Anyone have ladder bars on leafs under a falcon comet or early mustang? With a stock floor? I’m planning to put adjustable ladder bars and rectangular x member under my race falcon with stock floor. I really don’t want to cut up the floor or back half it. It’s rust free. Any pics of your set ups that work on the drag strip. My current bars are too short and front mount too high. I’m crushing the slick on launch then unloading it. My 60’ is high 1.40’s and should be better. Thanks
Just build them the same as "Holman & Moody" did on their A/FX racers. Just mount the cross-member to the subframe connectors A ladder bar can be any shape to fit around components [it is theoretically an imaginary straight line between the axle centerline and the front pivot point] Have you tried "Caltracs"? with decent adjustable shocks and split mono-leaf springs The Caltrac setup is hugely successful in leaf spring cars [stock eliminators etc] https://www.onallcylinders.com/2022/01/27/suspended-animation-split-mono-leaf-springs/#:~:text=Calvert notes that its split,especially multi-leaf designs).
I know how well the Cal tracs work. No denying that, but it’s not correct for a vintage style Car. I have considered the style that was on the a/fx cars. I like the adjustability of the ladder bars
Here is an A/FX set up on a 3rd gen Camaro. Personally I would weld 4-link brackets to the housing. Then off the bottom bracket mount a long square tube LCA. Off the top bracket mount a triangulated adjustable arm to the lower LCA [similar to this] This would make it easy to adjust pre-load
NOT...a good idea. Suspension binding WILL occur. Here's MUCH...better choices...in order - 1 - A pair of Cal-Trac's bars. 2 - To use ladder bars with leaf springs, youll need an axle floater kit to make the suspension work...correctly. Mike
to run longer bars you will have to cut the floor. The pick up points for mine are just under the front seat, rear floorboard was completely cut out. I couldn't see any other way to do it.
Ladder bars with leaf springs on my '63 Falcon: I went the route that a lot of 4x4 trucks use when combining ladder bars with leaf springs and used a pair of shackles angled back on the front to avoid spring bind. I added subframe connectors for an early Mustang to my car, so front mounts are attached to the subframe connectors. Worked great, and have the same setup on my '39 Chev gasser also.
I'm gonna toss out a random thought based on proven experience. I once caved into raising my ladder bars to strike the tire harder and improve 60' times. I hesitated for weeks, it didn't seem right vs what I was doing, but you never know if you don't try. The times increased from 1.40-.42 to 1.47-.50. Why? Upon launch the bars lift the car, it doesn't squat. While trying to lift it was also trying to drag the axle fwd in the car in a manner of speaking. With the bars down the lift action would essentially extend the wheelbase. It was only ½"or less but my theory was it used a mechanical reaction to move the car fwd almost before the tire made a complete turn. I jacked the car up to launch ht and measured the tire tread to fender to verify. Yup. My bars were 37" center to center and visibly down. Some cars like a hard strike, some need finesse. Just some thoughts to help round out where you wanna go.
could you post pics of this shackle arrangement? I'm contemplating how to do exactly this on a 66 barracuda project.
Sold the car about 3 years ago. I'll have to check to see if I have pictures. But it's easy to describe. Just a pair of shackles like you'd have on leaf springs, only just 3" long center to center on bolt holes. A stand or mount with a hole through it the same size as the heim on the end of the ladder bar tube. The angle is around 30 degrees forward at the frame, so back at the heim end. The angle can be adjusted by turning the heim in or out. The shackles I built were 1.25" flatbar 1/4" thick.
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