What front after market K member

I Wanting buy a after market K-member and compete front suspension. upper and lower A-arms -shocks-rack- a whole kit. what brand would you get QA1 ? 1966 dodge coronet I am worry about front end travel. I run cal-tracs with mono leaf. But I want to take weight off the car. Was looking at this . https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qa1-52348-d350?seid=srese2&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brands+|+Q&utm_term=4581252649396041&utm_content=GSAPI+5d4c9cc5a1c9b

I run a QA1 front K member, heim joint UCA's, QA1 LCA's, heim jointed struts bars and Wilwoood hubs and front brakes, we still use torsion bars. IIRC this lot saved about 40lb's over all the stock stuff with cast iron sliding calipers. The QA1 K member was only about 2lbs lighter but the stock one was cut back and trimmed a long time ago. It still has good upward travel (6+inches) and I limit it at the moment to around 5".

If this is a strip car, you'll want to talk to your provider about front suspension travel. Many do not have sufficient travel to transfer weight. My buddy had to go to the longer GM Calvert monos and bars to get his Dart to launch after swapping to coil overs up front. His car is sub 1.40 60 ft times. If you're slower than that, it may not make a difference.

Is this a drag car? If so I'd just with a strut front suspension and get rid of a bunch of weight and extra complexity. A local chassis shop should be able to put together a strut front suspension for roughly the same price as a K frame setup.

This is a drag only car. Now I could drive on the street . But I don't . weight 3500 with me in it. runs 10.60s .I like to get it to run 10.50 . I run NSS on a index. 1.50 60 ft

You might want to check out Hemi Denny. The torsion bar eliminator kit seems like a decent fix.

I lost 50lbs just going from 73 front disks to strange front disks.

I like the looks of the Hemidenny kits, like about all of those kits not a lot of front travel. Not a problem if your car is fast enough not to need much travel.

Andy, how much traves does your strut front have? Photo's?

The aftermarket stuff saves very little. The geometry isn't as good as the stock stuff. The steering is definitely stiffer to turn. The steering radius is less. Trim the stock K frame. Make chrome moly strut rods and steering shaft. Use light brakes. The difference will be slight. Your wallet will be way heavier though.
Doug

Pics of the lightened K frame. No motor mount, trimmed the box mount and used moly tubing. Cut all the flanges off. Large oil pan access. The moly strut rods were made by cutting off the stock ends and reducing there diameter to fit snugly into 3/4" moly tube. Then welded back together. Steering shaft is also .090" moly tubing, The front fender braces and hood latch support are 3/8" moly tubing.
Doug

Save weight? Have Pam drive. LOL. I'll see myself out

Read the rules for NSS. Must keep steering box in stock location, must run torsion bars if factory equipped and no rack and pinion steering.

Yeah that throws a wrinkle into the discussion. If you have to be legal for NSS then you need to work within the rule book. I'd put a strut suspension in any serious drag car these days but if it isn't legal then it isn't legal.

Always great topic everyone loves to disagree


I bought a Gert ( now qa1) for the 67 , it is a very nice piece and built well ..car drives like a dream

I bought a Alterkation for the wagon ,I'm sure it will be fine but had I know about HDK or Gerst then , I'd bought a different one

I am not sure if it fits your rules or if he makes them for a B body, but Tory Shellhamer's front end kit looks really nice. I have a couple of friends that are running one.

Off topic, Bigdad, do you know if any fibreglass panels are available for your early A body Valiant wagon???

Ok well that about sum it up.. I can't do what I started out to. So I thinking I going with upper a-arms - strut rods - and glass hood . new lighter wheels. and lighten up the K-member. steering shaft.. I all ready have wilwood brakes

I do think Larry at Sled City does make early A body stuff

https://www.sledcityfiberglass.com/fiberglass/

GlassTek makes some early A body stuff too.

I bought and installed an Altercation replacement K kit from Oreily, I think that is the correct name, for one of my customers 1971 Challenger with power rack and pinion steering. He is having a 572 C.I. Hemi installed in it with a 727 and wants the power steering in it so his little wife can drive it also
It went in easy and fit well
I would buy another one for myself for a project like that, RB or Hemiriod motor

Vern the upper control arms are heavier than stocks. Struts are way lighter.

It will depend on who you run NSS with. Most have a rule pretty similar to this one.

SUSPENSION
FRONT SUSPENSION: Stock front suspension as factory-designed required. Aftermarket direct replacement suspension components including tubular A-arms permitted: However, overall design and function as factory produced must be retained.

I went through this too. I found like has already been posted, the control arms are heavier than stock. I ended up spending more time cutting and trimming lips, tabs and brackets to achieve the same result. There was a good bit of weight under the dash in my car.

What is the combo? Maybe a little left in converter or setup?

There was a good thread on weight-reduction some years back by member "fullmetaljacket".
He whacked a lot of weight out of his '65 Coronet street/strip car, and documented it.

that WAS a good thread !
since he moved on, it rarely comes up any more.
if i remember right, just before he moved on, he was getting some aluminum wheels made to look like the factory steel wheels.
i also kept on him about re-doing his dash wiring to save a little bit, as there was some sketchy stuff under there. i hope it wasn't me that made him go.

i had a aje drag only one.it worked ok for drag only.i added travel limited/for my old 71 dart.my street car im just going to put a rack into the stock k-frame

more frontend pics

Build an "A" body?(Runs and hides)

That is a good looking launch

I have an alterkation kit on my E Body. It allowed me to run a flat bottom 10 quart top fuel type Hemi oil pan with no deep sump issues like on most aftermarket deep oil pans on the street and allows both Hemi Headers to go in from underneath with engine and trans installed in one piece. No slip fit individual tubes needed now with no torsion bars.

After reviewing many torsion bar eliminator K-frame kits, I liked the Gerst (manufactured by QA1 now) the most. But in the end, I decided to keep my torsion bars and purchased the QA1 K-frame, LCAs, strut rods, A-arms etc. My TTI headers are a beautiful fit with the factory t-bars and the geometry is acceptable. I did just see a new product announcement from Heidts. https://www.heidts.com/part/mo-101-1970-1974-dodge-challenger-and-cuda-ifs/ Pretty pricey but the design looks like it removed the objections that I have seem with other coilover based k-frame kits. Heidts has always manufactured top-quality suspension products so I'm sure their E Body kits are no exception