here's a couple of my cars. the 72 has leaf springs and 60's 1.34. the 92 is a 4 link car and 60's 1.20. PM me for some suggestions that I've tried
The flat bars in the floaters didn't keep my rear centered at all and the cross angled centering bar in the kit wasn't much better. The nut that locks the centering bar Hime (sp?) joint end got loose once the tires rubbed and the car handled scarry sloppy. The panard bar is night and day better handling on the top end and the street and doesn't limit the rear axle movement on my Comet. I found some more shots of the rear set up.
A panhard bar just keeps the rear end squared in the chassis-without it=you'll be eatin 1/4 panels. If I read correctly,the car has leaves..... try some slide-a-link bars by comp engineering. About $350 a set. Benifit is that you can pre-load on side harder,thus planting the rear more equally. My .02C.
a wishbone type of deal works really well as well.....and if you mount it up top , you won't see it. chassis engineering told me level the bottom bar and set the pinion at 2 to 3 degrees down. worked well on my old malibu mini tub car...
My Comet hooks best with the bars in the top hole on the front mount, and I have to preload one side to make the car track strait when I power shift into second gear. The car will jump half it's width on the second gear shift if the bars are mounted with neutral preload.
thanks guys for the info.i went to a swapmeet a couple weeks ago to try and buy some heims.didnt find what i was looking for so on my way home i stopped at summit to buy them.if anyone has been to summit with a pocket full of cash they know its hard to leave with just one part.i ended up buying a anti-roll kit from com eng.i have been outside{in the cold}trying to figure out how i wanted to mount it.most of the stuff had to be modified to work.i have everything mocked up and ready to weld,just waiting till it warms up to go outside to finish weld and drill 2 more holes.ill put some pics. up soon.still looking for someone to do some lettering on my car.ANYONE?
you learn things every day the Nova I had would sway from side to side going through the traps and would get worst slowing down I had leaf link with a pivot under the spring so that the housing would be free I always though that it was caused by the slicks 10x29.5x15 maybe all i needed was a panhard bar
got the ladderbars done yesterday and also the anti-rollbar.just have to put the driverside on today.im just alittle scared about doing so many changes at once.pinion angle now at 2deg down,full ladderbars,anti-rollbar.first pass down the track should be interesting!!!!!
My bet is the anti roll bar offers the best solution. I had floaters on my Dart, removed them and ust went back to S/S springs. You are going to run ladder bars with leaf springs? I've only ever seen them withh coil overs.
yeah.i dont want to go the coilspring rout.i was going to use floaters but decided against it.i know alot of people that run ladderbars and leafs and dont have a problem.i do know that with this setup things are trying to work in different angles but i didnt have a problem for the last 4 years and hopefully i still wont.
well yesterday was great!!!i finally got everything back together and on the ground.got the intake back on checked the valves and started it up.man there is nothing better than zoomies,beer and cam2 in the afternoon!!!i didnt get very much sleep last night because every time i closed my eyes all i could think about how its going to feel dropping the hammer down and letting it rip!!!i still have some things to do before im ready to race but im thinking on trying to take it out for a starting line launch and then back to the pits to check everything out.thanks everyone for all your help and imput.i'll see some of you at the races!!!
i went with a full ladderbar and an anti-roll bar.the car NEVER left crooked just didnt pick up the wheels even{passenger side suspencion would compress}.im hopeing with the the changes it does leave even and if it couses problems i car unhook it.i also changed the pinion angle from 5deg down to 2 down.i know i was getting alot of spring wrap with just the single lower bar.
ok i got a question for the guys that run wheelie bars.when i look at some video of my car leaveing the line,the wheelie bars would touch before the front tires would come off the ground.now that i have made it i true ladderbar set up and put the anti-roll bar in it.how high should i set the w.bars off the ground?i had them at fist height when i first built the car and now they are at 5.5''pass side and 5''driverside.
i plan on going to thompson on wednesday and am still looking for some info on wheelie bar height.anybody?
well not much happened at thompson.it did lift straight,but not very high because of track conditions.i started out with them 3'' high and wound up bringing them up to 4.5''.had a great time with the family though.went 3 rounds and prob.could have gone farther but the alt.belt broke and it also runs the waterpump.wife was alittle scared watching me rollerskating and back-pedaling down the whole track,but she got over it after i kept winning.the car is back apart again.alt.isnt charging and im doing some mods on the oil-pump.it will be ready fot thompson gasser reunion though.
So you didn't add a floater kit to the rear housing? You have ladder bars, leaf springs, antiroll bar?
no i didnt.and yes i have all of the above.i know its not the best set-up but its what i have for this year.i think next year i will put them in.
thanks curly.did you get to use your new tool yet??????i know i could have used it yesterday when i was driveing around town trying to find my swisher pull behind mover that someone stole from me sat.night!!!
all i can say is the anti-roll bar worked!!!the guys at thompson did a great job prepping the track and the opel left straight as an arrow.i did raise the wheelie bars up as high as they would go{on the last adjustment}when i go to norwalk im going to move it up one hole and raise it up just alittle more.with everything working so good i dont think im going to put the floaters on it next year though.
What is your reasoning for raising the wheelie bars ? If you're not being slammed back down when the bars contact the track and your movement is forward, I'd think you're good at the height they are now.
because its a blast!!!!i cant describe how cool the feeling is when all you see is the sky.i dont want to go too high for fear of braking something when it comes down but as of now it sets down soft.i dont plan on cranking them up too high but acouple of more inches couldnt hurt!
just a couple of pics. from norwalk gasser reunion.man was that track sticky.F/G winner.other pic. is dons car going on one wheel.i guess im not going to change the rear to floaters!!!!