When you say separation, are you talking total stroke of rear shocks, or amount of separation from ride height in leaf spring car, or amount of separation in a radial style plot of a 4 link?

 

I have 6” of travel but with the ride height when I have the street tires on it and the shocks fully extended I need a longer coil spring. Also I have to change a bar under the driveshaft to gain full travel. So I was wondering how much travel is normal driving on the street. Then when you launch the car how much separation do you use or need ?

I am honestly just learning about all this. So I apologize if I am not making sense. 🤔😂

Radial tire, triangulated 4 link shock travel?

 

I flip my lower shock mounts and jack the spring 6 turns to put the shock in mid stroke for street trim. In race trim, I flip my lower mounts back and lower the spring six turns so I only show 1" of shaft. Radial car that separates pretty good. I have 5" of stroke, and when I show 1" of shaft, I have not topped the shock out. Looking at your pics, I'm not sure you can do that, as your already at the bottom of your adjustment.

 

Thanks 🙏 for the information. I will see what I can do. I am changing the bar under the driveshaft that will give me full travel with the 315’s on the street. I will just have to figure out what to do with the shock at full extension the spring isn’t long enough. So I will see about that. I think 🤔 they offer a short spring that I can put it with this one. If they don’t just have a longer spring.

 

Maybe your solution is just a cheap single adjustable shock/spring that you use on the street. No need for an expensive DA, radial valved shock in street trim. You simply unbolt race shocks/lower mounts, and bolt in shorter, single adjustable street shock/spring package.

 

That’s definitely a consideration! I really appreciate the feedback. I can tell you put some time into getting your car working!

 

I have a really smart guy who does my tuning, and guides me on some other decisions as well.

 

I run 150# rear springs and on a full load of fuel (15 gallons) the car will absolutely drop in the rear, but not a crazy amount. Just enough to see it visually. Maybe 1/2 to 3/4". As you do your research you may find that there is more than one way to get separation. Using the lower 4 link bar angle, and using the upper bar angle. The lower bar will get you separation, and get it quickly. The upper bar angle can also get you separation, but it will get applied a little slower. When Greg and I were sorting mine out, I ran out of lower bar adjustment, so we had to start using the upper bars. The good thing is using the upper bar applies leverage slower than using lower bar. In my case, where my shocks may be borderline short, we believe the slower application of separation actually helps me in not topping out the rear shocks. You can also you your extension valving to control how quickly the car will separate. One question I have about your rear shock combo. Will you actually need that long of a shock using your stock style rear 4 link set up? My set up...

 

I didn’t know what I did or didn’t need when I started planning this out. I just new I didn’t want to wish I would’ve or could’ve done it better or have to change anything major once I was done.

I asked a few people how much shock travel I should set the car up for when I was fabricating the shock mounts and they said 6” inches so that’s what I did. Now that it’s done and I am setting things up I am hearing that I will probably never use it at this power level. Most are telling me they make around 1,000 HP and a few guys I know said that they are getting around 1.04, 60 ‘ times and use maybe 4” of travel on separation.

I just figured if I have it then the car should be able to use it without any interference so I now have it set up that way.

this is my first time building or owning a car like this. So I am just trying to do everything 💯 %. Also if I ever want more power it’s ready for it or the next owner won’t have to do much to go faster.

I appreciate the education on the bars. I hope to be out this summer. I am sure I swill be a little lost for a little while but eventually I will get it sorted out and have a full understanding of what I need to do and when I need to do it.

dam your car looks nice underneath! BADASSARY right there! 👍🏻

 

Thanks for the compliment. I had a lot of good people helping with the build, and got a ton of advice on YB. To me, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask! The quality of you build looks fantastic. You could also just add a limiter to the rear end so it can only hang/extend so far, but that doesn't help you with you street set up. My car started out on slicks, and then we converted to radials. That change was a lot of trial and error. I was ready to give up on the radials when Greg talked me into one more track rental to test. It was switching the car from street to track, when I realized the reason I was knocking the tire off at the hit. I was still running the shocks mid stroke for street driving, but we had the rear bars set up to extend. Thats when I flipped the mounts and lowered the springs. Went right down the track 6 straight passes after making that change. The advice about extension you have been given is good advice, but it probably doesn't take into account this is not just a race only car. Those rear shocks springs are brand new, unused. You should be able to get good money for them, or you can check with who you bought them from and see if they can work with you in some way to get you into something that fits the bill for you. I dealt with Eric Saffell at AFCO for my stuff. This was his suggestion on shock length when I converted to his BGX shocks.

There are a couple of advantages that come to mind. A longer shock can help the housing fall out further making tire removal easier, given you can still achieve a correct ride height for the shock. We don’t want to have the shock too close to bottoming out. The second reason is if the plan is to run the car with a lot of anti-squat causing the car to separate greatly at launch. We see this with radial tire cars where we need to separate the car 2-3 inches and some shocks may not allow that much extension travel. So, if you have a plan to run the radial tire and will make the rear suspension adjustment to maximize your combo, a longer shock will definitely help.

 

I think 🤔 I solved the spring issue. I was thinking 🤔 when we set the car up for the small tire 28.5x10.5 or 275 drag radial I will be able to lower it and the shocks work then when I raised the ride height for the 315 street tire. I raised the ride height. That was when the spring issue came about but now I realize that the car isn’t finished and as I add weight the sprig will need to be cranked up so the should solve that issue. I changed the bar under the driveshaft so it’s no longer and issue. Now I have a full 6” inches of travel.