Well, after about 3 weeks of evenings, measuring, cutting, engineering and installing, I am finally finished. To refresh, after installing Cal Tracs, a 6 point cage, and redoing the trunk area with a fuel cell, nitrous botlle and trans cooler, my 29.5X9.00X15 slicks would not clear the wheel wells. AND it was no longer centered in the wheel wells. Never quite figured that one out. ANYWAY..I was either looking at moving the spring shackles inboard (which would involve re-routing the fuel line plumbing) and buying new leaf springs, or going to another type of rear suspension. So I opted to build ladder bars and after driving it last night, I am tickled to death. The car rides much better, way less body roll, leaves a red light much straighter and what I feel is quicker. Instead of getting so much body rise, it seems to be now translated into forward movement. I purchased new ladder bars from Art Morrison, and built all of the rest. I used 3 X 2 rectangular tubing for the crossmember the ladder bars attach to and I used 2" square tubing for the subframe connectors and the rear extensions that weld to the rear subframe. I tied the whole thing into the rear hoop of the cage, since I already had 3" holes in the floor that I slid the rear hoop down through to enable welding the upper bars. I fabricated an upper shock bar out of 1" X 3" rectangular tubing and fitted it between the frame rails, in front of the trunk area. I welded the tabs to this and was done with the upper shock mounts. What made this whole process easy, or easier, was that I built it all with the leaf springs in the car, using them to locate the rear end. And after every thing was tacked in place, I removed the springs. I had to become a little creative with the lower shock mounts, I made them from some lower shock mounts from S & W Racecars and adapted them to fit where I needed them. I ended up using 14.5" QA1 coilover shocks. In the end, after everything was engineered out, the Mavs lend themselves to ladder bars quite nicely, no mods to the floorboards, and pretty straight forward fabrication underneath. I will say that had I not been trying to run that particular size slicks the Cal Tracs/leaf spring combo would have been fine. But with 5.14 gears, a shorter tire was not an option. I took lots of pictures and I will post some pictures on my space, they take up a lot of room. I will try to get them posted today or tomorrow morning. I will post a message when I do. I will also be happy to send them in a zip file to anyone interested.
Hey Steve, I too am looking forward to seeing the pics. How long are the ladder bars? I've got a set of 32" long Alston bars on the old racecar and the front attachment points are completely under the driver's seat! I wouldn't have thought it possible to get them in without modifying the floor, but apparently it is doable. That car has a pretty low ride height though. I'm looking forward to seeing how your install turned out....I learn something new every day!!! Of course...it helps if you don't know too much to start with! Congratulations! Later,
