Brock, Bill, et al.,
I also had the Dan Walters torque arm on my Tiger for awhile and have since
taken it off for reasons I think I posted here a few months back. While I
think it works well enough, I don't think it is the optimum solution for a
number of reasons. First, and fundamentally, everything the torque arm
does that's right during acceleration turns out to be just wrong during
braking; i.e., putting extra weight on the front axle. Also, Dan's arm may
interfere with the tunnel if you have a lowered ride height. At one time I
had weld-on traction bars and with a sticky set of tires was able to get
incredibly solid launch with them. Trouble is, I went to solid leaf spring
bushings and began having a very serious interference problem. This is
because the torque arm and the leaf spring are trying to move the axle
around different radii and something has to give. This problem is
minimized by having the two radii tangent at the normal ride height which
more-or-less means having the traction bar level with the ground, which
mine weren't. This conflict between the springs and the traction bars is
eliminated by the bolt-on style bars. I think this is what I personally
would like to try next and Larry Atkisson looks like he has done a very
nice job of reproducing this type of bar at a very reasonable price.
Neither the weld-on or bolt-on bars will transfer as much weight to the
back axle as the torque arm which is a disadvantage for drag racing.
However, under braking the car will also not nose down with traction bars,
which is good for track racing as well as general street use.
Doane Spencer had a setup on the #55 car that evidently worked very well,
and as far as I can determine was a half spring that went forward from the
axle. Does anyone know of a picture or better description of the setup on
the #55 car?
Bob
At 09:57 AM 11/13/97 -0800, you wrote:
>The torque arm made by Dan Walters works great
>On Wed, 12 Nov 1997 15:48:40 -0800 Bill Gegg <billgegg@ci.antioch.ca.us>
>writes:
>>My Tiger has a set of weld-on traction bars and the connection at the
>>=
>>frame is a single shear connection. This led me to wondering about =
>>traction bars that bolt on the springs. Has anyone had any experience
>>=
>>with the bolt on type and where can they be purchased? Or is there a
>>=
>>better way to reduce axle tramp?
>>
>>
>
>
Bob Palmer
UCSD, AMES Dept.
rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu
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