little help with FWD

[Jeff Lee]

I see no mention of stiff front shocks....I had Koni "sport" struts on my A/FS Daytona set at full stiff for racing and softer on the street. That and the aluminum flywheel stopped the CV joint problems I had.

[Tim Kish]

The "traction bar" setup you reference as seen on a Neon (likely SRT-4) ties the control arms to the core support to reduce control arm deflection under load. The Honda guys do the same thing but deflection of the a-arms and chassis on the mid-late 90's Civics were pretty bad. What they are trying to do is reduce control arm, control arm bushing and cross member deflection which results in negative changes in alignment as well as contributes to wheel hop if it unloads. Installing solid bushings / heim joints in place of the rubber bushings takes care of much of the deflection issues.

I've run a spool in my car since last spring. Yes its hard to manuever low speed, damn hard to push around corners but maneuvers fine on track.

[tgriffith]

thanks guys for all the input,,,,,going to try much less air pressure tomorrow....Also going to look at this cam thing...........

The more I think about it (gettin in trouble here--LOL)----the cam`s duration just may be creating alot of torque and certainly no downtrack HP------once you look at it,,,its very obvious why the numbers dont match.....and its been that way from day 1------I have to be carefull about the finish line,,,,, when Im running a car the same et, they can alway out MPH me by 4 or 5

Im going to try to make something to stablize the new a-arms and also going to change struts,,,,,the ones on the car are worn out....got to remember to think in reverse (LOL)

on the spool thing,,,my car now is suppose to have the limited slip,,,it isnt working very well and the car still has the power steering rack in it which already makes it a nightmare to drive,,,,,,need to find manual if they are available,,,,,,,if there still is a problem after the cam change,,,,I`ll spool it

I havent seen the 125 apart in sometime so I dont really remember what would be involved with making a spool BUT i do have a friend that owns a machine shop,,,,if it can be made,,,he can do it and he has a machine for re splinning axles

again,,,thanks for the help

[larry dowty]

i have 2 spools in stock for the 125 i had them made for my car and never got around to using them. i will make you a good deal dont need tham any more.

[tgriffith]

definitely,,,,email is tgriffith360@hotmail.com



also might add,,,,tryed 11lbs of air instead of that 18 to 20,,,,much BETTER...no spinning,,,at least not past the 4rth round (far as I got),,,,60`s were very consistent...made 6 runs and all 60`s were 1.99($)

Im afraid I might have been overthinking my problem but thanks to you guys,,,,I see clearly it has other issues---too small cam-------if I get a larger duration cam,,,,it might enjoy the 20 inch tall tires and with the spool, not likely to spin, These tires must have a stiffer sidewall than I was thinking,,,even with 11lbs, no sign of sidewall stress. I would be willing to bet you could run as little as 7lbs without then looking flat

[Owen S Quirion]

Tim, You have a PM

[Rob Lloyd]

Originally Posted by tgriffith

I think I have come up with a way to add a traction bar using the lower motor mount (dog bone) and using the motor roll to shove the front end down when it launches,,,

...

anyone know how much leaway Ihra/Nhra will tolerate with FWDers???

I've seen a similar setup on a (non-class car) turbo dodge. He said it was good for nearly 0.1 off his short times. Not sure how NHRA would view such a contraption. I mean, it's essentially the same as traction bars - which you can run on a RWD stocker...

[Toddwell]

Originally Posted by Rob Lloyd

I've seen a similar setup on a (non-class car) turbo dodge. He said it was good for nearly 0.1 off his short times. Not sure how NHRA would view such a contraption. I mean, it's essentially the same as traction bars - which you can run on a RWD stocker...

Rob, were you thinking of that swaybar/ dogbone setup?

Here's a couple pics...

Todd (vntodd)

[Rob Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Toddwell

Rob, were you thinking of that swaybar/ dogbone setup?

Here's a couple pics...

Todd (vntodd)

That's exactly the car I was thinking about...

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by tgriffith

Ive got a 89 cavalier that I just cant get to hook up consistently,,,,,60`s are only around 1.90.....as long as the track is great, so is the car.....soon as the track gets marginal, the car will spin.......any help would be appreciated

its a 173CI chevy,,,,24 tall slick,,9 wide,,,the rear is solid so there is little to no weight transfer

need some help if anyone has any ideas

thanks

tim

Tim,

I'm glad I saw this thread, because I race a Z24 Cavalier ('86) in NHRA's DF/S class (which is equal in index's to IHRA's EF/SA class), with (almost) the same engine yours has (mine came with cast iron heads and a lower hp rating). I agree with Steve & Mark about your not needing the spool with your automatic. However, I wonder (as Art did), what final drive do you have in your tranny. I run a nearly equal weighted car as Art's, and I have a 3.73 plannetary from a 4cyl J-car. That and an 8" converter from A1 (thanks Marv Ripes), that stahls to 3600 rpm, plus a set of Competition Engineering 3-way adjustable shocks, helped get my car to hook up great on good tracks even with the 20x8x14 MT slicks. Art, Steve, and Mark (amongst others on this thread), mentioned other aspects of your car that could be hindering your performance. I had a friend of mine help me ditch the pwr steering system (and the A/C as well). I gave up on the factory computer, and put an Accel Calmap in my car 13yrs ago, because I couldn't find any one who could burn performance chips that could give me the throttle response I got from a 350 V8 chip I tried from idle to 2400rpm (if someone could've burned me a chip that went to just 5600rpm's my car would've been a flyer, and I'd probably be running BF/S (NHRA's version of IHRA's BF/SA class off of the 14.95 index) still!!! For ignition success with your Chevy, I feel Performance Distributors makes a great (long lasting), coil that's high voltage and performes better for the dollar than the MSD unit I tried back in the 90's (sometimes you don't always get what you pay for). My tranny was converted to a non-lock-up to accomodate the converter, and my cam timing was retarded 3 degrees since the cam was so mild (.218 degrees duration). Although my car has the factory exhaust manifolds on it (headers for $1000 bucks...what happened to the Hooker header casting that created the headers that Linda Sherman used on her former Chevy Citation 173 V6 (now being enjoyed by the current car owner Randy Hyman)? Oh well, I have an X-pipe exhaust system that helps make up for the lack of the headers (somewhat), but if ever I can get a set of those on my car (w/o breaking my bank account), look out!!!

I'm surprised that 24x9" slicks fit in your wheel wells, because they don't in mine...thus the biggest tire size I can use would be the 22x8x15's, but I'd have to find some aluminum 15" wheels, and I can't afford them yet. I run my 20x8x14's on Cragar 14" wheels, at 20-22 psi. I'm also wondering if your car would grip better if you left the line just above idle (like I had to last weekend in Fontana, at the Jegs Pacific Sportsnationals), because I had tire spinning issues as well, but once I stopped stahling my converter, and did that, my 60ft's dropped by .13sec to 2.00-2.01 and a quarter-mile of 15.505 (which was -.395 from my 15.90 DF/S NHRA index), in crummy air of 3300ft @ a track that was 1100ft actual elevation (with a 5-8mph head wind)! I'd be scared to run as little of a tire pressure as you do with these smaller slicks, but if your engine tune, your tranny gearing, plus your rear suspension are more in harmony (if your cars back end drops when you take off, you need stiffer shocks to keep your car level...mine used to do that really bad, until I put the Competition Engineering shocks in it), then I think you'll pick up even more et., and have a better performing car...I wish you the best (from the west), with your Z from the east!!!