower one. Full suspension travel is the best way.

I was away for a few days, but I decided to back off the torsion bar bolts to the max, and the car dropped a good 2 inches! I didn't try it before... thinking not much would happen, but now the control arms and tie rods are level with the ground. The K-member is 6 inches from the ground, and the rubber LCA bumpers are a half inch from the frame. The engine is a 360 6-bbl. (sorry, no car pics yet)

Now I plan to bring the rear of the car down with a home-brewed 4-link set up, and I suppose it would be a good idea to also install tubular upper A-arms to correct the camber and caster issues.

It sure is strange looking down at the car now. I feel like a giant!

Thanks everyone!

The camber caster "issue" can be adjusted by getting a new proper alignment. When you change the ride height down or even up like that the alignment changes. When a drag guy raises the front end for weight transfer, header clearance, oil pan clearance, etc, etc he has to get a new alignment too.

Tubular upper A-arm have the same geometry as stock one (except for Hotchkis E/B-body). And even then the Hotchkis geometry change is for bumpsteer not ride height. Tubular A-arms are not necessary for lowering you car like that.

You can change you lower control arm bumper to shorter ones that Energy Suspension sells: http://www.jegs.com/i/Energy-Suspension/355/9-9102G/10002/-1 Still I would not go too low with stock T-bars. .99" or 1" If you K- member is 6" from ground, you don't sound that low. Need more info though.

What is the diameter of your front tires?

That number with K-member height gives an idea where the suspension geometry is.

We never found any dropped knuckles that we trusted for Tim's red Valiant so we just ran the stock suspension dropped as low as it would go.

If there was a high quality dropped knuckle on the market I would use it. Even better would be a dropped knuckle that was designed to use a sealed hub like the newer Mustangs have.

Tire diameter is 27'' and the T-bars measure a touch larger than 7/8''. (Factory 318 car)
I can change the tires because I just ordered a set of Coys C-5 wheels in 20"x10"
and 18"x8"

I heard that the factory LCA rubber bumper was designed to hit and then compress, which gives the LCA a little more travel room.

I saw the Hotchkis tubular upper arms... almost $800.00. (I'll pass on those) It looks like the little extra bracket that they have puts their arms on the same travel plane as the factor lower arms.

So... I don't need drop spindles, or tubular upper control arms. That saves me a lot of money. I guess I should consider a set of MOOG offset bushings, and maybe a pair of PST tie rod sleeves, and thicker T-bars. Ohhh, and front and rear sway bars!

I was surprised how low my car dropped with the T-bar bolts adjusted out to the max.

Another reason to be a Mopar fanatic!

...and to think that I stayed up all night planning to remove everything up front, and build a custom strut style suspension. Hey! Wait a minute!

Thank you Andy for calling it a KNUCKLE.

All of my bushings and ball joints are new. At this lowered height, the ball joints do not look like they will bind, so I adjusted the UCA's to these positions...

Forward cam: The bolt is at a point farthest from the engine.

Rear cam: The bolt is at a point nearest to the engine.

With that setting I have roughly 4 degrees of positive caster, and roughly 1 degree positive of camber according to my highly sophisticated magnetic angle finder. (Offset bushings might not be needed)

Tires are both slightly toed in.

I once set up a '70 Dart like this, and it drove great with perfect tire wear.

With those soft torsion bars you have now, you want to get rid of any positive camber you have and edge it over to the negative side. This will reduce the caster you are able to achieve, but negative camber will help keep the tread flatter as the body rolls.

Fatman spindles on mine, no issues. That was before Magnum had them but the former are as expensive. Sounds like if you're not bottoming out on the bump stops (rough ride), you're good to go.

Sounds like it will take a lot of patience, and some bruised KNUCKLES to get it all dialed in.

On the positive side (no pun intended) The longer it takes me to build this car, the more new products will be developed as all the suspension companies try to "reinvent the wheel", so to speak. Sorry, I had to say it.