Burning tires

[heminut]

I used Imperial shocks with my SS springs, they are 2" longer.

[the_engineers]

Any particular year?

[heminut]

It's been a while back, but I'm thinking it was '68. A good parts counter guy can look in their shock book (as opposed to the kids that can only tell you what the computer says) and tell you which ones will work. If you can't find a decent parts guy in your area, PM me and let me know and I'll run over to the Carquest where I used to work and look them up for you.

[HP2]

x2 on the Imperial shock. You also can use 1/2 ton truck shocks. A number of guys actually go for the adjustible Rancho 9000 as a budget alternative to fancy aluminum bodies adjustables.

[the_engineers]

I'm running KYB's right now, so I'd like something that somewhat matches...

[Cuda54]

A few problems I see here; if you indeed have SS springs, they lift the car on accelleration and create such a gap in body seperation that there is no way a snubber would be slamming in to the tunnel. If your using traction bars and a snubber, they are almost counter acting each other. Your spring may be new, but based on the above conditions, I'd almost bet they are an XHD set and not an SS set. Mixing these two up is a common mistake made by any number of builders.

Can you verify the spring part numbers or what the front hanger looks like? SS springs require a special, 2" longer hanger that has multiple mounting holes.

I'd also wonder about what shocsk are under it if you do indeed have SS springs. The SS springs lift the car a fair amount and the stock shocks will top out and not have the travel to allow the springs to properly hook and will cause them to unload when you hit the gas.

I still think tires may be an issue as well. While you have a 275, what brand? If it is a hard street tire like a BFG, then yeah, a 318 can spin those without too much trouble so a 440 will annilihate them. Are they pumped up to 35# or more? A move to a softer compound may be required if you want to hook on the street.

Which also brings up the point of track usage. Typically tracks are prepared much better than any intersection stop light, so hooking at the track tends to be less of an issue. Until you can get to the track and launch it in the groove, comparing it to street performance is apples and oranges.

ok here we go the pinion snubber was removed because it wanted to come threw the floor in a bad way  the pinion angle is at -4deg. the shocks are kyb and have 2" of travel left at full droop and about 1" at full stuff. The springs maybe xhd because they use a two hole hanger and there is no rear lift until the slappers hit.  the tires are "INVADERS" made by goodyear at about 18# they try to bite but get massive tire shutter @ 20# or higher no tire shutter but no traction eaither.lol

[HP2]

The two hole hanger is throwing me off a bit. That sounds like it could be an SS hanger, but an SS spring will lift without traction bars or a snubber. If the snubber was slamming the floor and the slappers are lifting the car, that tends to point to standard or XHD springs. At this point, the only sure way to know is to break out the tape measure and check from the axle locating bolt to the center of the spring eye. This measurement will confirm what the springs are, or if you can post up the summit part numbers of the leafs since you have the reciept.

KYBs are an okay shock, but their high pressure gas construction may not lend them to be a good strip launch shock. Sounds like they have adequate travel through and the system should work with them although it may not be optimal.

Invaders are a 380 UTQC rated tire. That means it is a fairly hard compound. Great for mileage, bad for traction. A good performance tire will be around 200 or under in this catagory. Race tires actually carry a rating of 0. Also, radials do not respond to air pressure changes the same as a bias ply tire does. As you noticed, once a radial looses traction, there is no regaining it until it stops spinning. They also break traction suddenly without the broadcasted warning of a bias ply. This is why your not seeing the improvement you were once familiar with when airing down. If your serious about hooking all the time, you may need to put the ET streets on. Otherwise accept that the street performance will suffer because of the current tire compound.

Also, you can try removing the furthest most leaf spring clamp of the rear segment of the springs. This should soften the hit some and allow the rear of the pack to flex a bit more which may give the tire time to hook. You can mix this up by alternatly adding clamps to the front segment to stiffen it up, like CP suggested. Mix and match here until things start to do what you want.

[Cuda54]

What I need to do is get it on a chassis dyno and see what is at the tires. What do you have in your car for springs and tires? I might just have to go with the 4 link and the ET streets.

[HP2]

What the engine is putting out is inmaterial to the lack of hook. It could be 300 hp or it could be 500 hp, either way, you can't hook.

I've always run leaf spring cars. I've run XHD,  straight up SS packs, or hybrid packs with a stock main leaf and the balance of an SS pack. I've used either MT ET slicks or BFG drag radials on the drag cars. I've never had a problem hooking at the track. On the street, I could smoke either type of those tires with ease. Never even tried running any of these cars with a hard compound street tire as there is no way they would ever hook up. If I could spin a dedicated race tire on the street, a true street tire with the high # UTQC code would simply go up in smoke.

[Cuda54]

Thanks for the input but I might as well just get the 4 link and put the ET streets or a drag radial on. Then I know the I can adjust it to where it will hookup.    I was looking for a cheaper way but just can not find one.    But I wish I could I just do not want to cut into the car if I did not have to. But I need to get it to hookup too.

[Cooter]

I'd try the sticky tires first..Unless you got some 900 C.I., blown alcohol Hemi in that thing, I can't see it not hooking with the proper set up on leaf springs....Either we aren't getting the whole story here, or you don't have the correct springs, with correct set up...We need some PICTURES of your current set up and them maybe we'd have a better insight into what went wrong...