How to fix your Cal Trac's

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dusterdragracer

dusterdragracer

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This is how you fix your Cal Trac's. Get ride of them, and get a chassis that works.In my case, a 4 link.
Finally, a friend who is running them on a Ford, was told by Calvert " We feel they work best on footbrake cars Not that they won't work on Transbrake cars"
Wish they would have told me that before I put them on the Valiant
These numbers and shots were on a 62 degree ambient temp. cold track
 

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I'm confused. is that your 60' time?

there is a dart with stock front segment springs and caltracs that goes 1.1X to the 60'

Don't take this as insulting, I like your car but I think I missed the point of the thread. Even my scrap went 1.42 on SS springs with a small block on pump gas.
 
Before you all get your panties in a wad no, I don't hate Cal Tracs, I just don't like them, think they are a waste of time and money on A bodies, when a good ladder bar car will do better.This car proves my point.So I am ecstatic about it, after all the wasted time and frustration I went through.
My personal opinion (and many others) they are not for t-brake cars.And now Calvert is saying that, but didn't before. You may get yours to work, that is awesome.
Second, yes, this is my 60' times, 62 degree track spinning a little at the hit (hence the crappy RT's). This is at a NHRA altitude adjusted track.
That is a 9:30 run at sea level, so keep this in mind. My valiant ran mid 11:20's at Spokane, ran 10:80's at Seattle.No adjustments. My other Duster ran 11:10 at Spokane, ran 10:70's at Seattle.
Our track is 3 1/2-4 numbers slower.Plus several MPH.
Forget the 60's,YOU missed the point, did you look close to the consistent E.T's? That was the point.It does this every run.
I didn't buy the car to go faster, I bought it to be competitive and more consistent.MPH is just a gift, and I don't care about the 60's, as long as they repeat.
I took the short cut, saved more frustration and time loosing races, now I have something that works.
2 races in, gone 3 rounds each race, lost on my own fault due to new car blues. Not the car,the driver.

NHRA adjusted index's for Spokane:

S/ST 11:10
S/G 10:10
S/C 9:10
 

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Okay, just wanted to make sure I missed the point, I had thought the 60' was the best place to showcase the performance of the chassis. Thanks.
 
bOb shingler said:
how long did it take you to get the hotrod that consistent?
Click to expand...

I bought it this way.
It is an ex Top Sportsman car from Florida, which had a blown Hemi in. It ran 6's @ 200+. The chassis is 6.0 spec. but mild steel, so it became out dated with the new NHRA rules. It is 7.5 cert.now.Car was sold as a roller. It had a low deck for a while, the guy I bought it from built the RB that's in it now. Started winning from the get go.
With that said,I don't know how much time was spent on it.But my purple Duster was built, worked right out of the box with a couple of shock adjustments. It was a back 1/2 ladder bar car.Won ton's with it right from the 1st race.
My buddy has a tube chassis 4 link Cuda (burgundy one in pic), it works great, won ton's of championships with just few minor adjustments.
The black cuda is my other friend. It is also a tube chassis car, he has won a gazzilion races,he races all over, never makes chassis adjustments.
My Tube chassis Daytona (see pic) was the same. It was set up for a blown Bucky's Austin Hemi. I put my 600 HP RB in it. Then after one race, one night on the jack stands,one adjustment. I won my 1st race, then it went on and won multiply championships.
I might add, all four cars, had about 3 hours on the dyno, and we never looked back.But not all will agree with that program either.
With this car, we spent 3 hours on the dyno, gained 25 RWHP, just playing with the timing and jets.
It shouldn't be that hard to make a simple bracket car work.Grunt motor, in a 1000+ H.P. chassis.Not the other way around.
 

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dusterdragracer said:
LOL..........Nice 60's on the Cal Trac's, and I had the same 60's in my Valiant with SS springs. SS springs work good, even with a transbrake from my experience.
Click to expand...

He runs SS springs....re-read
 
Well....Caltracs made my car more consistent. Ignore the 1/4 mile times because I was in competition and messing with people's minds, lol. The 1/8 mile times I was still under full throttle....and very consistent.

They do work.

For what it's worth, my friends Demon runs the same ET as me, but has 1.39 60' times.... On Caltracs. Needless to say he has spent more time on his 60' than I have :).
 

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Mine runs dead on too with stock springs and home made calrack bars but I am footbraking, 1.33 60 ft. I think he is complaining about them with his trans brake.I am running Drag Radials.
 

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Well I am not 60'ing near as fast as the OP, but I have been 1.42 60' off the brake on drag radials with my caltracs FWIW.

It's funny that ladder bars are being argued as the better choice here- I just put on a small tire stock suspension race and a buddy with a nova that has ladder bars tried to argue me that caltracs are just as good and therefore I should let his ladder bar nova in to a stock suspension race lol
 
mshred said:
He runs SS springs....re-read
Click to expand...


Here is a copy of the pint, I read it exactly correct thank you:




I'm confused. is that your 60' time?

there is a dart with stock front segment springs and caltracs that goes 1.1X to the 60'

Don't take this as insulting, I like your car but I think I missed the point of the thread. Even my scrap went 1.42 on SS springs with a small block on pump gas.
 
flyfish said:
Well....Caltracs made my car more consistent. Ignore the 1/4 mile times because I was in competition and messing with people's minds, lol. The 1/8 mile times I was still under full throttle....and very consistent.

They do work.

For what it's worth, my friends Demon runs the same ET as me, but has 1.39 60' times.... On Caltracs. Needless to say he has spent more time on his 60' than I have :).
Click to expand...


Funny, not to attack you, but I thought I remembered you had issues with yours,when I had my Valiant.So I had to go back and look:


http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970021858&postcount=37


You do have your car working great,I am glad you got it sorted out. I also admire you are running E85 now.Your a good racer too.


All they did to my wifes 11:90 360 dart, with stock springs, comp. engineering adj. shocks and snubber, is make the car launch even, no more twist or wheelies (which kind of took the fun out of the car).Didn't help 60's or anything else.
My Valiants 60's with SS springs, a snubber, and Comp. engineering adjustable shocks, worked better, and more consistent then the Cal Trac's complete system with my transbrake.After many phone calls to the Calvert techs, and hours of testing and adjusting. Even a 30 min. call with Mr. Calvert (whom was very nice)
Two other Mopar guys at my track were trying different things at the same time, we were sharing info.The only way we got them to kinda/sorta work, was to set the cars up to drive out of the lights. At that point the 60's went out the door, so did the reaction times. But then the cars were some what competitive.If you can call guessing what your dial will be competitive!
Now, they have stepped up and are saying, "not really for transbrakes". I asked that question then,that was not the story I got.
As I said, some people make them work, that is great,I admire that, they are just not for me. And I don't feel it should take a year to get them to kinda/sorta of work. A simple bolt on product (read simple expensive bolt on product),on a basic bracket car shouldn't be that hard to dial in.........Enough said
 
dusterdragracer said:
Here is a copy of the pint, I read it exactly correct thank you:




I'm confused. is that your 60' time?

there is a dart with stock front segment springs and caltracs that goes 1.1X to the 60'

Don't take this as insulting, I like your car but I think I missed the point of the thread. Even my scrap went 1.42 on SS springs with a small block on pump gas.
Click to expand...

No I don't have caltracs, the dart I mentioned in the first part is someone else's car(a dart). Later I mentioned mine(a duster). That's why it's spaced like it is. Mshred is correct.
 
dusterdragracer said:
Funny, not to attack you, but I thought I remembered you had issues with yours,when I had my Valiant.So I had to go back and look:


http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970021858&postcount=37


You do have your car working great,I am glad you got it sorted out. I also admire you are running E85 now.Your a good racer too.


All they did to my wifes 11:90 360 dart, with stock springs, comp. engineering adj. shocks and snubber, is make the car launch even, no more twist or wheelies (which kind of took the fun out of the car).Didn't help 60's or anything else.
My Valiants 60's with SS springs, a snubber, and Comp. engineering adjustable shocks, worked better, and more consistent then the Cal Trac's complete system with my transbrake.After many phone calls to the Calvert techs, and hours of testing and adjusting. Even a 30 min. call with Mr. Calvert (whom was very nice)
Two other Mopar guys at my track were trying different things at the same time, we were sharing info.The only way we got them to kinda/sorta work, was to set the cars up to drive out of the lights. At that point the 60's went out the door, so did the reaction times. But then the cars were some what competitive.If you can call guessing what your dial will be competitive!
Now, they have stepped up and are saying, "not really for transbrakes". I asked that question then,that was not the story I got.
As I said, some people make them work, that is great,I admire that, they are just not for me. And I don't feel it should take a year to get them to kinda/sorta of work. A simple bolt on product (read simple expensive bolt on product),on a basic bracket car shouldn't be that hard to dial in.........Enough said
Click to expand...


No worries Dusterdragracer, Yes you are correct, I did have problems with mine for quite a while. I don't remember if I posted this, but I found out later that I was having transmission issues at the same time while trying to tune the Caltracs, but I didn't realize it until after my transmission went out completely. I was sooo focused on getting the Caltracs dialed in that the other issues that came up simultaneously were undetected. After replacing the trans it works well now. In the spring I was 1.45-1.46 60' times, now in the muggy heat it is running 1.49-1.50 60'. Also, I'm a footbraker, so I really can't answer the "do they work with transbrake" question.

I like your new car, that thing looks like it would hook up in a car wash :D. With good consistency comes a lot of round wins, good luck, and have fun...that's what its all about. :thumleft:
 
dusterdragracer said:
Here is a copy of the pint, I read it exactly correct thank you:




I'm confused. is that your 60' time?

there is a dart with stock front segment springs and caltracs that goes 1.1X to the 60'

Don't take this as insulting, I like your car but I think I missed the point of the thread. Even my scrap went 1.42 on SS springs with a small block on pump gas.
Click to expand...

I thought you were referring to his car in your post, sorry lol

SpareParts said:
No I don't have caltracs, the dart I mentioned in the first part is someone else's car(a dart). Later I mentioned mine(a duster). That's why it's spaced like it is. Mshred is correct.
Click to expand...

That is what I meant.


And the way I see it- because a couple of people could not get the caltracs to work does not mean they DONT work. Ron Rhodes I am almost certain is leaving off a brake in his small tire, nitrous camaro that if I am not mistaken cuts 1.1X 60' times. They can be made to work, but then again, not everything will always work in every car?
 
mshred said:
I thought you were referring to his car in your post, sorry lol



That is what I meant, sorry.


And the way I see it- because a couple of people could not get the caltracs to work does not mean they DONT work. Ron Rhodes I am almost certain is leaving off a brake in his small tire, nitrous camaro that if I am not mistaken cuts 1.1X 60' times. They can be made to work, but then again, not everything will always work in every car?
Click to expand...

No problem Mshred, SpareParts got it now too. Maybe I wasn't clear in my response.I am old!

But there are way more then just a couple of people that didn't get them to work well, period. I got ton's of PM's with similar frustration from my past post's, I have talked with ton's of racers. Even Toby Lang gave me some negative input."They hit the tires way too hard,harder then a ladder bar car".

I am not saying they won't work on other brand cars.A lot of Camaro's work great, so do some Nova's. Calvert has a bunch of Fords that work awesome.I am talking about A bodies with their short front half of the leaf springs.
In defense of CalTracs, here is a really well working Tbrake Ford at our track. It works pretty good, but with his conversion to the complete Cal Trac system,the car is now leaving even,where as it use to twist. But no increase in 60's.He didn't gain anything in consistency either.This is a 11:20's car (at our altitude)
Look closely at the picture. He has long leaf springs. They are 31" in the front 1/2, close to what a ladder bar is at 32"-36" which puts the instant center closer to a ladder bar car. He also has lots of weight toward the rear of the car, which keeps it from purposing.But this is not a A body either.

So with all that said,why not post like FlyFish and others post. Stuff that tells how he got his Caltracs to work.But lets stick to A bodies.
I told you how I fixed mine, I got a different car that I am ecstatic about.It has a chassis that I won't need to spend a year sorting out.A chassis that is similar to what I have built and ran in the past, and has always worked for me.
That was my point, My post really started out to be a humorous, so I am sorry if I offended those that are in-love with their CalTracs.I am just not.And I don't plan to look back. Just want to save some people a bunch of grief from my personal experience.
 

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You aren't offending me, and you are right about the shorter front spring segment of the a-bodies...I do know for sure that some guys are changing over to the camaro front spring segment, although that can involve quite a bit of work.

Do I like my caltracs? sure...do they work for everyone? nope....there is a thread over on yellowbullet in the stock suspension section titled "caltrac setup" that is stickied. There is some really good info in there- look for a fella named Jeff C, he knows his chit when setting these things up.
 
Good, glad I didn't offend you, that was not my intention.
Yes, I am very aware that people change the springs, I was going to bring that up. You can also help them with Afco 2 way adjustable shocks. But by the time you go through all this,and spend the cash for expensive shocks to get them to work, a ladder bar system to me, is a simpler route.On my Valiant, I actually considered floaters and ladder bars, but he tire clearance was super tight, I was afraid I would get more rub issue going that route. I also didn't want to cut the car up.
I did do tons of research when I had them. I also read all the info on yellowbullet.
I guess I am lazy....LOL....I just expected more out of them, right out of the box, based on what I understood about them at the time.But to be honest, I didn't want to test, and mess with them for a year,which some people enjoy doing, including some of my friends. I just wanted to race and be consistent.
Here is the Valiant, it looked good like it was working, but the numbers didn't support the picture.
 

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We just did a B body front segment for my brother's dart and have room for camaro springs later, we already had the B body springs so we'll use them. It really wasn't a bad job if you are already doing a relocation kit.
 
My buddy won S/Pro this weekend in a B body with Cal Trac, at our track. They got them to work by putting 200 lbs in the trunk, and leaving like I did at 3600 (Tbrake in').60's were consistent, car ran mid 11's at out altitude adjusted track.
Here is a pic of a national event winning Duster SB in Bremerton this weekend.It was on the cover of National Dragster a month or so ago.

By the way, my ol' Valiant on Cal Trac's went 9 rounds at Virgina Motorsports park this weekend, broke out by 2 thou. They split the money 3 ways before the semi's between 3 cars. $700.00 bucks ea.

So see, I am not narrow minded.Just not for me! I guess I am lazy...LOL
 

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