if i remove these will it ride softer in rear. also anoth question. 40 deluxe fuel tank. how to remove. this is on the FRONT of the spring.
That looks like what we called a ''tramp bar'' (usually one each side, they stop the spring winding up on heavy acceleration). I doubt it would soften the ride much by removing them as they have minimal effect on the spring operation. Remove the shocks and go for a ride, see if that changes anything, if it does, fit softer shocks, if it don't change anything, maybe removing a leaf would soften the ride..
Like inthweedz said. As for the tank. disconnect the filler, fuel line to the carb. Remove all the bolts holding the tank in, should be three. Slide the tank toward the filler neck side until the opposite end of the tank drops down, then slide it toward the opposite side until the filler clears the frame.
If that pic is of the rear half of the spring (taken behind the wheel) then surely the "tramp rods / traction bars " are not mounted correctly ??? Take them off and see what happens. I can't see how they are effective the way they are installed.
Excellent point here, I have never seen bars like that run to the rear, they always run to the front where the solid mount is and not at the shackle end. This doodle borrowed from wallace racing .
Hard acceleration will twist the pinion yoke upwards and try to "S" the spring, front half up / rear half down. With the bars mounted behind the rear end, I don't see how they would help at all.
I believe the bar is mounted to the front of the spring. Look in the right lower quadrant of the picture and see how much light there is and the shadow of the rear of the car showing. Also on the left of the picture you can see the spring go behind what looks like the front stationary spring mount. As to whether removing the bar would soften the ride, I believe it would help. The clamp that is holding the bar to the spring is clamping the top two leaves together hard. That is not going to let the two leaves slide against each other and will make the spring act stiffer.
^^ what x-cpe said^^ It's not allowing the 2 longest springs to slide so it will effect the ride. The springs have to slide in order to work properly. If you want better traction then bolting them together effectively turns the sliding springs into a "solid" piece of metal and help to keep the springs from winding under load. ..
Cut some 1/4" rubber, preferably the reinforced type, the size of the pads with holes to capture them, use locknuts and snug them up just short of tight, this should allow some movement but still be a funtioning traction bar.
I still don't think they would work. Shouldn't they be installed as shown below??? (Front to the left) Hey @Huckster59 , can we get a pic of how the other end is attached/set up at the axle.
Putting the traction bar to the rear of the spring will still work. Under axle tramp, the spring wants to form an "S" shape, like the image below: In a "normal" setup (like twenty8 shows above) the black rubber snubber bottoms out, pushing on the spring eye (i.e. spring eye goes under compression). This is the force represented by the green arrow in the diagram below. In a "reverse" setup like Huckster59's, the clamps around the spring pull on the spring (end of spring comes under tension). This is the force represented by the purple arrow in the diagram below (I have made the clamps waaaaay too big in the diagram to exaggerate it). This is the same way that the J-bolts work on Lakewood clamps under braking. Good writeup on how traction bars work here: http://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23844&hilit=traction+bar Cheers, Harv
If the whole diff ***embly wants to rotate clockwise under acceleration (which is shown correctly in the other pics), then the outboard, rear swinging end of the yellow bar wants to pull downwards on the rear section of the spring. This action would add to the spring wrap, as the spring's rear half already wants to bend down due to the torque force.
If the clamp is tight, it prevents the ends of the spring bending (my drawing shows a gap... there should be none). If the ends don't bend, the middle will bend a lot less too. In effect, it makes one side of the spring (from axle to eye) into almost a straight bar. Kinda like holding someone by the nose Cheers, Harv
Oh yeah, that would be correct, but very primitive and not very effective. Drag racing only sort of thing. It would also make the spring a whole lot stiffer overall, so the OP would really benefit from making them go away.
Yep. I reckon he will notice a difference in removing the bar, more so than the "normal" snubber type. Cheers, Harv
Having a tramp bar thats bolted both will increase spring stiffness. Only one end of the leaf spring will be able to operate normaly. You are effectivley making one half of the spring into a rigid beam
i have ran traction/******* bars a lot over the years, but never seen any that mounted to both the axle mount and the spring. seems to me it would put the spring in a bind and stiffen the ride. my traction/******* bars had a snubber that hit the front spring eye. or at least that is the way i was taught. i know the old original traction bars mounted to the frame and rear axle.
Don’t worry guys, those are pointing forward. But they will make the car’s springs stiffer on the front half. I love the “pinch your nose “ ****ogy.
In the early superstock years Chrysler recommended clamps on the front portion of the spring leaves and removing the factory spring clamps on the rear of the springs.....They probably did more leaf spring research than any other manufacture did....
There's no question that these traction bars clamped to the front half of the leaf spring limit spring travel, as doing this allows only the back half of the spring to work properly. It basically traps the front half and binds it so it wont flex at all. Removing the clamp attachment will allow the full spring to function normally and soften the ride. How much it softens will be evident once you remove the clamp and test drive it.
The first ones are Calvert Racing Cal Trac bars. These are the industry standard and are available for a bunch of vehicles, as well as custom built to order, but they are pricey. The second photo is Speed Engineering Traction Bars. I'm running these on my '56 F100, even though they technically don't make them for my donor ch***is, I simply shortened the bars to fit. I prefer this design as it puts the load on the front leaf eye, rather than the leaf body itself like the Calverts. There are others like ******in Bars and VAS Traction Bars that operate on the same principle, but slightly different designs. The great thing about these types of bars is they are adjustable preload for drag racing, or can be set to neutral for street driving.
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