Question about pinion snubbers

[shadango]

So a year or two ago before I had raised my rear end using add a leafs, one issue I had was bottoming out....or what I thought was bottoming out.   Since the lift, no issues. 

I did notice that the stock pinion snubber was now a good 6" away from the reinforced area on the undercarriage.  But didnt think much of it.

In the Mopar Muscle online article here   http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/drivetrain/mopp_1103_rebuilding_an_8_3_4/chrysler_sure_grip_differential.html   I saw that Dave Young from Randy's Ring & Pinion highly recommends running a pinion snubber as "an integral part of the mopar rear suspension"   and that it be set "3/2" to 1" away from the contact point.

So I picked up an adjustable snubber from a member here and installed it with a 1" space.

Thing is, while I can actually feel a difference on hard takeoffs, on bad roads where there a big dips or jolts it smacks the undercarriage hard and sounds like someone is taking a hammer to my underside.

Do I have it adjusted too close or perhaps too far?  Or are these subbers just not meant for the streets?

The stocker snubber hit  too, though, when the rear was sagging...so not sure what to think.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[ChallengerHK]

The stock snubber is meant to be more of a bump stop to prevent a metal-to-metal impact when you've got a load or you hit a big bump. The "race" snubbers are meant to help control weight transfer during a hard launch. You can run a race snubber on the street, but if it's adjusted properly, you will experience bottoming against the snubber more frequently.

[Chryco Psycho]

the race snubbers work as you can feel but on the street they are brutal we actually ran one long enough the pounding loosened the bolts & it later fell off on the highway at 70 MPH !! 
 the better solution for street  is to use a short square top U bolt & clamp the front spring section as tight as possible  .

[dutch]

the better solution for street  is to use a short square top U bolt & clamp the front spring section as tight as possible  .

Neil , could you visualize that for me please 

[Chryco Psycho]

A local spring shop used to make the U bolts for me approx 3" deep , 2.5" wide with a square top & a flat plate under the spring , crank the bolts tight so the leaf cannot move / slide between each leaf , it stiffens the front section of the spring so it will not distort with load

[dutch]

thanks,
would this do the trick with a 450hp 440 and 4.10 dana, or would you advice a snubber?  No strip but occasional Porsche / Beemer killing... 

[Chryco Psycho]

Everything helps !! using a snubber works great but as I said it is harsh on the street .
It tends to beat up the floor , the only thing I have found that will get you the traction needed  is ladderbars , a good big block will fry the tires no matter what , but given a chance to hook up everyhting helps , good sticky drag radials help too , the Nitto drag radials are very good

[Road_Runner]

I've run an adjustable pinion snubber for a long time on the Roadrunner and I guess I never thought to always run it adjusted up (within 1"), and kept the gap much larger unless I was fixing to head out to the track, looking for trouble on Friday or Saturday nights, etc.  I use a pin with an easy to pull out locking pin (like you see on slide in hitch to hold everything together) and keep it down and out of the way normally.  I know some use bolts & lock nuts, but I'm pretty sure my snubber came with the adjustable pin when it was new.

Later, Jim

[HP2]

Snubbers only work if your leaf springs are soft enough to allow the axle to wrap under accelleration. Once the wrapping motion begins, the snubber contacts the undercarriage, stopping wheel travel, then leveraging the torque against the weight of the body to plant the tires. Additional leaves added to the spring pack, clamping the front section of the spring pack, or switching to super stock springs changes the situation enough that snubbers may become ineffective. The three above additions can change spring wrap to spring lift, which creates body seperation which will move the snubber away from the floor, negating its ability to do its job as the springs are now working as intended.

If your snubber is banging the floor during normal driving, then you may want to adjust it back until it stops hitting on all but the most severe bumps or launches. If you go to the track where traction is abundant and the surface is smooth, then adjust it back up to within an inch.

[GranCuda1970]

I have the factory one installed on my rearend but I have the summit brand in a box in case I ever go crazy with the build and drag race her at the track.


http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DCC-3690182/

[shadango]

Snubbers only work if your leaf springs are soft enough to allow the axle to wrap under accelleration. <snip>

If your snubber is banging the floor during normal driving, then you may want to adjust it back until it stops hitting on all but the most severe bumps or launches. If you go to the track where traction is abundant and the surface is smooth, then adjust it back up to within an inch.

See, this is kind of what i cant figure out....the stock axles/springs came with one stock right? And it is a non adjustable one.  And the stock springs are much "softer" than SS or what I have (I would guess). 

On my car as I got it, the stock one was very close to the floor...about the same as what I have the adjustable one adjusted to......and with my add a leafs, the springs should be stiffer....they certainly FEEL stiffer.....

Do folks with the stock non adjustable one have the same banging issues?  Why is it an issue with just the adjustable one?

Grancuda 1970, do you ever hear it banging?

[ChallengerHK]

Back when my car was being driven regularly and hard, I think I bottomed out against my stock snubber maybe 4 times. This included several spirited drives over an S curve that dropped about 15 feet and ended with a severe dip.

[GranCuda1970]

Grancuda 1970, do you ever hear it banging?

  I did hear a banging back there and thought it was shoddy metal work from when the car was hit in the 80's but it ended up being a loose shock that was rattling ,(My Bro found while we were dissasembling). The car also had a bit of vibration when the car hit 60 mph I was pretty sure it was the 904 transmission. Hopefully with the 4-speed and the rebuilt rear she will run better. I am still up in the air about the engine. Anything could happen there!

[shadango]

Well, I did some driving....spirited driving...this evening.   Only hit once.
Its just when the road takes a sharp dip.

Maybe I can live with that.

The real test will be at highway speeds I think.

[HP2]

The stock height unit was not as close to the floor as the adjustable units. On top of that, it was basically a plate, with a progressive rate, rubber snubber on it. So even if it did contact the floor, you may not have noticed it. The MP units are a steel tower with adjustment holes and a solid rubber bumper. You can never adjust these as low as the originals and the rubber bumper has very little give compared to the stock snubber.