Checking the Wescott Auto blueprints made a lot of the work go easier, but there were still portions where things had to be fabricated and configured to make it all work out in the end.
Shelton worked from the center hole of the rear crossmember and worked forward to find the location of all the needed assembly points for hanging the rear.
For decades rodders relied on shocks that were the shortest ones available rather than ones built for the rodder's application—basically shocks that took looks over comfort.
But that has changed in recent years, and RideTech the shock company originally called Air Ride Technologies has been at the forefront of that change. Pioneers of the airbag suspension phenomenon and well-versed in the coilover shock market, they now also manufacture a line of mono-tube shocks specifically valved for street rod applications, designed by engineers with help from some of the country's more well-known hot rod builders.
RideTech's Hot Rod Shocks are made specifically for straight-axle applications. Made of polished billet aluminum, they come in covered- or exposed-shaft, and in two different overall lengths: 9.
RideTech also manufactures two coilover versions with optional polishing of their mono-tube shocks for the rear. The HQ coilover has a rebound adjustment knob to allow adjustable ride quality and handling performance tuning, and the RQ coilover has the shock valving preset and no rebound adjustment for optimum ride quality. Also, we will cover the differences of anti-axle wrap devices and what is the correct one to choose for your application.
One main concern of traction bars and other anti-axle wrap devices is that they are loud and will clunk when going over bumps and rough roads. This is a viable concern and the main reason as to why these devices do this comes down to the design of the anti-axle wrap device.
This will cause dirt to enter the joint causing it to wear prematurely causing slop in the joint that will create a clunking sound when changing from drive to reverse or just driving down the road. Another concern of anti-axle wrap devices is harmonics. Again when using a solid Heim joint on both ends you are essentially solid mounting the rear axle to the fame of the truck. This will cause any type of noise or harmonics in the rear axle to be transferred into the frame of the truck and eventually into the cab creating an unenjoyable driving experience.
One main miss conception is traction bars and ladder bars are one and the same. Now both designs serve the same purpose but, are completely different in the way they operate. A ladder bar attaches to the rear axle in two separate places, one on the bottom of the axle and the second one will be either in the middle of the axle or on the top with a single mount to the frame. Now, this may seem to be the superior set up with two mounting locations on the rear axle and can be in certain applications, you must think of the geometry of what must happen for your suspension cycle properly.
The most common way to combat this happening is to use a shackle to mount the front of the ladder bar to the frame allowing the forward and rearward movent of the bar as the suspension cycles.
This type of system works great on off-road vehicles allowing full articulation of the rear suspension but is less the desired for street use and high horsepower applications as the bars will limit axle wrap but will not aid in the axle moving front to back.
These setups can also be quite noisy as the shackle can constantly slap the frame during operation. Tractions bars also have some of the same hurdles when it comes to geometry as ladder bars. Some people may say the longer the bar the better, or that street trucks require a shorter bar. First thing on the list was assembling the ladder bars. Each end uses threaded rod ends. We used a sheet of plywood on the floor to set up the bars. We squared the bars degrees to the vertical center of the rear diff mounting point and measured the actual length of the bars.
This is an important step in assuring the bars are located front to back in the wheel well. During the mock up, we checked where the bars should sit at ride height.
The lower portion of the bar the long side should rest parallel to the ground at ride height. We also measured and marked the wheel center to front ladder bar mounting point at ride height. You must measure carefully several times to get the crossmember installed properly. Using the measurements taken earlier, we set this position on the passenger side, measured to common points driver and passenger both in front and behind that crossmember center point, and transposed those measurements to the driver side.
This ensures the crossmember runs perpendicular to the subframe connector rails. The front ladder bar brackets were used to mark the subframe. With the bracket rotated so that the pick-up points run degrees to the ground straight up and down , and the upper edge just touching the floor, the connector was marked. Note the roll cage tube coming through the floor- this will be tied to the crossmember tube for extra stiffness. The rails were trimmed out with a plasma torch.
Cutting half-moons with a hole saw is tough on the car. The cuts were dressed with a grinder. We used a special adjustable rear-end to set the height of the car.
We measured both the vertical wheel centerline and the ride height. More on the adjustable rear in a future article. This unique device allowed us to mount the wheels and set the width of the rear end so we could narrow our 9-inch housing. Once the rear end had been built, the rear work could begin. The ladder bar crossmember was held in the car with jack stands and the position of the mounts were set.
We measured 2 inches from the inner side of the subframe connectors to the outer mount. The ladder bar rod ends were bolted in place to keep everything lined up. The mounts were tacked in place under the car. Only one side, the other side must match, and that comes later. The entire crossmember was removed and the brackets were fully welded.
The outside and inside edges of the brackets should be welded up. Next, the mounts for the other bar were assembled in the same manner and the entire assembly placed on the floor. The fully welded side ensures the correct geometry for the unwelded side. We measured each side to ensure the opposite mounts were in the right place. Nice and simple. Then the crossmember was reset into the car and welded in place.
The rod ends were reinstalled into the bars with anti-sieze and bolted in place. We set the ride height to the center position, so we had some adjustment room.
Then the rear end mounts were installed and placed up to the rear housing. The optimum position for the rear end is degrees down angle to the front of the car.
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