Drag racing front suspension.

[Boss/Cyclone]

As some of you may remember, when I pulled the 351C I found one of the front lower control arm mounts was ripped. I am now fixing that and totally rebuilding the front suspension. My car was very hard to control after launch when the car lifts the steering goes kind of crazy. So, now to my question. Do the open tracker drag racing control arms and spring mount really work to limit or eliminate this problem? Also since they are not cheap, are they worth the money. From the statements on their web site their stuff sounds like the cure to my problems, just wanted to see if anyone had feedback on their parts in general and especially specifically on the control arms. Thanks Larry

PS I have a ladder bar setup out back.

[CALIFORNIA CALIENTE]

Larry;I use stock a-arms,the uppers are my original 1965.What I did was put the roller spring perches on,use a shock with an"eye"on the bottom and have two tabs welded to the spring perch for a thru bolt for the shock,I did the "Shelby Drop"[lowered the upper a-arms 1"].I have the strut rods shortened by 1/2",by redrilling the a-arm mounting holes,which gives it more caster.I use limiting straps to limit the amount of droop and I use stock V-8 replacement front springs.My Comets front tires are almost verticle while in the air with no toe-in or other weird stuff going on.We did the same thing to a friends 9 second 64 Falcon.I got the shock idea off of the FordFE.com website years ago.It seems the Stock&Super Stock guys were snapping shocks off at the lower attachment point and by using a shock that can pivot with the a-arm movement also frees up the front end.I know a few guys that run the Total Control stuff but I don't know anything about Open Tracker. ROY.

[383MERC]

Hi Roy, I used the opentracker rollerized lower control arms and spring perches on my 63 drag car. What these parts do is free up the suspension. I don't think they will change the way any of the bump steer is going. I also installed Global West adjustable strut rods, which did two things. It again frees up the suspension, and it let me adjust the stagger in the fron tires for roll out at the line. I too had a real bad bumpsteer issue with my car. When i pulled the tires off the ground, the tires would tow out almost 2 1/2". Originally i put limiting chains on the upper control arms to stop this from happening, but the problem with this is i was not letting the front end do its thing and transfer the weight to the rear tires. I ended up putting granada style disc brake spindles on the car from CSRP which were custom made with early falcon/comet/mustang geometry. (Not stock Granada geometry) This helped eliminate the bump steer issues for me. I still have a little, but nothing like before. The first picture shows how bad the bump steer was before. The second one shows it now. (Not a great angle, sorry)

[Boss/Cyclone]

Larry;I use stock a-arms,the uppers are my original 1965.What I did was put the roller spring perches on,use a shock with an"eye"on the bottom and have two tabs welded to the spring perch for a thru bolt for the shock,I did the "Shelby Drop"[lowered the upper a-arms 1"].I have the strut rods shortened by 1/2",by redrilling the a-arm mounting holes,which gives it more caster.I use limiting straps to limit the amount of droop and I use stock V-8 replacement front springs.My Comets front tires are almost verticle while in the air with no toe-in or other weird stuff going on.We did the same thing to a friends 9 second 64 Falcon.I got the shock idea off of the FordFE.com website years ago.It seems the Stock&Super Stock guys were snapping shocks off at the lower attachment point and by using a shock that can pivot with the a-arm movement also frees up the front end.I know a few guys that run the Total Control stuff but I don't know anything about Open Tracker. ROY.

Roy, is the strut rod mounting location change only necessary if you do the Shelby Drop or does it help even with out it. Good idea on the shocks, which application/shock would I want to buy.

[Boss/Cyclone]

Hi Roy, I used the opentracker rollerized lower control arms and spring perches on my 63 drag car. What these parts do is free up the suspension. I don't think they will change the way any of the bump steer is going. I also installed Global West adjustable strut rods, which did two things. It again frees up the suspension, and it let me adjust the stagger in the fron tires for roll out at the line. I too had a real bad bumpsteer issue with my car. When i pulled the tires off the ground, the tires would tow out almost 2 1/2". Originally i put limiting chains on the upper control arms to stop this from happening, but the problem with this is i was not letting the front end do its thing and transfer the weight to the rear tires. I ended up putting granada style disc brake spindles on the car from CSRP which were custom made with early falcon/comet/mustang geometry. (Not stock Granada geometry) This helped eliminate the bump steer issues for me. I still have a little, but nothing like before. The first picture shows how bad the bump steer was before. The second one shows it now. (Not a great angle, sorry)

Thanks for our input, but I am Larry. So just to be clear, you consider the CSRP spindles and adjustable strut rods as the reason for your improvement? If that is the case is their any benefit to the rollerized control arms and spring perches. I just race for fun, the faster I get this thing to go the scarier to handle the car is. Basically, I want my car to leave and handle like yours without spending too much money. I also don't want to get into the wall so if I need to do it all I will. Larry

[383MERC]

Sorry Larry, (not Roy) The strut rods are a nice feature, but i don't think it's going to change your bump steer issue. The rollerized parts are nice to free up the front end and get better weight transfer though. I know on my car, the different geometry spindles are what helped me fix my problems. I had a mixture of parts on my car because it was originally a six cyl car. I changed to all v-8 steering including pitman arm, idler arm, center link, tie rods and then the disc brakes. I did put on stock granada spindles at first, and had the same problem. It was the special geometry spindles that did it for me. Hope this helps, Mark

[CALIFORNIA CALIENTE]

Boss;I did the strut rod mod before anything else.I never had a bump steer issue but wanted a bit more stability at 130mph!! I use a 90-10 shock for a 66-67 Chevelle which has an eye on the bottom and a stud on top.I used the shock and the roller spring perch to free up the front suspension.I did the 1" Shelby drop to get a little more room when I notched the shock towers.I can't post any photos right now[printer-scanner is down]or I would post a couple of photos of my Comet on launch.On most tracks after you get in fourth gear,you could drive with no hands,it is that stable at speed! ROY.

[Boss/Cyclone]

Thanks to both of you. I really appreciate your input. Hopefully with your suggestions my car will be alot more fun at the track. Last time I was at the track it was so squirly that my wife about was freak out. I guess that front lower problem I mentioned is probably part of the problem, but it never felt good even back when I first took it to the track in 1994.

[Boss/Cyclone]

While I am at it here is a pic of Roy's launch. Hope mine goes as straight as yours when it is done.

[CALIFORNIA CALIENTE]

Boss;thanks for posting that picture.You can see how straight my wheels are.Something you need to think about is the rear suspension.Is it straight?Does it load one side more than the other?Are the slicks exactly the same circumference.I find that running a higher air pressure helps too,I used to run 9-10 lbs.crept up to 12 and the car became more consistant and driveable.I've had them drop to 11 and the 60'stayed the same as 12,at 13' it will spin a bit.Every tire size and car is different,but I hope you can see where I'm going with this.I am fortunate to have a track[1/8 mile] fairly close that allows T&T on Thursday nights and prides itself on track prep! ROY.

[383MERC]

I also found with my 63 that with a little more rear tire pressure, it was more stable at the other end as well.

[JMolloyNH]

Hi,

I read, recently, that radial tires on the front end of vintage Fords can contribute to "un-happiness" in drag racing. Has anyone else experience with this? Are the fast and straight cars running radials or bias tires?

Regards, John

[CALIFORNIA CALIENTE]

I ran a radial for many years,no issues.I switched to a bias ply,drag race type front tire for the weight savings,they do not carry a DOT rating.The biggest issue with the Drag fronts is they are soft and wear quickly. ROY

[juddp39532]

I run regular 15" VW style radials on the front (strait axle) with out problems. Less than 11 lbs in the slicks and it gets scarry on the top end.

[Boss/Cyclone]

Hi,

I read, recently, that radial tires on the front end of vintage Fords can contribute to "un-happiness" in drag racing. Has anyone else experience with this? Are the fast and straight cars running radials or bias tires?

Regards, John

I went from biasply to radial and back. The radials with drag tires seemed worse, but neither is great.