The traction bars come with adjustable bump stops so you can adjust how much free travel you have before the bars start working.
The first thing we did was to unpack the bars and examine the parts and pre-assemble what made sense before putting them on the truck.
We assembled the chassis brackets by pressing in the delrin bushings and steel center sleeves in a vice after lubricating them.
Next we screwed the traction bar bump stops in place and got the bushings ready to press in.
Like the brackets, the traction bar bushings pressed in with a vice.
We removed the OEM spring plate and U-Bolts from the axle while supporting it with a transmission jack.
10 comments
The heim joint dust boots are great. A lot of New England area 240SX guys ran them on their adjustable arms back 10-15yrs ago. The only issue is that they also hold stuff in- unwanted debris still do find their way in. So it is a good idea to periodically check them- clean them out and keep them filled with fresh grease.
I had the heim boots on my Mustang for about 3 years and 40k miles, lived on a gravel road, never had an issue with them. I never filled it with grease tho so maybe thats the difference, grease does likes to catch debris…
for anyone wondering, I got mine from SealsIt.com
How are the traction bars with a double articulated forward mount doing any thing? Under load the axle would have to roll like 20 degrees before the forward bar mounts wold begin sucking up a fraction of the load due to the angle of the shackles. It looks more like the additional bump stops on the rear mount are doing more of the work to control axle roll than anything else.
The traction bars engage immediately. When the mount is adjusted correctly it is perpendicular to the force applied to it.
If you look at the 3rd picture on page 4 and use some imagination you can see that when the axle starts to twist the bump stop at the end of the bar will bind against the axle bracket turning the bar into a leaver arm that is trying to move vertically up. With the front swing bracket in a vertical position all the force is transferred vertically through the swing mount into the frame stopping axle twist. It could have been explained better, I had to go overt the pictures a few times to understand what is going on. But a very ingenious design!
Hi Mike,
In the 1980’s my friend in Seattle purchased a 1969 or 1970 Shelby King Cobra with 428. Factory roll bars, short 4sp straight cut gear box, radio and heater delete, koni adjustables. If I remembered correctly that car came with traction bars and the forward pickup was inboard. I think it also had a Panhard or Watts Link to prevent the rear axle from shifting side to side. I was told this was to control the leaf spring live axle.
He bought the car for less than $5,000 and sold it for less than $10K. He was not able to get a dual plate clutch that came in the car. He had difficultly getting parts for the huge Holley carb. He couldn’t get the dual points need for his distributor. It was an original Mustang raced by Shelby America in California. it raced less than one season. The fiberglass hood had huge numbers of naca ducts. He could not source the huge brake components. Imagine the price of that car today.
The Shelby bars were made by traction masters and they did not articulate but bolted solidly to the axle and the body. They had a lot of bind and although they stopped axle windup, they had a big negative effect on handling. On the other hand cars in those days did not handle too well.
Hi Mike, Jup, you’re right. Get leaf spring winding, live axle shaking side to side in the corners or suspension bind.
I don’t know if you remember, but in late 1980’s 1990, I was running a 1968 Firebird and 1969 convertible Firebird. The 400+ ci engines made so much torque. 1st fried the clutch, installed 3200 lbs ram clutch, which made your legs shake just to engage it. Then blew out the transmission syncro’s, u-joints and twisted the drive-shafts. I was still running the rubber donut sub-frame connectors, so the car looked all twisted, changed those to aluminum donuts. Beefed everything up then it torqued the leaf spring completely out of the chassis. That’s when I had Morrison and Al Green, build me some hidden traction bars attached to the top side (like the Chevelle SS and Ballard Springs rearc and put more spring in the leaf spring. I think I tried to put a panhard link, but that created evil handling with hidden top-side-triangulated traction bar.
Ha, ha, ha, old day racing. I worked for Good year, changing rubber after school, so got good price or free “Blue Dot” barely legal street racing tires. Lucky to get 1,000 miles out of those tires.
Love your stories, love the story about Dog Car. I remembered that car. I think that’s when we last met. I was working in Costa Mesa Ca. and drove up and down to San Fran. to meet friends and families. i also worked in Pittsburg Ca. and raced rent-a-car at Sears Point in 1980’s.
Hi Mike, That King Cobra have not been seen at any show for decades. It also came with Magnesium wheels, which SIR and PIR banned because of corrosion. He sourced some factory Aluminum King Cobra wheels. The tires were Goodyear Blue Dot (barely legal. The second owner told him Shelby America converted to street legal trim. Yet it had the most twisted headers. It seem like Shelby America took off the number plate and decals, then repainted the car and called it street legal. My friend licenced it in Seattle and drove it for many years until it needed repair and maintenance. It would be an interesting car to hunt down. The original factory and Shelby America build sheets were under the front seat carpeting.
That’s a cool history, that car is worth a fortune now!