Hi, all. In driving my recently acquired '71 Ford Country Sedan, I've discovered that it's probably the floatiest thing I've ever seen. When I was a kid, I drove around in a '77 LTD 2-door and a '77 T-bird, which I'm sure were bad, but I don't remember them being this bad. My '96 F-150 4wd feels like a sports car by comparison. I'm thinking about getting the heaviest-duty(est) springs I can from Eaton, a 1-1/8" Addco front swaybar, a 1" Addco rear bar, and maybe some KYB or Bilstein shocks, some 17X8 or 17x9 wheels, and seeing where I'm at. Have any of you gone through something like this? What sort of improvements have you seen, or has it completely screwed everything up? I look forward to receiving the knowledge you may impart. Thanks, Mike.
How are the shocks? Gas shocks can seem good leaning on the car and letting go but are done for the small bumps. You may want to just check around for heavy duty suspension springs. Since its a stock replacement its your cheapest bet. You don't want it to ride like a buck board. If you go bigger front sway bar you should also add one to the back to keep it balanced. It's still a 5000 pound car they were built to be floaty. A lot of the mushy feeling is also from the steering box. They thought people liked that floaty steering feeling back then.
And go ahead, inspect the entire front end. My dear departed friend's '70 Ranchero had a frame tweak and about five pounds of shims, so it acted weird in the rebound (such as going a bit sideways left) and during sharp right turns. He had to keep his guard up. Oh, and he had Zerks installed in the upper A-arm bushings in order to keep them compliant.
I remember my mom driving my brothers '68 Charger... dip bounce to the left.... dip bounce to the right... she started to make me seasick with over correcting for the bounce in the waves in that old boat... after complaining she said "I used to drive cars back in the 60's and 70's son I know what I'm doing" maybe so but I was still seasick!
On my '73 Ford Country Sedan,I installed shocks in front with coil springs around them and in the rear replaced the old air shocks. $155.00 and my labor made a huge difference. The acid test would be the local speed humps,which are now easier. If I were to do it again,I'd just put the added spring type shocks in the back too. This worked wonders on a '57 Ford convertible I had years ago--the rear helper shocks,I mean. Notoriously weak rear suspension on those,unlike the station wagons. But I digress.
Really,for an early '70s Country Sedan, what do you want? As I said,the coilovers and air shocks were great for NORMAL driving all over New England last summer,and loaded with recreational equipment and all the things she wanted to bring on vacation. The 15x6 1/2 ' wheels should do just fine.
Update: I have installed new springs from Detroit Eaton Spring, KYB Gas-a-Just shocks, and Mustang Bullitt 17x8" wheels with 225/55-17 tires. What a difference! I can't wait to see what happens when I put the big swaybar in the front, and the tubular rear arm/panhard/swaybar kit in the rear! I've also built and installed a trailer hitch.
