low buck suspension ideas

[427belair]

What are some good low dollar front suspension ideas for a 74 nova with all stock suspension and 10/90 shocks? I would love to get control arms and santhuff shocks but all my buget went to new safety gear and a new strange third member....I was lucky and the tracks didnt toss me the last two races for running in the 9's. It feels like there is a TON of travel before the front tires come off the ground... is that a good thing?
thanks Jason

[supernova]

I don't know man with those kind of times, if it's safe I wouldn't spend the money to change anything. Maybe put some limiters on the front so it doesn't lift so high before pick up the wheels.

My 2 cents

[John_Heard]

X2 - If it's running like that the next step will be keeping it from going up too high. Next steps on the front end would be good double adjustable shocks and some limiters.

[427belair]

It only picks the wheels a few inches right at the hit and then squats and goes, I was wondering if limiters would help with anything. Thancks for the replies.

[John_Heard]

Then at this point you don't need to limit it, just add more power

[supernova]

We need more speed Scotty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a Star Trek thing.

Yep, what John said!

[John_Heard]

Just so you know, it's a little known fact that the Enterprise had a 4 stage fogger on it. That's what Scotty would fire off whenever the Captain would call down to engineering for that extra thrust to get away from those nasty Klingons..

[supernova]

I did not know that.
That's to funny!

[moeraces]

MY pop said,,,,,,,,,make it go faster,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,there is no substitute for cubic inches abd cubic dollars , and a mixture of both is deadly......and it had a big u'n toooo JOHN...!!!!!!!!!!!....flynmoe.......

[ERV JR]

the rear should not squat, it should lift, if it is squating its not working right. Think like a bullfrog it should leap out

[chpcamaro]

you guys are funny the klingons needed some caltrac's i think lol or they were sand bagging ok i need to stop laughing

[vanillagorilla]

"Prepare for warp speed stand-by transwarp drive!"

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think it's along the same lines. How does one get weight to transfer and have the rear lift up at the same time. It always seems to me that you'd get more weight transfer if the rear would squat quick too. In other words, could it be that his car is squating from the violent front suspension?

[supernova]

Weight transfer and lift of the rear end realy doesn't have anything to do with each other.

What I mean is, ok cal trac's and lift bars create body separation which means that they are pushing the rear end down and the body up. Do this, go stand at the rear quarter wheel opening, put your hands on the top of the quarter as to push the rear of the car down (as in squat) I would bet that your feet will come off the ground. Now grab the wheel opening and pull up on the quarter (as in lift). I would bet that that action will push your feet to the ground. Thats the same thing that body separation is doing to the tires. Squating is not a good thing as it can try to pull the rear end (tires) off the ground. Now I'm only talking about leafspring suspenssions.

427belair has said nothing about what type of traction system is on the car. So if it squats there has to be a reason. We can get to that later.

Weight transfer: Is a product foreward motion and front end lift. When a car leave the line the weight of the car want to stay where it is sitting. It's like doing a push up on a set of scales. If you extend your arms and just sit there the scale will read one thing. Now dip to the bottom and on the up stroke I would bet the scale will read heavier than when you were sitting still. In other words you are transfering the weight to the scale. Thats the same thing the car weight is doing. The weight will tend to move in the oppisite direction that it is being acted upon. Weight moves to the rear of the car. Now start lifting the front end and things (weight transfer) will start happening faster. Lift the front end too high and, we all know what happens then.

Now back to 427belair and the traction system on the car.
What does it have for a traction system?

[427belair]

The rear is a low $ four link. I havent played with the settings at all, took some measurements for the I.C. and set it. With how well the car is 60' on our poor track prep I didnt mess with the settings and the car is deadly consistant. Of course I want to go faster, but it is only a braket car. Just to give guys an idea of the track I race at the record pass for a door car is a 8.18 in a 3300lb camaro with a 706ci on 3 kits. The prep sucks and the D.A. is always at 7000' +, But the people running the track make up for it

[supernova]

The 4-link explains the squat. It maybe a cheap set up but it's still a 4-link.

The Klingons just lost some ground.