Wheelie bar question

[68Bird]

I searched thru all the previous questions on wheelie bars and didn't necessarily find what I was looking for.

Do most people have the left wheel (driver side) set higher than the right or vice versa? I've always ran the wheels up high (about 8-1/2" bottom of wheel to ground) with the old ~800hp motor and car always went straight. Now with over a 1000hp when it hooks hard its doing a massive wheelie and goes slightly left.

http://media.putfile.com/ProCharged-68-Firebird

So I set them down about 3" and now the car is going left hard at about 25' out. My thinking -was- that the car is rolling to the right side and the right wheel is causing the car to go left. But maybe what is really happening is the left is hitting harder and unloading the left tire causing it to drive left due to more load on the right tire. Does this sound right? The wheels are currently about 5/8" LOWER on the left side than the right side (the way it's always been).

Maybe someone car please explain how to steer a car on the wheelie bars.

Thanks,
Craig

[DOTracer]

I just put a set of bars on mine and only have one pass which wasn't pretty.

Anyway, the way it was explained to me. If the car turns one direction, you want to lower the wheelie bar wheel on the opposite side. That puts more load on the opposite side rear tire which will in turn make that tire carry more weight and turn back the opposite direction.

In your case if the car is going left on launch, you would want the right wheel lower which puts more weight on the left rear tire which will cause that tire to drive a bit more and steer back to the right.

As it is now, you have more weight (upon launch) on the right rear tire which is driving the car to the left.

At least this is how it was explained to me.

I'd like some experienced guys to comment further.

[dsmith]

I think you have more going on than just needing to adjust your wheelie bars. I am definatly not a chasis guy by any means but it sounds to me like you need to do some tuning on the reast of your chasis along with the wheelie bars. I would think that since you now have 200 more hp that you need to preload your rear suspension a bit and possibly play with limiting the front end travel to keep the front from coming up too quickly. It will help if you list a little more info about your combo and hopefully someone with a little more knowledge on this will have some input to help you....Doug Smith

[68Bird]

I think you have more going on than just needing to adjust your wheelie bars. I am definatly not a chasis guy by any means but it sounds to me like you need to do some tuning on the reast of your chasis along with the wheelie bars. I would think that since you now have 200 more hp that you need to preload your rear suspension a bit and possibly play with limiting the front end travel to keep the front from coming up too quickly. It will help if you list a little more info about your combo and hopefully someone with a little more knowledge on this will have some input to help you....Doug Smith


No doubt I have some work to do on the rest of the chassis. But basically without getting into all that detail right away, what I know is the car was going mostly straight and just doing too much of a wheelie. So I tightened up the front shocks several clicks and lowered the wheelie bars 3" equally and now the car goes pretty hard left. I do know the left wheel is about 5/8" lower like I said. I have front travel limiters that limit the control arm drop about 1/2 way, haven't messed with those too much yet. I also had 1/2" of preload in the right rear spring and removed that between runs and didn't seem to make any difference on how hard the car went left.

Thanks,
Craig

[gilsbachracecraft]

Like DOT said typically the right wheelie bar wheel will want to be lower than left.Every car/power level will not be the same but 1/2" of stagger is common to get a car to leave straight.Use wheelie bar chaulk on the wheels and note the pattern on the wheels after a run.If the pattern on one wheel is wider than the other it is carrying more load and needs to be raised or the opposite side lowered.

[68Bird]

Thank you......I'll try that.

Craig

[shaky II]

yup i would say forsure its your chassis not the bars put some preload in it and dont make drastic changes and also make sure your in the groove sounds stupid but if your to one side it will pull hard one way

[68Bird]

I'm going to try to get the car on some scales this weekend also if possible and see what the corner weights look like.

Craig

[gilsbachracecraft]

Make wheelie bar changes and make a hit before messing around with preload.

[68Bird]

Thats the plan. I think thats where the problem is, or atleast a majority of it anyway.

Craig

[JeffMcKC]

Yeah, that preload first is a crash waiting to happen, what works great when your on the gas is terrible when your off it. With the springs, shocks and other changes that a guy has preload should be one of the last.

Good luck and seeya at the F-Body meet Craig, I saw you last year and should have said Hi I was 3 cars from you LOL Nice car!

[Pitbull]

Do you have front end limiters on the car?
If I let mine right out the car is stupid, I bring them in near all in and its alot tamer off the line.

[68Bird]

Hey Jeff....come say hi at the KCIR deal, maybe I can talk you into helping me get the suspension dialed in on this thing. I need all the help I can get thats for sure....

Pitbull.....yes, I do have limiters on it but they're not cranked up really tight. I have, just guessing, maybe 4" or 5" of drop on the front tires before it hits the limiters. I plan to start tightening them up, but need to get it launching straight first. I set the wheelie bars back up a little more and staggered the left side 1/2" higher than the right. It was about 5/8" lower than the right before, I'd bet that was my problem.

Craig