How to get a street vehicle to hook on the dragstrip?

[BLACK BART]

Adam, I suppose you would just have to get the pinion angle fine tuned with wedges after welding the spring perches as close as you could. Not too sure how to do it other than that. CJ

[af2]

Good point but no way to compensate.

I just saw the sig! Are we on the same team??

[Pacer377]

Did you try slowing the ignition curv way down?

[af2]

Did you try slowing the ignition curv way down?

that is a classic!!!

[cjperformance]

How much do you want to spend? Its old fashioned now but just clamping the front of the leafs and fitting slapper bars is cheap and can work very well when set up ok. A set of adjustable rear shocks is a nice addition but not a must, use some medium travel front springs with 90/10 shocks.
Leave the front sway bar off, adding a rear sway bar can help though.
Not modern rocket science but depending on the level of racing this can work well for the budget and the e/t's.

[jeff swisher]

I have been clamping leafsprings since my first nova in 1987 a..1972 350 buick powered nova ..

Not just as simple as clamping what is there from the factory..

If i can i move the rearend 2 inches closer to the front of the car..if i cant get 2" then i leave it where she sits.

Next i remove all leafs but the main....
Then i usually hit my pile of ford truck leafs..I find a long one and cut the end off so there is no taper left.
Position that leaf under the main leaf and have it so it runs within 1" of the front spring eye....
Usually this spring needs cut so as to have the back end of the spring is about 8" from the rear spring eye.

Then run number 3 leaf the same way in the front and about 1foot 8" from the rear spring eye....

Yes you may need to redrill the hole in the springs

That setup will work for the driver side and 1 more leaf can be added for the passenger side...
Then add the clamps..I use 1/4" or thicker plate and 1/2" bolts or some old head bolts.

On a harley truck i used 2 clamps about 6" apart
He never had any more wheel hop or other traction problems.

.On heavier vehicles you can add more leaf length to the rear portion and lighter ones may need much less..

I tend to add too much length at the rear then cut length off as needed to make the car smoother on trips to the fishing hole , or parts store
I use a 4.5" angle grinder with a cut off wheel and do it on the vehicle ,just seperate the springs with a pry bar

When it is all done right the car will not squat on launch,,but you will gain a bunch of tire clearance instead when you launch...

On one of my novas i ran air shocks on the rear with seperate air lines so i could preload the chassis ....and jack it up when hauling my boat or trailer to the lake....

The nova ran 1.8 sixty foot time on it's best day with uniroyal tiger paws

And a friends nova cuts 1.6's all day with 275-60-15 with mickey thompson drag radials at 32 psi..an 11.90 car...the converter stalls around 2200-2300 and it is a 3000 B&M

sorry i like clamped leafs

[DCK]

I have been clamping leafsprings since my first nova in 1987 a..1972 350 buick powered nova ..

Not just as simple as clamping what is there from the factory..

If i can i move the rearend 2 inches closer to the front of the car..if i cant get 2" then i leave it where she sits.

Next i remove all leafs but the main....
Then i usually hit my pile of ford truck leafs..I find a long one and cut the end off so there is no taper left.
Position that leaf under the main leaf and have it so it runs within 1" of the front spring eye....
Usually this spring needs cut so as to have the back end of the spring is about 8" from the rear spring eye.

Then run number 3 leaf the same way in the front and about 1foot 8" from the rear spring eye....

Yes you may need to redrill the hole in the springs

That setup will work for the driver side and 1 more leaf can be added for the passenger side...
Then add the clamps..I use 1/4" or thicker plate and 1/2" bolts or some old head bolts.

On a harley truck i used 2 clamps about 6" apart
He never had any more wheel hop or other traction problems.

.On heavier vehicles you can add more leaf length to the rear portion and lighter ones may need much less..

I tend to add too much length at the rear then cut length off as needed to make the car smoother on trips to the fishing hole , or parts store
I use a 4.5" angle grinder with a cut off wheel and do it on the vehicle ,just seperate the springs with a pry bar

When it is all done right the car will not squat on launch,,but you will gain a bunch of tire clearance instead when you launch...

On one of my novas i ran air shocks on the rear with seperate air lines so i could preload the chassis ....and jack it up when hauling my boat or trailer to the lake....

The nova ran 1.8 sixty foot time on it's best day with uniroyal tiger paws

And a friends nova cuts 1.6's all day with 275-60-15 with mickey thompson drag radials at 32 psi..an 11.90 car...the converter stalls around 2200-2300 and it is a 3000 B&M

sorry i like clamped leafs

Good info. I've got a '99 dodge dakota and I cut the factory clamps off the back. Left factory up front and a few inches behind them I put one clamp on each side. It works pretty good, but didn't know if I could do better by positioning them differently or putting two on one side, one on the other, or some form thereof. With this 4k pound truck on street tires, my best 60ft is 1.994. Best I've read of on the dakota forums with st tires. Besides adding leafs (not in budjet now) any input on positioning or multiple clamps? Right now they are clamping the main and second leaf.

[jeff swisher]

You can seperate the leaf packs and move all the leafs foreward..
This way you are basically stiffening the front half more, just to keep the spring from wraping up ...then 2 clamps

One no more than 3" behind the front spring eye ,,then the second one can be positioned half way between the first one and the rearend mounting pad...

Sounds like you are hooking pretty good...

I always hooked better on the street than the track ,,with my street tires.

I tried some hoosier dirt track tires 295-60-15 on my nova and they sucked at the track ..but i could get over 1.5 foot of air under them on the street.

I say 1.5 feet from a roll,, All i could see was clouds and tree tops

I told my wife to roll about 5 to 10 mph and stab the throttle back off and as the nose dives down stab the throttle again and shift at 7500 rpm

She never drove the car again and was dropping the f word and hitting me..
OH the fun of wheelies.

[BLACK BART]

Hey Adam, we're on the same team!

Go Team Short Bus!!!

I put that signature there because it never ceases to amaze me how many people argue a point to death on the Internet forums with people they don't even know. Could be arguing with a 14 year old kid that has no knowledge of the subject and nothing better to do for all they know!

CJ

[BLACK BART]

Craig, I'm not looking to spend any more than I have to for a vehicle that plants the tires good. Meaning, if leaf springs will work, I don't want to use a four link and coil over shocks. I'd like to try the clamped leaf springs on something just because I've seen cars work very well set up like this and like the simplicity.

Thanks, CJ

[BLACK BART]

Mr. jeff swisher, thank you very much for that detailed information. That's exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to get when I started this topic.

Thanks, CJ

[jeff swisher]

you are welcome ..Just old tech from the mopar superstock archives in my brain

[falcongeorge]

Just caught up with this thread, I am doing the same thing with my Chevy II wagon. I am looking to nudge high elevens on regular 245/60/14 radials (Nice stock blue interior,I REFUSE to cage this car, so gotta do something to keep it interesting).

Some of the things I have decided on (alot of this is based on my experiences running low 10s on 9" sticky dots with a totally different combo) are building a smaller engine (hence the 327) and biasing the bulk of the curve higher, while softening the bottom of the curve by running a wider lda with more static compression, running a single plane, somewhat larger headers, ect. The car is going to have to make most of its et down track.

Some other food for thought, radials "cup" when you air them down, think for a while, & you can figure out how to compensate for this.

I am using 14s for the taller sidewall relative to the overall height of the tire. Hopefully, this in conjunction with the lower tire pressure, will absorb a little more of the initial hit, & help get the car rolling without blowing the tires off right away.

The tires will tend to work better as they get worn out, as when they are full tread depth, tread squirm is going to be an issue.

The front end is gonna need to be late sixties, Jr stocker type loose, REALLY loose, as the radials have poor recovery, once they start to spin, they wont stop, so the front end will have to pop up RIGHT NOW. I wont go into all the details of reaming the bushings, removing the sway bar ect, this is obvious.

I havent tried this yet, and its mostly just theory at this point, but I think in this PARTICULAR application, slapper bars might actually be better than a Cal-Track type bar, again because they tend to lift the nose of the car a little quicker. I would run a relatively high pinion angle, two way adjustable shocks, soft rebound setting.

Getting the car to 50/50 or better is something I ALWAYS focus on regardless of the tires. Just some of the things I have thought out for my own car, havent tested this yet, so take it for what its worth.

I'd like to see more on this thread, anyone out there going this fast on a regular, real world, street radial, not DOTs?

[falcongeorge]

I have been clamping leafsprings since my first nova in 1987 a..1972 350 buick powered nova ..

Not just as simple as clamping what is there from the factory..

If i can i move the rearend 2 inches closer to the front of the car..if i cant get 2" then i leave it where she sits.

Next i remove all leafs but the main....
Then i usually hit my pile of ford truck leafs..I find a long one and cut the end off so there is no taper left.
Position that leaf under the main leaf and have it so it runs within 1" of the front spring eye....
Usually this spring needs cut so as to have the back end of the spring is about 8" from the rear spring eye.

Then run number 3 leaf the same way in the front and about 1foot 8" from the rear spring eye....

Yes you may need to redrill the hole in the springs

That setup will work for the driver side and 1 more leaf can be added for the passenger side...
Then add the clamps..I use 1/4" or thicker plate and 1/2" bolts or some old head bolts.

On a harley truck i used 2 clamps about 6" apart
He never had any more wheel hop or other traction problems.

.On heavier vehicles you can add more leaf length to the rear portion and lighter ones may need much less..

I tend to add too much length at the rear then cut length off as needed to make the car smoother on trips to the fishing hole , or parts store
I use a 4.5" angle grinder with a cut off wheel and do it on the vehicle ,just seperate the springs with a pry bar

When it is all done right the car will not squat on launch,,but you will gain a bunch of tire clearance instead when you launch...

On one of my novas i ran air shocks on the rear with seperate air lines so i could preload the chassis ....and jack it up when hauling my boat or trailer to the lake....

The nova ran 1.8 sixty foot time on it's best day with uniroyal tiger paws

And a friends nova cuts 1.6's all day with 275-60-15 with mickey thompson drag radials at 32 psi..an 11.90 car...the converter stalls around 2200-2300 and it is a 3000 B&M

sorry i like clamped leafs

Nothing wrong with this idea, basically you are doing the same thing as Mopar did with their super stock springs. Taking all the clamps off the back half of the spring, and running longer shackles with also promote more body/tire separation.

[jeff swisher]

I always was able to hook on the street..wheelies were never a problem
If you like wheelies that is..

BUT the race track is different,,,damn thing is prepped for slicks and their compounds...

the more stuff they spray on it the worse a stock type radial hooks
And then all the people in front of you leaving all them little rubber dingleberries.....
It is like launching on marbles....1.8 is the best i ever could do on street tires at the track...and most of the time i did better with a tall skinney tire

like a 235-75-15.....it boils down to pounds per square inch
I like to get a bigger footprint with a taller tire....

you guys have fun and try all the tires you got ,,you will never know