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but since then several drag racers have told me that traction bars work better than adjustable pinion snubbers.
CalTrac's obviously work and they are slapper bars that were refined to a fully functioning level. The "poor man's 4-Link" as one could say. They basically reapply the wind-up forces into a downward motion for the axle.
And one of the reasons the old Direct Connection manuals pumped up the P-snubber and rejected the slapper bars was to sell their own product.
the mopar spring design with the assymetrical leafs (short front segment, long rear segment) are basically a leaf spring trying to be a ladder bar. in theory, the front segment is essentially rigid (especially if the leaves are clamped), and all of the flex is in the rear segment.
a cal-trac is a better version of the same thing. it replaces the spring pack usually with a single spring, where the front segment isn't as stiff as the stock one), and uses the bars as the link to locate the axle relative to the body.
traction bars/slapper bars are used to control axle wind-up in symmetrical/long front segment springs. they typically aren't clamped to the front of the spring, but are designed to make contact with spring wind up (hence "slapper bars". being clamped to the springs, cal-tracks are a totally different animal, they basically turn a mopar leaf spring setup into a quasi leaf sprung ladder bar setup. a true leaf sprung ladder bar setup would have the ladder bar pivoting on the body, and shackles front AND rear on the leaf spring.
my boss actually designed and built a leaf sprung 4 link setup for his trail wrangler.
Last edited by patrick; 05/03/12 01:30 PM.
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