traction question

[katostud]

i was wondering how your guys cars hook up on the street? what do u have 4 engines,tires,gears,shocks,springs and that stuff in the cars that u guys drive on the street ?

[2lucke4u]

katostud
Its the tires and nothing else that will hook it up on the street,,did you see the video in my earlier post with hard,skinny,street tires,,they just spin and scream,,now with dot slicks its another story,,,YES I spin but I am also moving forward at a good clip,,from a 20mph roll the car is a animal,I don't condone street racing as its very dangerous in a 10 or 11 sec car,as for suspension,,street and track are very much alike,,50/50 shocks,rear sway bar,3.50 to 3.90 rear gear and the biggest dot's you can fit and still corner without rubbing,I drove our street/drag car to town yesterday for ice cream and to fill up the tank,it was 88 out and humid the car ran about 180 degrees the whole tiime,,hint a big radiator with a taurus 4500 cfm fan,my car never overheats and rarely gets over 200 unless I'm hiting the bottle at the track,put the whole package together before you hit the streets so you will not have to fix it later,,do it right the first time and you will have no regrets,
Charles

[katostud]

no 2lucke i never saw your video but id love 2 see it. could u give me a link 2 it?

[2lucke4u]

Kato
Go to general discussion and find Dyno tuning and a day at the track,,tell me what you think,,we are still tuning the car and will be using the trans brake and air bags next trip to the track,,
Charles

[katostud]

2lucke now that looks like fun. im hoping 2 get my car 2 the track soon im almost ready still gotta do some tuning. yesterday i got my lca's boxed,new shocks in,extreme energy bushings,z28 springs with drag bags in both sides,and my 26x9 tires on.

[Fasterthansome]

I found that my shock settings make the biggest difference on the street. On the street I run alot softer setting in the rear.

I dont run any air bags. Whats different about a z28 spring?

With drag bags it would seem you could have too much air and rear suspension would be too stiff. Also why would you do both sides?? I guess I dont understand this even though its been done for many years.
If the rear suspension is too stiff the only give spot will be the tire itself. It will try to bounce as the tire compress's. I dont know of any other way to explain it.

[2lucke4u]

Fasterthansome
my car sits 2.5 above the rear tires at rest,on launch the passenger rear tire squats severly and the body rolls to that corner and the gap at the drivers rear grows to about 5 inches, the drivers front will lift about 8 inches leaving the pass front just touching,,this is the same problem the GN crowd was having on launch and they solved it with a bag in the rt rear set at 10-15lbs,in other words I'll be limiting the motion on the pass rear suspension so it will transfer better and flatten the car out when it launches,I am running a 3.90 gear and a splool,the car should leave flat with the proper tuning,I have yet to use the trans brake as we need the car to launch flatter,our goal is to leave with both wheels the same height on a horizontal plain,this will reduce 60 ft times,our best 60ft on a aborted run has been 1.47,we have lots of video of the car and this is the only thing that stands out as the problem,,any suggestions or experiences with the same??
Charles

[Fasterthansome]

I havent had a problem, car has always left fairly flat.
I ran traction bars set close to the stop from the start and that may have helped. When I removed the traction bars I added an anti roll bar.

[2lucke4u]

Put the air bag on passenger rear today and found part of the reason for the major roll to the rear corner,,the drag shock was ripped from its mount and was just banging the floor,took it off and replaced the mounting stake,welded a plate for it and replaced,also the drivers side exhaust hanger was broke [I have to stay off the street with this thing],replaced and we are ready to go,,
Faster
No traction bars on this one,,would make some if I knew what they should look like,,pictures,,,
Charles

[Fasterthansome]

That may cause problems
I dont have any pictures and I sold mine. Very easy to fab a set up.
Someone on here has the images and dimensions.
So if they see this please post.

[bundyparts]

hello . i am the guy who was selling copies of the lakewood stye traction bars on ebay .i had sold a number of them but ive decide to stop making them . i am in the process of duing some cleaning of my shop and selling my originals and etc . here is an ebay listing of one of my sets of originals that i used . thanks to all my customers over the last couple years - steve bundy http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/71-75-80 ... dZViewItem

[spyder_xlch]

I'm no expert by any means but I don't see how traction bars would help an H body. Unless your suspension set up is not stock. Don't traction bars limit the upward twist of the rear axle (or pinion really)? With 2 lower control arms and either 2 uppers or a torque arm, how would the axle rotate upward? If there's some flex in the control arms or torque arm couldn't you just box/reinforce them? If someone can explain this I'd like to know. Don't take me the wrong way. I want to learn.

[cjbiagi]

You are correct in your thinking. Most traction bars were designed for cars with leaf springs where there is more axle wrap up. With coil springs and either 4 control arms or 2 lowers and a torque arm, there is very little axle wrap. The only way these lower traction bars are going to work is to set them up with a very small, or no, air gap between the snubber and body. The only wrap you have is in the rubber bushings, so yeah, there is some, but not a lot. With a leaf spring setup the springs will actually arch under heavy power and there is considerably more wrap. While they may look cool, in this application I think you could do just as well with boxed arms and stiffer bushings.

[Fasterthansome]

In my application the snubber was set very close.
They did help eliminate torque arm flex. Slicks and spray put some load on it and it flexed quite a bit before it was braced.
Does it seem possible the snubber trying to ^ lift at the front of the lower control arm may have helped eliminate some squat on passenger side.

[greg72]

I had them on my Vega when i had the 7.5" rear still on the car. It was aposi with 3:42 gears. I was always surprised how much traction i was able to get with a sticky street tire and no wheel hop with a muncie 4spd and factory 72 Vega upper and lower control arms.

Interesting story , when i was getting ready to tub the car i drove the car from my house across town to where we were going to back half the car......anyway for some reason i had removed the traction bars , the tire spin was much more pronounced.

I agree that the h-body traction bars help add rigidity to the rear suspension and take out some flex.