Traction Bars Identification/Mounting Help

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matthon

matthon

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These were put on by the guy who ordered my car, according to the second owner, and I'd like to 'restore' them, and mount them correctly, if possible.
Both are missing front snubbers and the 2 U-bolts.

Searched the interwebs, unable to find info or a pic of these.

Obviously, they bolt up to the bottom of the springs and replace the shock mounts.
2 snubbers each, as well as 2 U-bolts over the springs front and rear.

I've seen some where the U-bolts bolt to the bar with 4 nuts and it's free to move above the spring, and others where there is another 2 hole plate used to bolt the U-bolts to the spring and it moves up/down withon the bar.

Anyone know how to set these up?

Anyone know who the maker might be?

20220221_160409.jpg
 
That's what I was thinking, just can't find them, and none with the front U-bolt mount so far forward.
 
they have a whiff of Mustang or Camaro about them. They have a mount for the bottom of the spring clamp/shock mount plate, no gaurantee that it will fit a mopar one, unless you know better.

the basic lakewood 20470 fit, and work, (at least on a 13 second car) . if you put a 1/2 inch spacer into the rear mount, you can get them more or less horizontal.
I'd replace the snubbers on them with standard Mopar lower arm bump stop rubbers so the narrow end coincides exactly with the front eye of the spring. these are more robust and lower profile than the standard rounded cone things which snap off. nice wide base helps.

make sure you wind down any pinion snubber. otherwise if it contacts first, the car will use it and and the right hand side traction bar, setting you up for a launch biased slightly right.
depend on these for most of the work and a snubber to protect the pinion leave the snubber a good bit lower and it will come into play eventually if necessary.

Mind i only use these bacause i can not easily get any new springs for my car, so have to make the best of it with the thin 50 year old stuff it came with.
better spring pack with zinc interleaves will result in much the same outcome and a nicer handling car off the track.
 
IMG_20220129_164943235.jpg
Just dug these out of the attic to possibly use on a Scamp we are putting together for oldest son. For some stupid reason I removed the J hooks and spring clamps, so now have to dig around to find them.
 
Dave999 said:
they have a whiff of Mustang or Camaro about them
Click to expand...
Based on what I can find, they do, but they are definitely different.
I removed these when I got the car, and I spray bombed them black for some reason.

DSC06439.JPG.jpg
 
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65wgn440 said:
Just dug these out of the attic to possibly use on a Scamp
Click to expand...
Mine are more like these than any other type I've seen, they take the place of the shock plates, and each have 2 snubbers and 2 spring clamps.

Are both spring clamps supposed to be 'bolted' to the bars with 4 nuts, and free floating?

It seems odd that the snubbers are right next to the spring clamps, as if they would essentially be holding the snubbers against the spring.
 
matthon said:
Mine are more like these than any other type I've seen, they take the place of the shock plates, and each have 2 snubbers and 2 spring clamps.

Are both spring clamps supposed to be 'bolted' to the bars with 4 nuts, and free floating?

It seems odd that the snubbers are right next to the spring clamps, as if they would essentially be holding the snubbers against the spring.
Click to expand...

think you mount it up on the shock plate center mount
then you have 2 squared corner, C clamps and you clamp both front and rear C clamp down over spring and through the mount. lock nuts or standard and split washers. i.e not free floating if my set are anything to go by

This will howver flatten the springs some what

you can make up spacers to fit between the bar clamp mount and the spring, to reduce the flattening. flat plate with 2 holes... also helps orientate the bar so it doesn't point nose down., be a shame to rip out the rear on a curb.
Some combo of 2 at the rear 1 at the front etc. see where they sit and how drastically they want to flatten an already pretty flat chrsyler style spring pack. you might find with front and rear sunbbers they just fit up bog stock with no issue. Its a nicer and more robust set up than the universal fit ones i have on mine.

if you don't like steel on steel clamping zinc shim top and bottom will allow some movement, re use chryslers "zinc interleave" idea to your advantage here

kinda depends how keen you are on and rock hard rear suspension, you can induce an unexpected handling change on the street along with the expected benefits at the track.

sway bar on the front might help balance things up for a spirited attack on a sweeping curve

mine set up with the front snubbers an inch or maybe a little more or so below the spring eye, i achived my aim 13.9 got my 4 speed australian 6 to go faster than factory (14.2) on street tyres. so never went back to tune the set up. yes i cheated, but their springs were new in '71 and mine were 45 years old and saggy, i was rattling out fillings and the sun visors kept falling down before i got 60 foot .

Dave
 
Competition Engineering, I believe for a mid 60's Nova. i had a set back in the late '70s on a '66 Dart. The front strap is used to control the downward motion for braking. The rear strap was to limit the lift when launching. The rubber bumper could be shimmed to set preload. Pinion angle was set with shims under the spring pad.
 
Thank you all for the info.
I searched for old traction bar ads as well, only found a few.

I have bigger tires on the back now, and it appears the rear u-bolt tab is really close to the tire, won't know exactly how close until I pull the shock mount.

I noticed the passenger side tire is closer to the spring than the driver side.
It also looks like one of the leaves on that side is either sticking out of the pack a bit, or a bit wider, right at the end of the leaf at the rear. I see a tiny mark on the tire, but I can't figure how or when they would make contact.

I also recently bought a sway bar for the rear, and haven't, until now, thought about any issues installing both that and the bars.

After rediscovering the rear and springs were painted white, I kinda just want to return it to the look it had.
I'm not too concerned with whether the bars function, although I would like them to serve a purpose, but I definitely don't want to cause issues.
 
I just bought the cheap Lakewood bars from Summit, cut about half the rubber bump stop length off and finally cut and weld the rear bracket so they fit properly. The rubber snubber needs to be almost directly under and almost touching the front spring eye.

They do stiffen the spring rate a bit, but they sure enhance the traction significantly and stop the front spring segment from wrapping. None of the ones I have seen fit Mopars properly without some modifications.

I run them on my A & E body. Never had as much traction and a smooth, compliant ride with any other device/set-up.

slapper bar 1.jpeg


slapper bar 3.jpeg


slapper bar 4.jpeg
 
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