Greetings from Maine where if you ain't freezin, you're getting eaten alive by black flies!
Need some help concerning what is wrong with my suspension.
Over the winter I removed all of the OEM front suspension, torsion bars and K-member. Replaced it with a tubular K-member, upper and lower control arms, new rack & pinion and AFCO single adjustable coil-over shocks. All components installed very easily. Did a level and string alignment (which seems very close). Set the ride height to what I had with the stock stuff and the AFCOs to their recommended starting adjustment point. Went to the track with some great expectations and...... not what I expected.
The problem is I am getting no front end lift and spinning off the line where before I made the change the car did great weight transfer and hooked good. My rear suspension is a standard ladder bar/coil-over set up but has ancient Comp Engineering single adjustable coil overs which still function as they should. These were set to full loose (adjuster knob full counter-clockwise on the 'clicks') as that seemed to be what the car liked with the stock front. I didn't change anything on the rear suspension. I have progressively set the AFCO's to full loose on the adjustment knob with no change to front rise or weight transfer. This past weekend at Winterport Dragway a friend of mine watched the car launch off the line during my first two time runs, and suggested a change to my burnout routine, which helped a lot. My 60' times got closer to being what they were before the change with a 1.46, and three 1.48 in a row. With the stock front suspension my 60' times were usually between 1.39 to 1.42. My ET/MPH (1/8) got closer to normal with a 6.46 at 106. My friend said the rear tires would hook initially when I released the transbrake, but then spin for about half a car length and then hook again, but with no front lift.
Suspension stuff is like voodoo magic to me. Does anyone have any insight as to what the issue might be? I double checked that everything in the front suspension moves freely and that nothing is binding up. My car is a 72 Dart, weighs 2880 with me in it. Bored/stroked 360 (383 CI). 14:1 comp, W2 Econo heads with some mild race prep, comp cams solid roller cam (gross lift .654 intake, .655 exhaust, duration at .050 intake 269, exhaust 276, installed at 106 intake centerline) Eldebrock W2 Victor, Holley 2 circuit 1050 Dominator, 9 inch Dynamic converter with approx 5K stall, 727 with reverse manual valve body with brake, D60 with 5:13 gear, launching off the brake at 3800.
Need some help concerning what is wrong with my suspension.
Over the winter I removed all of the OEM front suspension, torsion bars and K-member. Replaced it with a tubular K-member, upper and lower control arms, new rack & pinion and AFCO single adjustable coil-over shocks. All components installed very easily. Did a level and string alignment (which seems very close). Set the ride height to what I had with the stock stuff and the AFCOs to their recommended starting adjustment point. Went to the track with some great expectations and...... not what I expected.
The problem is I am getting no front end lift and spinning off the line where before I made the change the car did great weight transfer and hooked good. My rear suspension is a standard ladder bar/coil-over set up but has ancient Comp Engineering single adjustable coil overs which still function as they should. These were set to full loose (adjuster knob full counter-clockwise on the 'clicks') as that seemed to be what the car liked with the stock front. I didn't change anything on the rear suspension. I have progressively set the AFCO's to full loose on the adjustment knob with no change to front rise or weight transfer. This past weekend at Winterport Dragway a friend of mine watched the car launch off the line during my first two time runs, and suggested a change to my burnout routine, which helped a lot. My 60' times got closer to being what they were before the change with a 1.46, and three 1.48 in a row. With the stock front suspension my 60' times were usually between 1.39 to 1.42. My ET/MPH (1/8) got closer to normal with a 6.46 at 106. My friend said the rear tires would hook initially when I released the transbrake, but then spin for about half a car length and then hook again, but with no front lift.
Suspension stuff is like voodoo magic to me. Does anyone have any insight as to what the issue might be? I double checked that everything in the front suspension moves freely and that nothing is binding up. My car is a 72 Dart, weighs 2880 with me in it. Bored/stroked 360 (383 CI). 14:1 comp, W2 Econo heads with some mild race prep, comp cams solid roller cam (gross lift .654 intake, .655 exhaust, duration at .050 intake 269, exhaust 276, installed at 106 intake centerline) Eldebrock W2 Victor, Holley 2 circuit 1050 Dominator, 9 inch Dynamic converter with approx 5K stall, 727 with reverse manual valve body with brake, D60 with 5:13 gear, launching off the brake at 3800.
