(VIDEO) Suspension HELP for 70 dart swinger drag racing!

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71gtdart said:
Wish I would have seen this earlier. I run a 71 Dart with almost an identical set up. Almost never figured out the set up.

I have a 408 with a powerglide and 4.86 gears. Leave at 3400 on a trans brake. Also have Cal Tracs with Calvert front and rear shocks.

You didnt need double adjustable shocks, but they won't hurt for sure.

My car was doing the same thing. Bouncing the tires back off the track and unloading. Calvert kept saying to loosen up the rear shocks. Made it worse. Finally got video of the car, and figured it out myself.

What to do:

Caltracs in the top hole

Zero pre load on the springs. You need to slide a nickel between the spring and the preload tube, then lock it down. do this on both sides. You have to let the suspension have that little bit of room to work and get body seperation from the rear tire. this pushes the tire into the track. If you have preload on the spring it will not allow the shackles to move forward and lift the body at the hit. It just stays in the neutral position since its not loaded while on the transbrake. On a footbrake car, you can preload the spring, because when you stage, you will have the suspension loaded and the shackle will be forward quite a bit already.

I moved my Calvert rear shocks to the 7th click out of 12, and it worked best there. The shock just needs to have the extension slowed down, so that it gradually pushes the tires into the track instead of squashing them and bouncing them back up.

I run a 29.5-9-15 slick and run 17-18 lbs in them.

My car runs 6.70's and 60ft's 1.44-1.45 on Alcohol.

Even in the heat, it hooks consistent. I made 13 runs last saturday and the 60ft only varied .003 over those runs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help! Very in depth will be trying Caltracs setup like that maybe more air in rears also. I am getting a different rpm module for the 2step as the one I have now goes from 3500-4500 and would like to try lower!
 
y26 said:
main difference between the two videos was tightening the rear shock and moving shock mount (back to stock fixing my mistake)

What do you have for shocks currently? Caltracs?
Click to expand...
don't understand. tightening? And where did you move the shock mounts? the Position of the Pivot Points?

Rear shocks I don't know yet. They are adjustable but pretty old. I guess they just have 4 or 5 positions.
Caltracs I have now. that dropped my 60 ft to 2.1 sec.
Drag Shocks in the front but this year I delete the Torsion bars with qa1 shocks

Next week I try full Slicks instead of Semis first time on a prepared track. Hope my drive Train ( and clutch ) survives.. :)
 
btw, my car launches pretty much similar like yours in the first Video. rear and front Suspension are releasing parallel. Can I say so?
 
I'm going to be watching this thread. I switched to drag radials last year and had wheel hop issues with my SS springs, so I just installed Cal Tracs with Rancho shocks. I really had no idea where to start on adjustment, so this is helpful. Planning on going to the track next weekend.
 
qkcuda said:
I'm going to be watching this thread. I switched to drag radials last year and had wheel hop issues with my SS springs, so I just installed Cal Tracs with Rancho shocks. I really had no idea where to start on adjustment, so this is helpful. Planning on going to the track next weekend.
Click to expand...

Cal Tracs with SS springs?
 
I pulled the 002-003 SS springs that were in the car, and installed some lighter SS springs I used to have in it, with all of the half leafs removed. Basically they are now 4 leaf springs, and they maintain the right ride height. Friends of mine have used Cal Tracs before with multi leaf springs, so we'll see how it works.
 
I am running home made Caltracs on mine with stock leaf springs. My best 60 ft. so far has been 1.33. I hope to improve that if I ever get my new 315/60 Radial Pros. I ordered from Summit about 5 weeks ago. Now they are saying it will be the June 24th.
 
qkcuda said:
I pulled the 002-003 SS springs that were in the car, and installed some lighter SS springs I used to have in it, with all of the half leafs removed. Basically they are now 4 leaf springs, and they maintain the right ride height. Friends of mine have used Cal Tracs before with multi leaf springs, so we'll see how it works.
Click to expand...

Cal Tracs don't recommend any SS spring! they are designed for a stock factory spring or there Mono Leaf.
 
y26, i was looking at your two videos again. Did you notice, you got a little bit of air under the left front tire when it hook on the 2nt video. Two thumbs up!!!
 
Just a thought for D50394 and everyone else. I like Summit, but I once ordered wheels from them, and they kept putting me off saying it will take another few weeks to get them. I finally wised up, realizing they don't have them and won't have them. You may want to order a different tire or get them from someone else. so you don't waste your time.
 
I don't want a different tire and I read on a different sight that a guy ordered the same tires from Jegs in April and he has not got them yet also. It is a new tire and M/T can not keep up with the demand.
 
a question: are shock recommendations and adjustments different between Manual and automatic cars?

I am tending to purchase new Shocks for the rear but don't know if qa1 and single or double adjustable.
My car has a 5 Speed ( so not a 100% racer) 60ft is 1.85 which is pretty nice for me. tires M/T drad radials.

sorry if this crashes the thread
 
I just received some pictures from my outing a couple of weeks ago. I was still having wheelspin issues. I started at full loose and kept adjusting the Rancho shocks firmer all day. The one run I hooked up on was at the highest setting. I ran out of time, but I think I have one or two positions left on the adjustment. I am getting quite a bit of rear separation. I also notice the drag radials are wrinkling a bit. They are Nittos with pretty stiff sidewalls so I am not sure if that means I was running the air pressure too low? i had them down to 16 pounds. Any creative input would be helpful. Also I am not trying to hijack the thread, just figured we are all working out the same type of issues.

Cayuga Mopar Day 1.jpg


Cayuga Mopar Day 2.jpg


Cayuga Mopar Day 3.jpg
 
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