I went to the local Old Time Drags with my 54 (312, 4 speed and 9 inch) and made some time trials. The car ran pretty good, certainly no world beater, but I had fun. The main problem I had was getting off the line. The rear end hops and I had to get off it. I have stock rear springs and no traction bar setup. I am not going to do any serious racing, but I am looking for a traction bar setup that is easy to install (preferably with no welding) and keeps a decent ride. Is Traction Masters a decent set up? How about these slapper bars-I don't know what they call them- that bolt on and have the rubber that comes up to hit the spring? Any other suggestions? I saw the article in the last YBM but its beyond me to fabricate.



Thanks for any help.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Paul:

The traction master type bars would probably work well on your car.  I used to use them on the Hurricane until I started running mid 12s.  I read somewhere that the traction master style were called a "leaf link" system, and they did a respectable job until you made enough power and had enough traction to flex the front half of the spring.  At that point I built a 4 link for the car and have had no problems with wheel hop since.  The traction masters will not affect your ride.  The slapper bars used to be popular, worked reasonably well, and were easy to install.  I used a pair for a while until I bent them and threw them away.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I use traction masters on my t-bird and they work great? Where the front section (they suggest welding to the frame) I drilled and tapped the frame and just bolted them on. If I ever want to remove them for any reason no problem.

-Gary Burnette-

Paul, the web site and Phone # for traction master is > TmcGroup@aol.com     Ph: 818 565 1121     they have pictures illustrating what they look like and how they work. If you choose to go this route do NOT get the ones made over the great pond, they are inferior and can break. Get the ones made in the USA they cost a little more and with larger tubing and are still very reasonable. They seem to work much better than the slapper bars in my opinion.

-Gary Burnette-

I think Traction Masters are the way to go.  Those slapper bars hang down and are very visable, in my opinion they look out of place on a nice old car. 

Paul J. - '57 E Code

Moonshadow has lowering blocks on his outfit - which causes slapper bars and traction masters to get way close to the pavement. I don't know how he solved his problem - but it is worth asking. If you've got the room, either one will work - all depends on what you want to spend.

There are two forces to fight here - the pinion climbing the ring gear, rotating the nose of the housing upward at the front (main cause of leaf spring wheel hop) - and secondly the twist exerted by the driveshaft that raises the right rear wheel (we see the fender go down and it makes the wheel hop worse on the right side) and conversely drives the left wheel downward toward the pavement. There is a single reaction bar in my daily driver (02 Z28) that isolates the two forces - and stays up out of the way. It attaches to the rearend housing alongside the rear u-joint and runs forward to the point where the tailshaft U-joint hinges behind the tranny, so it has the same arc of motion as the drive shaft. 

At the front locator, the one in the picture uses a "shackle" to give it some fore and aft freedom and the crossmember also mounts the forward safety loop. I have seen one of these made to bolt onto the thirdmember studs of a Ford nine inch - a very clever design on a streetrodded sedan. When you do it this way - the street ride of the car is unaltered for daily use - both rear springs can remain near the same rate and you won't get "spring wind-up". But you still can get the situation where the right rear wants to suck the fender down in a hard "drag" start. To fix that - I'm a believer in Air Lifts - (best design) or even a set of air shocks to preload the right rear for racing purposes.

My Olds 442 Cutlass has a big block and it likes 45 psi in the right rear bag and 5 psi in the left for instance - which makes it leave very level in a drag start. Both rear tires will have a nice even temperature. In about a minute you can let the air out and drive over to Sonic for burger .......using the air "preload' system makes your outfit a lot more comfortable to just cruise around in. It is also pretty easy to "tune" for tires and traction conditions - just change the air pressure.  

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I havn't solved the problem as yet. I did put spring clamps on the front of each rear spring that have helped some by preventing wrap up. I will probably go with a set of Lakewood traction bars with mounts welded to the rear axle. I'm still looking at the single set up though. Looks interesting. Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Steve,

How well does that work compared to traditional traction bars?

The reason I ask is I have an '88 Firebird, stock 305 with the WS6 package and the stock torque arm. It does a great job controlling wheel hop. However, I can burn the tires easily with posi and the wider tires that come with the WS6 package. Given that my 305 is rated at 170hp, and I think 255tq new- I have done nothing to enhance performance, and the rear end is a 3.08 it doesn't seem to do much for traction. Maybe the stock torque arm just isn't that good.


Lawrenceville, GA

I run Lakewood slapper bars on my car and the do help with wheel hop, but I would agree that the Traction Master setup is the way to go. In Moon Shadow's case for a lowered street car and a cheap alternative, Chryco had the best idea back in the 60's. A simple pinon snubber bolted to the carrier on their 8 1/4" & Dana rears could be easily adapted to a 9" or any front mounted carrier typr rear. The bracket bolted on the  carrier and had and adjustable rubber snubber. This banged up against a heavy plate welded to the floor pan. I had modified one to work on my Model A with a Ford 8" and it worked great. Only issue was it made a heck of a bang on the floor of the car when you stood on it hard. it would scare the crap out of you if you were not used to it!

Rob

I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning!

Charlie -

The air bags on my Olds are about 5 inches in diameter x 40 psi difference - thats about 790 pounds of "weight jacking". This is to deal with the driveline twist which is: "mumble mumble" foot pounds x 2 (for the converter) x 2.5 (approx low gear reduction) ÷ feet between wheel centers. This assumes the left rear tire is glued to the ground and trying to flip the car with the right. 

I'll bet the traction capability of your '88 would be way different if it had several hundred extra pounds on the right rear. It would also be very uncomfortable to ride in with that sort of spring rate installed. I've ridden in a few that were built that way over the years. They weren't cruisers - hard core drag cars adapted to the street. The other difficulty - that I've had with my own Z - the torque arm has rubber mounts! Duh. The solid set-up shown in the picture above is adjusted with the Heim joints to set the pinion angle. It is not the same animal......but the front shackle helps keep the bang out of it for everyday use.  

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona