Guys I'm havin a problem with the backend raising up a good bit when I'm foot braking and bringing my stall rpm's up, I think this is giving me a problem with weight transfer and therefore my launch and hookup. I feel like I'm almost better off not launching at a high rpm so it's not so hard to get the backend down. Is there a way to keep the backend down or make it squat? I was looking at some frame by frame pics and it's pretty pronounced.
rick, after the front wheel prob. with "crazy". i am not going to even say anything...would like to keep you around... ...frank...
ROFLMAO...Frank your killin me... well at least it ain't raisin up 12" for the first hundred feet...Hey...maybe I could pop a wheelie in reverse...er...nevermind. Seriously though, theres gotta be away to keep the back down.
Rick ...step one is to clamp the rear leaves together.You can buy the clamps or you can make them from 1/4 x 1 1/2" (or 2") steel flat stock get some good bolts (grade 5 ) and what you want to do is "sandwich" the leaves between two pieces of flat stock. you can try just doing it in front of (reccomended first)/or behind the axle but you`ll probably end up with 2 clamps front...and two clamps in back on both sides of the car. The goal here is to make the stack of springs become ONE spring. Give it a try. Also I can`t remember what kind of traction bars you have ...but IF you are useing "slapper " bars you may need to lengthen them (MOST are too short)so that the rubber "snubbers" hit directly under the front spring eyes.
Rick, sounds like the leaf springs are seperating when launching. The easiest way to cure that is to clamp the front half of the spring. The best way to cure it is to run a mono leaf spring and a good adjustable shock.
Thanks guys, Mike I'm running the SSM's now, they really " flattened" the leafs when I put em on. They totally eliminated the wheelhop. Stephen can you recommend a shock that will work on our cars... I've looked in Jegs and Summit and couldn't find anything for a Mav/Comet I'll try the clamps for sure, really appreciate the tip.
Sorry to say, nobody that I know of makes a good adjustable shock that will just bolt in on our cars. The Rancho adjustable shocks are a decent replacement. A real good replacement would be something like the Qa1 adjustable shocks. Both would require modifications to make them fit.
Have you considered a trans-brake? I know some people dont like the way it hits the rear end on launch, but it sure does look awesome! AC
Actually AC I've considered a trans brake and a line lock... I've got some things I need to do with the shocks, leafs and traction bars first. I need to get the back end to stay down and plant itself on launch. Its just not gonna do it like I have it right now.
Sounds like clamping the springs might be the way to go, .... thread hijack alert: I saw a Chebby at the track a months back. He power-braked 'er up reeeal good. The ass-end of the car came so high off the ground .... THAT IT PUKED OUT A COIL SPRING! bahahahahahaha! sorry... back on topic bahahahahah!
Rick, I have much better luck leaving off idle. Have you tried it? Might have to adjust your starting line routine a bit to compensate for the increased reaction time, but it's worth a shot.
the rear end rise is called "anti-squat". If the car's rear rises (more than 100% AS) then that's a good indication that you're planting the rear tires into the pavement hard. That's a good thing! The only cars you'll see squatting (dropping the rear during launch---less than 100% AS) are extremely high HP cars that are trying to avoid a wheelstand. They're usually cars with backhalfs or tube chassis cars with large tires. When I first baselined my 4 link, I had it set to about 90% AS. First time I launched, it squatted then unloaded the tires slightly causing a bit of spin, then straightened out. Now it's about 105% and I managed to drop .1 off the 60' time just by changing the instant center and AS. 'course I don't know what's gonna happen with the 414. Might need less AS to help keep the tires on the ground, who knows. That said, all cars are different. I used to run stock suspension as well, with slapper bars and later on a set of home-made cal-trac type bars. Both worked well, though I have to give the cal-trac setup the edge if for nothing else but tuning. Hard to tune slapper bars much, if at all. The car always raised up on launch, no matter what. It is because the instant center (lift point of the rear suspension) is at the leaf spring eye. Too far rearward and too low, which creates a lot of AS. Not much you can do about it other than tune the front suspension to control the chassis movement. I actually made limiters to limit the front susp. travel. That made the biggest improvements in 60' and top end ET over anything else I did to the car. I also found that the 90/10 setting on the front shocks was far from optimal. 50/50 is where I ended up, and that's where it worked best. BUT, like I said...everyone's car is different. Just have to play with it until it tells you what it likes!
Ray I havn't tried launching from idle yet...but I'll give it a try for sure...the car is on a chassis lift right now and I found that the second leaf on each side is not clamped....I could swear I looked at it before and it was:confused: . I've ordered some cal tracs and some QA1 adjustable shocks for the front and rear, hopefully that will help. No more big burnouts either...my BFG's are shot in less than a season
Yep they go away quick. Sure do work nice though huh? I stuck some competition engineering adjustables in my car the other day set the to 90/10. Drove it around with no ill effects, but of course the sway bar is hooked up and I didn't try to launch it or anything. Other than that my racing related progress has been to finally put my fuel pump on a relay (picked up one and a half volts). Also I put my cooling fan on a relay and made it so it shuts off with the key now to avoid the embarrasing dead battery in the staging lanes situation I found myself in the last day I went last season. Been doing a few cosmetic this's and that's as well. No camera = no pictures sorry.
