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Caltracs on Factory leaf springs

17K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  black73  
#1 ·
Is anyone here running the Caltrac bars on some FACTORY leaf springs ?

have you tried this instead of the Mono leaf setup ?

Results ?

Did you remove any leafs from the stock set up ?
 
#3 ·
I ran them on factory leafs with the 2 helpers gone (1988 chevy s-10) and a 1/4" x the lenght of the front part od the leaf on the passenger side and clamped up the leafs and plate (passenger side) and the leafs together drivers side with -4 deg pinion shims then I switched to the split leafs and the rancho 9000's and gained about 1-2 tenths
 
#4 ·
thanks for replies so far....

both from truck owners though.... ;)

To be more specific , looking for door cars that are in the 9.70 - 10.70 sec range in the 1/4 .

so Proshot - you got a tenth from nothing other than going to the mono leaf ?

I do have the 9000 Ranchos on my car
 
#5 ·
I have homade caltracs with multi-leaf s-10 springs on the Vette. Hooks great. 1.38 best 60'. I also took arch out of the springs. Don't know what kind of shock, just a cheapie.
 
#9 ·
I just switched from factory 5 leaf multi's to split monos. Have only had the car out for 4 passes. I have not dialed it in yet so no hard numbers. I will say on the video there is a big difference. With the factory springs I got a huge amount of chassis separation. The factory spring is so weak that the lever action of the "stop" on the bars pushes down on the top of the leaf and arches it up. With the split monos there is almost no chassis separation.

I did get some 1.35's out of the factory springs but it was a bit inconssistant. i'll know more in a few weeks when the season gets rolling.
 
#10 ·
Haven't taken my car to the track yet, and it isnt high power either, but I can tell you the caltracs work great with my 6cyl springs, other than that the springs started to sag the wrong way lol...I got that issue fixed though. As long as you aren't using something super stiff like a superstock or XHD spring, the caltracs should work great for you with stock springs
 
#11 ·
I used to run factory leafs and caltracs on my old 68 Mustang, I agree with Greg O on the chassis seperation being excessive. I could only run them in the bottom hole, top hole was even worse. It was a mid 10 second car.

I got split monoleafs with caltracs on on my new ride. Hope to be at the track with it in a few weeks.
 
#13 ·
ive had a couple 1.41 60' s .... with the super stock springs and Rancho shocks , BUT , its not consistent at all .

the thing is , lets say you have a Mono leaf that has a certain spring rate / thickness , etc...

What if you can get very close to those specs with a factory leaf ? How would the Caltrac bar know what spring is on it ?
 
#14 ·
it won't....before the mono's came out, tons of guys used the caltracs with factory leafs or John calvert recommended what spring rate to have their springs made to...it worked for those guys, can't see why it wouldnt work now

this is what i was told by calvert themselves and a couple of guys online who actually had springs made per calvert's specs