Are traction bars ever right on a Mopar??

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318willrun

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Before disagreeing, LOL, watch the whole demonstration. And ignore my pajama pants :)
 
Well, the pinion snubber (Adj. unit) was intended for non weeinie sure grip equipped cars for the drag strip w/ S/S springs. It works very well for that application. (FWIW, I’m NOT making fun of your car(s).)

The tractions bars are fine. Many don’t like the idea of the snubbed portion contacting the spring. Not all traction are are the same length and most are short on where they should land the rubber snubber, right under the front spring eye. This has people thinking (true Or falsely IDK myself) that it will bend the front of the spring. (Mad power needed for that I think)

I am also not so fond of the way they attach to the spring.

Your test is inconclusive and I’d like to see the street tires on the 360 Duster and how that works and performs.
 
Back in the day these were designed for single “mono” leaf springs found on Novas and other GM cars To prevent wrap up. I’m not a fan but people swear by them. It’s like air shocks- look cool and serve a purpose. Just not mine.
 
For people using a for 9" or an 8.8 theres no spot for a snubber. I will be putting under my sons car some Jegs screaming yellow traction bars. I plan to take those and paint them black.
 
Mostly a “band-aid” part for some setups. Yes they can work if setup/adjusted correctly, but I’d wager many who disparage them wouldn’t have a clue about setting up a suspension in the first place. Moving beyond the peg leg and installing a sure-grip and the adjustable pinion snubber I’d think would be the minimal goal. Then there’s the possible weight savings, ground clearance, aesthetics (subjective of course) and cost, all dependent on whether you already had the sure-grip or not. Probably more traction bars have been sold and installed on cars that can’t benefit from them then on those that do. But having the “Lakewood” or “Competition Engineering” stickers showing was what really mattered:rolleyes:
 
“But having the “Lakewood” or “Competition Engineering” stickers showing was what really mattered:rolleyes:


yes! Back in the day the sticker sometimes meant more that the product. 80’s and brand recognition dude! I used to love when people had Edelbrock decals and Holley decals and Weiland decals on their fenders. Open the hood and all stock. “Sticker Kings” we called them. All show and no go.
 
Sticker Queens were what we called them down here. We also told them that chrome would make them faster. LMAO
 
I have them on my 74 more door big block. 355 track lock, they definitely help when set up right, at least for me. I want a sticker now!
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Nice video! It brought back memories of my high school days.

My first car was a 72 318 gold duster. The school had a company come in and replace the bleachers in the gym, and I guess I was a cheapskate even back then... I asked if I could have some of the scrap tubing from the old bleachers, and made a set of slapper bars in welding class. I used rubber freeze plugs for my snubbers.

I rattle canned them black and a friend painted "Mopar Madness" on them in red letters.

I thought that duster was the fastest thing in the world back then...
 
“But having the “Lakewood” or “Competition Engineering” stickers showing was what really mattered:rolleyes:


yes! Back in the day the sticker sometimes meant more that the product. 80’s and brand recognition dude! I used to love when people had Edelbrock decals and Holley decals and Weiland decals on their fenders. Open the hood and all stock. “Sticker Kings” we called them. All show and no go.
It hasn't changed 1 bit with putting performance stickers on stock rides. We have all no doubt seen all the Japanese cars full of performance stickers for their generation, and all they have on it is a cold air intake, and a fart cannon on the back along with a sheetmetal wing bolted to the trunk
 
Not really needed because of the pinion snubber issue but not necessarily evil.
 
this subject has been covered her years ago. yes they work on a mopar. a magazine somewhere along the line probably bad mouthed traction bars and the mopar sheep took it as gospel and have been preaching it since.
 
I ran 'um on my 65 Belvedere when it was a stick car. The chrome ones.Going for that 60's vibe.
Bent the crap out of them.That was about 14 years ago. They were on for about a one weekend at the track then went back to the snubber. I think they weren't made as good as the ones from the 60's.If they were better material I would have left them on.
The other thing is a front retainer if they are low to the ground. In a panic stop they may dig into the pavement.
 
Not sure if they were Lakewood or Jegs brand. They did come from Jegs though.
 
Agree with those traction bars helping out a bit with stock suspension.

However, my experience the adjustable pinion snubber does minimize diff wind up.
Thus, reducing wheel spin with SG. Open rear, couldn't hurt...….LOL

Nice video
 
Hate to say it, but I scrapped more than a few sets on all kinds of cars. Never saw the need for them. It seemed that if you had a slow car, you put traction bars on and all the stickers. Sometimes they would even punch holes in the muffler. I already had the heavy duty rear springs. If I wanted to drag race, I'd have gone with SS springs, not much more money. My friend who raced Super Stock just used re-arched monoleafs on his Camaro. He had no traction problems.
 
I think there was also some concerns of axle tube twist when using the bars.
For your "old school" guy memories, there were bars with shock plate mounts and J bolts .........
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Mopars have shorter front spring segments than other makes so the benefits of traction bars are minimal. Clamping the springs to make them stiffer (preventing wrap up) is probably easier and just as effective, not to mention lighter. Would be funny if there was a cool decal for clamped springs.

Caltracs are essentially traction bars in that they stiffen the front spring segment but are more advanced with the pivots and adjustments. Lots of Chrysler products seem to do OK with Calvert stuff, my Duster included. Would never run old-school traction bars myself.
 
If anyone is interested in a set, I know where some are. The last time I saw them, they needed a good blasting & some paint.
 
I run properly adjusted sets on both my 450 horse automatic A-Body and my 650 horse 5 speed E-body with great results. Both cars have Nitto Drag Radials on them to make them safer to drive on the street, but were bending the front spring segments of the passenger side SS springs.

Before trying this, I had the full Caltrac with mono leaf set-up on them, but pulled it and sold them due to the horrific ride quality on the open road.

Back in the day, I rarely saw anyone that was running them have them properly adjusted. In fact, almost every set I remember seeing had the front snubber 4 to 6 inches away from touching the front spring eye. They don't work when mounted like that, hence I believe the bad reputation they had for Mopars.

The front snubber must be just barely touching the bottom of the front spring eye. There are no off the shelf slapper bars that fit like that without modification. Starting with the correct length and some cutting, extending and welding of the rear bar mounting perch of is critical, as is shortening the length of the
rubber snubber by half.

My traction out of the hole improved dramatically on both cars with only a very slight stiffening of the rear suspension. I am running two passenger side 3200 lbs SS springs on both cars, which weigh in at 3700 wet.

I went with these for better ride quality and this combination is the best riding and launching suspension I have ever had in 4 decades of trying almost everything else. I painted them black so they blend in better, since they don't work on Mopars...lol.

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How about when they are just for fun/display?? A friend of mine found these at a swap meet and bought them for me just for for my van, for fun.
I know this adds little or nothing to the knowledge content of this thread. LOL

the van DOES have a factory suregrip though...

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