hookin the little tires

[stracer859]

wondering on how to adjust the cal trac bars for more bite or is it in my front end since its stock with comp engineering 3 ways ??

[John_Heard]

Can you describe what the car is doing at launch? How fast is the car ET,MPH and 60' times. By any chance have you video taped it?

Something to check first off is how much travel do you have in the front end? Just measure the fender lip at rest then jack the car up till the tires almost come off the ground and see how much travel it has.

[stracer859]

well it hooks at first, then it spins and kinda bunny hops and went to the left . yeah i have it on video tape. well it went a 6.58 @ 106 with a 1.48 60ft on a 150 shot,, it just isnt gettin out of the hole like it should, not much 60 ft difference on the spray as motor,, bout 5 hundreths. o yeah btw this was on a 275/60/15 m/t et street radial. tryin to get ready for outlaw 8.5 next year

[John_Heard]

Is there any way you can post the video somewhere for us to watch what it is doing?

Do you have front snubbers in your upper a-arms, and if not can you feel it hit the limit on the front end? If so is that about the point where it breaks loose? If that's the case you might need to slow the front shocks down. If you still have those snubbers in there I would take them out and get the extra travel on the front end.

From what I understand on the cal trac bars, the upper hole will make them hit the tire harder - more chassis seperation & more initial hook, where as the lower hole will tend to lower the instant center and calm the hit down a bit. 90% of the cars that I see with those bars on are in the lower hole.

[stracer859]

ill have to check on the snubber,, i dont remember if its still in there or not . i got the cal tracs in the top hole,, just got a message from calvert they said less preload gives more bite. i wish i knew how to put a video on the computer, im just not that smart
thanks john

[ron]

years back i found less preload gave me the ability to hook regular radials on a 125mph car..dont know if it works for you, but the self styled chassis gurus told me i was lying..now u get a message from calvert...i love it...driving from side to side can be several things , all linked to unequal forces..your springs may be different side to side, or maybe even your wheelbase(usually wont show unless your spooled)..any difference in chassis load can induce torque steer...enjoy, it's a combo you must discover yourself..and each tire size is a different combo..i just switched down to a 235-60 from 275-60..if i can get same bite car will go faster with less tire i believe...

[stracer859]

ok well i tried, didnt work, i literally smoked the tires for over 60 ft. i need some help on this

[John_Heard]

Ok let's start on the front of the car. Ideally for this you want it setup so that "if" you want it to move freely it can. On mine with stock control arms I used poly-graphite bushings in both upper and lower control arms. On the bottom bolts, you only want to tighten it enough to snug the bolt up a little, then double nut it to prevent it from loosening. On the uppers you can shim out the bushing washers so they don't rub also. When you're done and only the control arms are hanging on the car (no springs/spindles, etc) they should be able to move very freely. You should be able to move them up and they will fall on there own with little resistance.

Then I would suggest using the Moroso light spring for the nova. Put it in so that the front end is pretty low, which will probably require cutting a coil or two of of them. Down to the lower bump stop at least. Remove the upper bump stops.

I would suggest buying a high quality double adjustable front shock, Strange would be a good brand. David Lemmond is a dealer here on the board and he can get you a reasonable price. Oh yeah, remove the sway bar if you haven't already.

When you're done with all that you should with the shocks set in a loose rebound setting be able to lift the front end to the top of the travel easily by just grabing a hold of the bumper. The idea is lots of travel, plenty of stored energy in the spring when it's all the way down and the ability to control and time that travel so the front end doesn't make an abrupt hit to the chassis as it's going up and you get the car to start pitch rotating. If this is a winter project, might as well go ahead and put some travel limiters in the upper a-arms. You won't need them for a while but might be a good time to do it.

I don't know how much of that you have already done, but on the Nova on that little tire you'll need to do this stuff. Hopefully Craig won't get mad for me posting all this stuff, but he needs some competition so

[stracer859]

well ive got all the poly bushings, my front end was pretty loose like that. my plans for the winter was to get new shocks all the way around, yeah the sway bar is gone. here is what i was thinkin,, i got the cal tracs in the top hole had a lil air gap for 1 pass, didnt change anything,, went back to what i had a lil preload, basically the same thing, i think with the bars in that top hole it is hitting the tires way way to hard and causing the massive spin. if i get to go next week, im gonna move the bars to the bottom hole and try that. im not gonna spend anymore money till after the holidays are over, then ill start gettin stuff for next year.

[stracer859]

yeah i think im gonna go to the tubular control arms and stuff from david,, ive already talked to him about this, and go with the coil over setup for next year. probably add a few bars to the car also.. i was thinking about moving the shocks inboard on the rear end too, that stock set up worries me.