His recommendations, which I will take, are as follows - Remove springs and take both main leafs to a spring shop and have them shortened 4" on the forward end. Get some springs packs from the junkyard or wherever and basically build a 5 leaf pack for the driver side and a 5 1/2 leaf pack for the passenger side (car currently has 3 leaves per side) At that point I'll have to relocate the forward perches and all that, and get the pack clamping sorted out. He thinks I should be able to eliminate the snubber bars. Basically, we're going to kinda use Mopar 60s engineering as a guide. So my buddy and I had planned for Feb 5 to get to the track (no test and tune this month); I go back out to sea for 30 days on Feb 7. I was speaking with him last night, and he's having some minor issues too, so the race will probably be postponed until late March, after I'm back ashore and have a week or two to gets the springs sorted out. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You might want to invest in some rear shocks, ones you have on their only have around 1 1/2" of compression. Even a single adjustable may help dampen some of the initial wheel hop.
Things to remember when drag racing. 1. Get in. 2. Sit down. 3. Shut up. 4. Hold on. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
As RmK57 posted your shocks don't have enough travel. You could start by using the lowest mounting hole on the rear axle shock mount. That would at least give you an extra inch of travel before bottoming out the shock. Your brothers idea of molar super stock springs sounds like it should work.
IF you are doing the SS mopar spring route it looks good BUT must of them ALSO used a "snubber" mounted to the front of the pumpkin that went up toward the floor pan to control the spring windup. You could add or subtract spacers to adjust when it would contact the floorpan. They acted kind of like a one piece snubber bar. If you google mopar ss spring there were photos of the snubber in some of the articles online. And unclamp the rear portion of the spring so the leaves separate on launch. This is similar to my OT car (non-mopar) using that method and how much the springs open on launch.
If you have a drive shaft shop close by, have them spin your shaft. There is a chance it was bent when it broke loose. Or take it up to speed slowly the first couple times and hold on to the shifter to feel for a vibration.
Hmmm...I'll try moving the shocks to a lower mounting point. And it's my intention to put a dial indicator on the driveshaft in a few places once it's back in the car and see if it's out of whack. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hahaha yea, it's all fun! Each step of owning this car has been quite a learning experience! There's not a whole lot left of the car I bought a couple of years ago! I'm kinda looking forward to building my own spring packs. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You should try to get at least 4" of rebound on your rear shocks. The picture of the blue Torino shows how much separation there is between the top of the tire and body. You do not want to top the shock out. Hard on shocks and not so good for 60 ft. times.
(1) Be prepared to break your car. (2) Install a Nitrous Oxide kit (3) Do your racing on an asphalt road to ease up breaking the rear end gears and/or axles
The bars are backwards. Must be a east coast thing. A friend came from east coast and put them on like that. We got him straightened out.
Hello, In our old starting line tricks and successes, there was a miniscule timing light difference if one knew how to use it to your advantage. The lights were consistently on or off. So, if timed correctly, it was always the same. But, our bodies and brains have to work together to coordinate what we see and what we do. In their tests, the automotive experts (like the DMV and other lab tests) have figured out that it takes about two seconds for our eyesight and our reaction to the foot pedals. Lions Dragstrip startline It does not seem that long, but it does make a difference. Remember, that was for the ordinary street light from red to green and for some drag strips, from red to green. These days, the Christmas lights are a little faster, but the reaction time is still the same. So, practicing on those style of lights is mandatory. Jnaki In watching all of the modern Christmas tree timing lights, it still has the off/on circuit for each light. That was one thing that showed up in the original stop light starting scene at the early drag strips and every day street lights. There is a gap between one light going off and the next lighting up. In the old days, it was an advantage to use the quickness to win the races. The new Christmas tree lights are a little harder to time or take advantage, so one has to decide if it is worth it to use the “off lights” as a starting point for the pedal to the metal sequence. We learned at an early stage as everything necessary to give us an advantage in our drag racing class eliminations. My brother had decided that the only way to beat the class champion and record holder was to take advantage of the stop light gap. He not only practiced in the pits prior to the final run, but at the starting line, he did what he decided to do in this race. It was out to a, one to almost, two car lead by the time the tower whizzed by the racers. Determination and practice will give you an advantage.
Hey all! Ok, we haven't raced yet...but I did order a custom set of leaf springs from Eaton to sort out my flexing issue. I haven't installed them yet as the track is shut down right now. I'm heading back out to sea for work tomorrow, but I'm hoping the track will be open again by the end of May. Not a great pic of the new springs, but you get the idea Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Wondering if you extended the traction bars to hit the bottom of the front spring perch like Salty recommended, they are short on the picture in post #2, would also help stop spring wrap, plus plant the tires.
The Jalopy Journal
