10-4 on the spirit AX. I'm thinking the truck will grow up before I do 😀. Your no.2 point sums it up for me...thanks.

 

From an old-school point of view, i like the appearance of traction bars. They wont hurt; they would probably help. I say: put 'em on.,...jack

 

The leaf springs on the rear of an Effie are short and stiff enough If you don't take out too many leafs that they are too soft, are not likely to exhibit much wrap up except with big sticky tires. The tires and low weight in the a$$ end along with frame flex are the limiting factor. DT, exactly, today's drag racing tech has made rear leaf suspensions dinosaurs. Trying to improve them is like putting makeup on a 90 year old woman to take her to your senior prom
Daddy Dave did crash at a strip on a no prep day, Chief and Chucky were racing each other on the street while filming a show segment. These were dedicated fully prepped pro race cars driven by very experienced drivers on specially selected smooth and cleaned roads. Doing burnouts on a local road full of bumps, patches, oil and gravel is an accident waiting to happen. I will admit doing a fair amount of street racing in my teen years, and had I saved them I'd have a large collection of broken tranny gears, ring and pinions, engine blocks, etc to prove it. Yes, today's engines, trannys are much more powerful making such activities much more likely an accident waiting to happen, and result in a much more serious aftermath.

 

I think that depends on what you consider a drag car vs street car. Plenty of first gen camaros with monoleaf springs and a set of caltracs running single digit runs. No need for ladder bars and full floaters, or 4 bars unless you are truly a drag only car. A 10 second car to me is a rocket, and it can be done with leafs.

I am about to design a traction bar for my 47 cadillac similar to what was used on 67 camaros to stop axle windup. The caddy is heavy and plants the tires easily, then the springs wrap up enough for the rear axle to rotate up and the driveshaft will hit the X in the center of the frame (factory 2" wide leaf springs and not made for racing). No room for caltracs or a "traditional" lakewood style traction bar because the car is too low, so I will make one that is mounted to the axle inboard of the spring mount and ties the the frame.

 

Have you considered a pinion snubber like the Chrysler guys used to use? great for low clearance apps. The original style traction bars, a solid bar like are used in 4 bars today with pivot on spring mount and on frame at front create bind when used on street. Seen a lot of broken bars (including several of my own before switching to slapper style).

 

I have, but I need immediate reaction to the rear moving and I dont want to limit the suspension upward travel. Going to use basically a shortened panhard bar running from the rear axle housing forward to the frame. Will be mounted to the rear of the axle centerline, so when the axle rotates it will push the bar forward into the frame. Will be using bushings instead of heim joints and it should move up and down with the suspension without binding. Used panhards are easy to find, so will be a low buck deal, just have to make up the brackets.

 

Sorry but I don't understand what the panhard bar well do for this discussion. It's not going to help control axle wrap, but designed to controls side by side movement of a rear end.

 

Not using the panhard bar as a panhard bar, it will be running front to back from the axle to the frame. Will shorten it as needed to make a traction bar.

 

thanks drptop70ss, I thought I was going senile...