Technical Need Pre- war race car handling help! Understeers badly

So sorry to have gone AWOL for a while. Real life gets in the way of important stuff like race car handling issues.
So what I did was take a bunch of your suggestions and try to determine what sort of movement I had in the suspension. Disconnected the shocks and bounced the front and rear. No bounce in the rear but pretty good up front. What I found is that the panhard bar I put in the rear to keep the rear axle centered had bound up the suspension....
My trip to Road America was much more rewarding. The weather sucked with oppressive heat and a wet track off and on but finally on Sunday and my last race it was dry. With a "Land Rush" start to the first turn I was 8th coming through. I managed to move to 5th by the finish and was close behind 4th. The car is so much better; at least at RA. It has a predictable amount of oversteer and is fun to drive. I was able to knock 5 seconds off my best time there and that made me feel pretty good. We race again there in September and I plan to push a bit harder to qualify closer to the front now that I have more confidence in the car. In October we go back to Blackhawk Farms; a place where I hope to redeem myself by driving better and not hold up faster cars as I plow around the tight corners.
My plan is to experiment with the shock dampening and tire pressures especially in the front as it may be a bit too stiff up there, nothing drastic until I get more time in.
Thanks again for all the help and I will report back after the next run
Guy

 

well that sounds good, thanks for the update.

 

Good to know you are ok and that a bit of positivity was found!

 

Any progress, hope you are doing well and have had a chance to work on the race car!

 

Hello Again! So the last time I checked in I was headed to Blackhawk Farms in So. Beloit IL. I had fooled mostly with the shock dampening thru using thinner dampening oil (Red Line suspension fluid) in my Armstrong lever shocks. What do you know, I won my first race. Admittedly some of the really fast guys were not out there as it was too cold; like 40'. It did warm up a bit over the weekend and I got faster with less drama than before. Some photographers were there and got some great shots of me going through the corners and I feel like I'm still way to stiff front and rear. With the Corona virus shit going on my first two opportunities for track time have been canceled. I decided to take a leaf out of each front 1/4 eliptic to try to get more weight transfer up front. In the rear I dismantled the transverse spring, polished the leaf ends and put poly channel between the leaves. So now I wait. I'm really appreciative of all the info I have gotten from you guys and it has helped me in refining my suspension.

 

I don't know if it was mentioned before but have you tried a 1.5 deg. positive camber ?

 

Over the winter I got a bit bored...And as I got more comfortable with the car I got to thinking about my puny Rochester 1bbl. carb. So something new to fiddle with in addition to handling. Might be a mistake to throw this in now but oh well

 

Keep improving it Buddy! Gary

 

Yup, Keep moving or tip over.

 

More power, steer with the throttle. Is the diff locked?

 

Nope. Got some low speed sharp turns.....and not enough omph

 

Did you you try positive camber?

 

The original Model A axle had positive camber. I bent it to provide 1-1/2' neg camber so the radial tires would grip better on corners. The idea being in a corner the tire would roll more rubber onto the racing surface. Pos. camber would reduce the amount of contact.

 

I just removed one that had 1.5 deg Positive camber and installed one with .5 deg. Positive camber. I am running BiasPly tires. Maybe you are rolling to much. Do you need Radials with the old type suspension ? JMHO

 

What's the good word? Getting out and lighting up the track times?