Wheel hop and traction bars

[59meteor]

I have only taken my 59 2 door sedan to the dragstrip a couple of times, but each time, I have had issues with wheelhop on hard launches, which has also occurred on "spirited" street getaways. I have all new stock replacement leaf springs, adjustable Calvert rear shocks, and a set of old style Lakewood traction bars, but it still hops. Since the older Fords had rear leaf springs that were only 2" wide, I imagine that isn`t helping.
I am considering trying something different, I looked into CalTracs, but they do not list any bars for a 57-59 Ford car, plus it looks like some major modifying of the front leaf spring brackets would be required. I am also considering a set of old school Traction Master bars, but they list a set of bolt on bars for 52-59 Ford cars, as well as a different part number for 57-59 Rancheros, which have a weld on front bracket. Just wondering if anybody has either tried the Traction Masters , or found something else to cure the problem. My car is 90% cruiser, but I would like to run it down the 1/4 mile at least one or 2 weekends per year. It has a mildly warmed over 428 Cobra Jet FE engine with a 4 speed Toploader, and my normal rearend is a 31 spline Nodular case 9" with a Detroit Locker and 3.50 gears. I also have an extra center section with a spool and 4.33 gears. I am not looking to set the world on fire, but I should be able to improve on the best of low 14s-high 13s that I have done so far. Car is 4000 pounds with me in it, and the best 60 foot time has been a mediocre 2.14 seconds, most are in the 2.2-2.3 second range,and with everything dialed in, I would like to see some high 12s, or at least low 13s out of it. But I have to be able to get it off the starting line better first. So hoping to hear some feedback on the Traction Masters before I cough up the money for a set.

[mustang6984]

My white '57 came to me after having been a dedicated 1/4 mile car with a 352 and 3-speed box. Topped with 390 heads and 406 springs and 4:11 rear end and a 4bbl...it also came with NINE(9) leafs per side. I eventually blew through 2 sets of the 4:11's and went to 3:80's cause I couldn't find any more 4:11's in the junk yards at the time ('71-'72).
I do not remember having wheel hop with the 9 leaf set up. No traction bars. STIFF ride though. This was 50+ years ago...so memory might not be perfect. Car was wrecked in March of '72 and is now in front of my shop...waiting for a rebirth. I have a motor and top-loader...

[Jeff Norwell]

Rory,
I have 2 sets of Traction Masters on both my 57's.... the 428 Custom and the 352 custom 300... I ordered them from the original company in Burbank, CA.
Unfortunately, I cannot report to you on the performance due to the fact I have not gotten the cars out on the road yet.
Mine are the bolt on units(You can order the weld on units, I preferred not to weld upon my frame.)
Installation was easy and the company was very nice to deal with, but I did wait a very long time due to the Covid situation at the time.
The cost was not expensive.. about $130.00 per set.... I did improve upon the end bracket the holds onto the front part of the spring close to the forward perch pocket.... TM provides a flat piece of stock,.... I made a bracket that actually sandwiches the spring and is a tighter ,stronger fit.
I also in addition to the TM's added a Pinion Snubber located on the 3rd member.....

Sorry this really doesn't answer your question... but I am very happy with the TM's so far.
Hopefully both cars will be back and somewhat finished to report back to you

Jeff

[Ecode70D]

For the past 40-50 years I have been stiffening up the rear leaf springs on my Fords by adding more leafs to the springs.  I alsways had plenty rear springs laying around. Sometimes I had to buy new center bolts for about .35 cents each. They are a bit more expensive now. That cured my wheel hop. 
  The 57 custom that I have now has the same setup and there is absolutely no wheel hop. 

[lalessi1]

I actually cured my Fairlane wheel hop problem in 1966 by adding two leafs(sp?). I took the springs to a local company. That said I replaced my Custom springs recently with 6 leaf springs and that didn't help. I bought a set of Traction Masters with the weld on front bracket and they are great! They seem to act like a sway bar reducing the under-steer feeling. My engine has 551 lb-ft of torque.

[gasman826]

I made a set of knock-off, adjustable Traction Masters.  The Raunch Wagon already had six leaf springs.  I added QA1 adjustable shocks with good weight transfer results.  The wagon was equipped with 505HP, 550FPT, modified AOD, 4.11 gears on Traction-Lok.  Great launches!  At first the rear of the car would kick sideways when the tires broke loose during hard second gear shifts.  A couple of twists on the adjustable bars cured the kick.  The bars also stiffened the rear ride and reduced roll in corners.

[John Palmer]

This is a very old common problem anytime you increase the tire traction, add horsepower and drop the rear gear ratio.  Like most problems you have several workable solutions available.  All of my experience drag racing the big heavy Fords was back in the day, 1965 to 71.  We ran several cars with our dealership group of guys.  A street 1956 Fairlane four door with a 406, top loader 4-speed, and a 9" with 4.11 gears and 8" Good Year Blue Streak wrinkle war tires.  A street/race 1956 Ranch Wagon with a 427, Cruse-O-Matic with a six-cylinder converter, 9" with 5.13 gears.  A street 1957 two door sedan with a 406, two four cross ram manifold, a top loader four speed, and 9" with 4.88 gears.  A record holding AHRA C and D/HR class 1963 Falcon Sprint with a 289, four 48 IDA Weber's, or a 780 CFM  center pivot Holley depending on what class we choose to run, aluminum cased T10, 9" with 5.67 gears. 

All of these cars had the same problem with wheel hop while launching.  We tried many different traction control ideas.  The worse was long old style traction bars that where very common back in the day.  We used homemade traction bars that basically replaced the spring plates.  They were attached with the U-Bolts to the rear end.  They slapped up against the front of the leaf spring.  We won a Street Eliminator AHRA national at Long Beach with our home made traction bars.  Make sure you add some gussets to the rear axle hosing welded-on spring purchases

The adjustable valve racing shocks available today are a good investment, but at $300 a pair they are not cheap.  I think you could do fine with just a heavy duty 50/50 valved shock on the rear. Spend your money/time on the springs and traction bars first.

If you look at some of the old large Fords that came originally with a 9", they had a heavy duty plate that bolted to the pinion assembly originally.  It supported a pinion snubber that bottomed out against the frame cross member under hard use and heavy loads.

We ran most of these cars with a open differential, no lockers, no spools.  We always had more spring leaves on the right rear spring.  Some of the cars ran with right rear shackle reversed to gain more tire load weight.  The reversed shackle might not be very sightly on a street driven car, but I would at least consider running more leaves (stiffer) on the right side spring.  A good spring shop can arch, or de-arch your spring to correct the ride height.

We also had some success with Air-Lift and Firestone air springs.  Not the air shocks which push against a very weak factory mounting crossmember.  You would need to do some fabrication to adapt the air springs.  Do not "T" the two air lines because you need to run more air pressure in the right side to correct the rear end torque wind up.  The air bag type air springs have a wide range from 5# to 100# of air so you can fine adjust your preload.

Remember, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

John

[rmk57]

  Cut it up and use the Caltracs and don't look back. I had the same issue with old slapper bars, wheel hop was so bad it would flipped over the spring hangers once in a while.

 I wouldnt call it a major modification. It's a little pie shaped piece out of the frame rail to allow the inner plate to move back and forth. You should also beef up the spring hanger itself with some 2" 3/16" flat-bar.

 I have some pictures saved of it, I'll dig them up later for you if your interested.

[FiveSevenLiter]

Rory,
Like Randy said, cut it up.
I cannot believe the difference it made on the White Witch.
I have lots more I can send.
Terry

[FiveSevenLiter]

Git ur done!
 

[rmk57]

  Thanks Terry!  Exactly the way I did mine and your pictures are better to boot.

 As Terry mentioned they really plant the tire.

[KULTULZ]

I made a set of knock-off, adjustable Traction Masters.

Does your design require notching the frame? If I had to do that on a nice street car I would have a heart attack. An actual track car is different.

[gasman826]

No frame notching on mine.  Nothing that can't be cut off.

[SkylinerRon]

How much air gap do you have at the rubber bumpers?

 Do you know if the front half of your springs are wrapping up? If not have someone watch your holeshot, there should be no spring wrap with slappers and enough shock control.

FYI I would weld reinforcements to the spring perches, when you finally get traction you will bend them.

Good luck,

Ron.

[KULTULZ]

No frame notching on mine.  Nothing that can't be cut off.

THANX for that. Did you fashion the shock plates also?