Cal Trac Mono springs?

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mikedevore

mikedevore

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Can you wear these out?
Took our Demon out to No Problem raceway this weekend.
Great air & the 340 was making power.

First pass, the left front picked up 2 feet & the right rear squatted like it had stock 6-cylinder leaf springs.
It then went right, my Son corrected & continued down track.
The car stayed up on the left side, at least 6 inches, all the way down & was a hand full to drive.
It never settle back down.

Made 3 passes & adjusted everything we could, nothing changed the way it drove.
All 3 passes had 60ft times of 1.45.
The car was so ill handling down track, that we put it back on the trailer & came home.
Looked over for broken parts, check shocks, nothing helped.

We put an average of 500 passes a year on this car.
The Cal Trac stuff is going on 7 years old.
Can these springs get worn out?

It has been getting worse over the last two seasons, but havn't had any problems with hooking up or drive ability.
We did swap springs from side to side last season & it seemed better for awhile.

I'm sure the extra power it made over the weekend, it showed up worse than at other times.
Open to suggestions.
 
Its never happened to me,But I see it all the time on U-tube when an axle breaks, all the power goes to the one remaining wheel and the car tries to drive in a big ol circle.IDK. just my 2 cents. That doesnt address the squat though.
 
I don't think you could drive the car with a broken axle or spool.
This seems suspension related to me.

The problem has been there in previous, just didn't have any driving issues.
The car just hinges over on the right side from front to back.
 
Yeah I thought about that too. But with the tapered bearings in there,and the retaining plates, and the yes response to the spool question, I thought Id throw it out anyway. And since you mentioned swapping the springs, with only a little change, I thought surely you would have spotted rear suspension issues when doing that. I was left grasping.
 
I think a broken axle would sound like popcorn cooking when going into a turn. I'd check the U bolts and make sure the center pin didn't break in the spring or wallow out the hole on the mounting pad.
 
You know, Daliant could be on to something. If the axle moved back on one side, that would certainly tend to drive it in a circle. Good call.We are still left with the squat though.
I said I was grasping.lol
 
Just got the car into the shop.
I think it has a dead left rear shock.

I set them on 5 & bounced the car on the left rear corner.
It had good resistance & the shock made a squish sound as a shock does.

Moved to the left side, no noise from the shock & the bar pivot clanged off the top of the leaf spring. Little resistance in movement.
Change the setting to 7, same results from both sides.

I'm leaning towards a dead shock.
 
Two concerns found.

The right rear spring perch had broken from the axle housing.
I'm sure that was the main concern.

Also replaced the rear spring segments.
I hadn't realized that it was sagging in the rear that much.
Installed the new spring segments & set the bars, gained an inch in height.

Took it out this weekend, 1900 feet elevation.
60ft 1.49 - 1/8 7.08 @ 94.50MPH - 1/4 11.27 @ 116MPH.
Left hard & level.

Not bad for a basic 340 with 3 seasons of racing on it.
Note; I bought the wrenches from Calvert to adjust the bars, it made it a lot simpler to make adjustments.
 
Wow, your lucky the stress on the left side being the only side welded that you didn't bend/twist the housing or worse,Wreck!
 
looks like the cal-tracs are working pretty good for you
and yea that could have been bad
 
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