Progress

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Thu Feb 01, 07 3:29 pm

Just so you don't think I've been slacking over the winter here's some of what I've been up to. bought a used set of Caltracs and monoleafs a couple of years ago from Tweety, and finally got around to fitting them in place of the inboarded superstock springs I'd originally fitted back in the '90's. Had a few issues to sort anyway so I decided to do it all in one go. The diff gasket was leaking as was the rear fill plug on the back of the case. I welded in a new one that has a proper O ring seal so that should fix that. The back brace was beating up the Rancho shocks when cornering, the only way I could see around that was to move the shocks in front of the axle, which meant I had to make a new tubular shock cross-member, no big deal, I also decided to mount the shocks close to vertical to give more consistent damping. When I originally inboarded the springs I had the rear shackle mounted through the chassis rail. this doesn't allow a great deal of suspension movement before the spring eye hits the bottom of the rail. I decided to fit a set of sliders instead which offer more travel and more positive lateral axle location. This is how all the fast leaf spring cars in the States seem to be doing it now. I did have to get the rear eye of the monoleafs re rolled to standard Mopar size because the original eye size is huge and way too big to fit in a slider. I wanted to get this done before the next motor goes in, which time and money permitting will be for this season. looking forward to getting this down the track again!

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Feb 01, 07 3:36 pm

Great stuff!!

I see you have been busy "sketching" as well...

Ivor · Post by **Ivor** » Thu Feb 01, 07 3:59 pm

Oh yes...top work guv'nor!

latil · Post by **latil** » Thu Feb 01, 07 4:11 pm

Top job

I didn't realise the spring eye was retained for the slider,had visions of a lorry set up with a flat leaf in a box with no restriction on travel.

steveo · Post by **steveo** » Thu Feb 01, 07 6:58 pm

nice work (Blue)

, good stuff . at the risk of sounding a bit dense

( Blue) how does the caltracs & the slider shackle work

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:02 pm

forgive my ignorance blue but is the back brace the bit going across the rear of the diff and if so can you explain what it does.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:20 pm

An 8 3/4" Axle can twist the Banjo tubes in high horse power applications, especially with slicks. the Brace give better overall strength, but prevents the tubes distorting. HTH.

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:24 pm

thanks pete

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:26 pm

Steve, the Caltracs work like a cross between a traction bar and a poor mans four link. The lower bar makes the front section of the spring solid eliminating wheel hop, it also uses the turning force of the axle to propel the car forward like a four link does. Jerry, yes the back brace is that lump across the axles Width. It's there to stop the axle case bending (it's only sheet metal after all) like a banana which happens when you put a lot of power through them. Our very own Dennis the Menace managed to bend his axle last year...

steveo · Post by **steveo** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:35 pm

thanks for the info (Blue) appreciated

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Feb 01, 07 7:42 pm

Blue,post more pics please,gotta fit a set to mine,just ordered them off of Wil

Cannonball · Post by **Cannonball** » Thu Feb 01, 07 8:12 pm

you expecting traction issues then adam??? have you got some high horsepower engine in the pipeline????????

BUDGIE · Post by **BUDGIE** » Thu Feb 01, 07 8:39 pm

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Feb 01, 07 10:26 pm

Cannonball wrote:you expecting traction issues then adam??? have you got some high horsepower engine in the pipeline????????

You never know Dunc,you never know. Are you gettin worried?

That smilie readin the book still cracks me up.

TrevD · Post by **TrevD** » Thu Feb 01, 07 10:30 pm

Blue
a silly question , are the sliders just (as described) a sliding mount or do they use roller bearings??? i can see that if its just a slider in time you could suffer from slider wear.
PS when do you want me to drop your 727 box off to you??