I am curious how well old style slapper bars work? I am considering a set more or less for the style of the car. Do they affect ride much?
They work great and don't effect the ride, however, a lot of slapper bars (cheap ones) were too short and the snubber didn't contact the spring eye. Insteady, they would contact the spring and if the launch was violent enough, bend the spring.
They are for my galaxie. No racing just wanting to make it look like an older hot rod. Would like caltracs but way out of my price range.
Ok I feel like an idiot. I just went to measure and the front spring eye covered by the spring mount. So I am assuming Slappers won't work?
No, it's fine of they hit the mount you just don't want them hitting the leaf behind the mounting point where it's weaker. It's not too hard to make your own, there's not that much to them. Might be the only way to get a set the correct length these days.
Just my 2 cents, theres a long time debate about that. Theres those that say just behind is better because it keeps spring loaded it helps it from wrapping back. It's like all things in general. What works in one case does not in another.
A friend runs them on a 55 chevy,stock springs and a 12 bolt rear, 9 inch slicks. They work great ,I think the car 60 fts better than some of the ladder bar cars. I think the best are Cal-trac bars. Look them up,would be a little more fabrication but they are really adjustable.
i had slappers on my Falcon. They worked ok, i put alot of passes on them at the dragstrip and the car always hooked well. i hit a curb in a parking lot and bent one. so i bought a pair of these http://tractionmaster.com/ . early shelby mustangs used a simalar setup.
NO they will work-buy a set of Lakewoods. They are shorter-they won't hit the spring eye. Only time I would worry about bars not hitting the spring eye is on a full out drag car. A street car with an occasional romp won't hurt a thing. Here is a set on ebay # 200601750619. Direct bolt on style not cheap universals.
If you make enough power, and the snubber is behind the eye they will more than likely bend the spring especially on a heavy car, but on a street car with a regular tire and not a drag tire you should be alright
They work great on my Mopar even though i have been told by many that they cant.My 60 foots went from mid 1.6's to low to mid 1.5's after i got them dialed in on 8 inch slicks.No drag shocks ,trick springs ,etc. just the 60's slapper bars.The trick is to fine tune them to the car.In my case they work best with a slight preload on the snubbers (meaning no gap and my weight makes them depress the snubbers when im at the wheel).I have them set right under the spring eyes and unclamped the rear portion of the springs to get lift in the rear and make the rear axle plant.Here is an example of my car leaving on an unprepped track ...
For me, I would leave them off if they are not going to be functional.Your Galaxie looks cool without them.Sometimes less is more.
Lakewood only had two part numbers for all Fords/Mercurys. One for the large axle (9 inch) and another number for the small axle ( 8 inch) same for all Fords. The ad: Set of Lakewood traction bars for 67-73 Ford Mustang, Cougar, Torino, Mercury with up to 3 inch axle tubes. I see these on ebay usually for $40-60. This guy is a little high but he painted his and his have the j-bolts etc.
Heres a clip of my Sons O/T car on its first time out with slappers set with preload also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wds8hKdilOc
They will be functional just not going all out on the best traction devises ever made. I saw a video of a galaxie launching, and the rear spring twisted alot
Back when I had some on my 57 chevy, worked fine. I didn't have enough cubes under the hood to make them hit the springs. LOL!
The real quick measurement I took seemed like the common 28 inch should work. I will have to look some more.
I have the full caltrac setup on my 65' falcon, but you could also look at competition engineering's slide-a-link setup, it was a setup I was going to go with, they list for mustangs 65-73, but you could email or call them to see if they have something for your application.
Ok I have a question about the slapped bars. I got a new set off of a friend and when I stuck them under the car because of the shock mounting plate hanging down I can only slide them so far back and the snubber will be hitting right on the front spring eye. But there is a steel box that covers the spring so it would actually be hitting on the steel bracket directly underneath the front spring eye. Is that ok?
I ran some on my coupe for a while. They worked ok. I made some cal-track style bars that work and ride a lot better.
Before slappers, traction masters were the hot ticket. Period correct, pre 1967. Find a photo, they would be fairly easy to make, and worked great.
Around here everyone ran Lakewoods with the J bolts. I'd still use them on a fast "nostalgia" car with leaf springs if I had one. They were good enough for Jenkins to go 9's with. Larry T
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