Cal tracs on the street?

[Erik Andersen]

Wondering if this combo is feasible or if anyone else has done this? And advice? First of all this is going to be a 95% street car. I bought 1.03" front torsion bars and front sway bar, hotchkis rear lowering springs with rear sway bar. Engine is going to be a 500hp stroker. 8-3/4 with 3:55 gears and a 727. Will this thing have traction issues? Would cal tracs help on the street?

 

[yellow rose]

I run Competition Slide a Links on my car and used Cal Tracs on a cousins Firebird.

Both work. I prefer the slide a link. The firebird is 99.99999% street. I hold out a minis use hope he will let me make some passes in it, but the cousin is a bit of a sissy.

Yes, I'd use them.

 

[dodgedifferent2]

I have heard so do not quote me.
But with caltracs there will be a lot of rattles from the setup.

This is the reason I went with ss springs and adjustable pinion snubber.

Still debate caltracs to this day

 

[Erik Andersen]

They are solid bolted aren't they?

 

[dodgedifferent2]

Yes but there is some slack between the pivots which rattle on the leaf spring front segment. This explains it somewhat.
Traction
Ironically I was just reading this tonight

 

[dodgedifferent2]

Also read people put heater hose over the pin to lessen the clanging noise

 

[famous bob]

Also read people put heater hose over the pin to lessen the clanging noise

I preloaded mine, "a little more on the pass. side," and it darned near stopped the noise. Its acceptable in a 505" stroker w/ approx. 700 h.p., and full 3 1/2" exhaust, dumped in front of the axle. no drone or racking , but real.

 

[roccodart440]

They work fine on the street and the instructions tell you how to (starting point) adjust the car for both types of use.

 

[Erik Andersen]

Thank you for the information guys. I might order a set now.

 

[jbc426]

Thank you for the information guys. I might order a set now.

I ran them on my 3750 lbs 1970 e-body. They work great on a really smooth road. Out in the real world, they are nothing short of brutal on ride quality no matter how I adjusted them. Same thing with SS springs and a pinion snubber adjusted to the Mopar Chassis manual settings.

I now run a pair of passenger side, 2800 lbs SS springs with properly adjusted slapper bars on both my '70 E=Body and my 3700 lbs A-Body convertible. Best ride quality and traction I ever had in over 4 decades of trying to figure this out.

 

[fishy68]

I'm with JBC on the ride. I had 340 HD replacement springs on my car and it rode good and my build is about the same as yours Erik (500 hp 408, 904, 3:55's) and it didn't hook up at all, even with Nitto drag radials. So I put Cal-tracs and springs on it. They didn't rattle but they sure ride like a freaking log wagon and the aluminum bushings squeak even though I lubed everything up real good with moly paste when I assembled it. I recently pulled the springs out and swapped out the aluminum bushings for polyurethane bushings and that took care of the squeak and make it ride a little better. I also installed Mickey Drag radials and now it hooks good. The Mickey's made a tremendous difference

 

[BrianT]

I'm also running a very similar set up and have no traction problems without Cal Tracs. Just stuff a great big pair of MT drag radials up in there!

 

[Erik Andersen]

Brian your springs moved in or a mini tub?

 

[qkcuda]

I'm with JBC on the ride. I had 340 HD replacement springs on my car and it rode good and my build is about the same as yours Erik (500 hp 408, 904, 3:55's) and it didn't hook up at all, even with Nitto drag radials. So I put Cal-tracs and springs on it. They didn't rattle but they sure ride like a freaking log wagon and the aluminum bushings squeak even though I lubed everything up real good with moly paste when I assembled it. I recently pulled the springs out and swapped out the aluminum bushings for polyurethane bushings and that took care of the squeak and make it ride a little better. I also installed Mickey Drag radials and now it hooks good. The Mickey's made a tremendous difference

That's good to hear. I had issues hooking on Nitto drag radials. I installed cal tracs and still had issues. I just bought a set of M/T drag radials, but haven't had a chance to run them yet, so I hope they work as well as yours did. As far as the ride is concerned I find it normal except for going over quick bumps when the through bolt contacts the springs. I use "a nickels worth" of air gap on the street.

 

[mopowers]

Do repeated bumps when the bolt contacts the spring result in any damage over time to the pivot plates or spring?

 

[qkcuda]

Been running mine for over a year and no discernable damage. I would think you hit the spring harder on launch than going over a bump.

 

[mopowers]

Been running mine for over a year and no discernable damage. I would think you hit the spring harder on launch than going over a bump.

I figured when they are raced, there's usually preload with no air gap vs driving on the street with an air gap.

When set up for the track, do you give them any preload? If so, how much?

 

[qkcuda]

I usually just leave them with the small gap. The car doesn't pull to either side, so no need to preload one side versus the other. I'll know more when I try the stickier tires. I posted these pics on the other cal tracs thread.

 

[BrianT]

Brian your springs moved in or a mini tub?

Both