Leaf link/ladder link rear suspension...

I just got a 70 Cuda that has the old school leaf link/ladder link rear suspension.
I know that it's old school stuff.

The plan is to make it mainly a street car that will occasionally go to the track.

What are opinions on that type of rear suspension?

That looks like a ladder bar with a floater , slider, rear suspension to me
They work good as long as long as the rear end can move as needed and not be clamp down real tight to the springs.

The springs are obviously moved in, they are in the frame rails in the front.
They used regular spring hangers in the back with what looks like added homemade mounts to attach them to the frame rail area..

My concern is that they literally touch the rear valance.

Trying to decide how to deal with that.

Sliders on the rear may be a good option for clearance, but is that a good choice for a mainly street car?

Ditch the leafsprings, weld in a shock crossmember, and add coilovers.

I would leave the leaf springs, those ladder bar/ leaf spring brackets don.t look to supportive on their own.

That's not a "mopar" leaf link.

This!

Things like this were done primarily to fit a rules package back in the day.

I had same setup on my 64, worked great. The axel housing is free to turn and not bind, I welded a 3/8ths bar between the plates that wrap the housing, they kept the rear centered. The only disadvantage of ladder bars is when one back wheel drops into a depression on ground it will lift the opposite front of car, like going diagonally across speed bumps, don’t go off roading lol.

Old school. It will work. Clean and lube the springs and sliders so they can move freely.

It sounds like it has the wrong springs on it? Possibly a longer rear segment than normal, or the spring has flattened out.

I would leave the ladder/floater. It will work just fine. One of my cars is still set up that way. As mentioned, keep it greased. The only thing I see that I would change is how they have the rear shocks mounted to the axle. I don't see that lasting long under any kind of stress.

How fast is the car going to be?

If your going to keep the ladder bar, make sure the front hiem joint has the safety loop, Seen to many cars tore up without having one.

. Probably has B body springs on it. E body springs are 1" shorter in the rear segment. E Body 35" vs B body 36".

It'll be a couple weeks before I get it up on jack stands so I can start measuring the spring lengths.

I want to get through the Holley Moparty before I dive into it and the other project Cuda (a 72) that I have to work on.

After the Moparty hopefully I can get some of the stuff figured out so I know what I'll be doing with it suspension wise.

What does it drive like? I bought a car with a similar set up, for a street car, I didn't like it. I went back to normal leaf springs.

I've seen on here many comments on having the shocks mounted straight up and down is way better than having them mounted on any angle other than straight up and down, especially on a drag car

The leaf springs don't do anything other than hold up the rear of the car with a ladder bar suspension like this with ,both or either floater or slider

At this point the car is just a body, no drive train in it so it's not drive able.

I had my shocks in front of the Dana leaning forward at top at a 30 degree angle, 1.19-20 60’. 3800 on two step trans brake 15/33 4.56 499 PG 4 link would hook on snot and car was very soft in back.

Step into the 90's and ditch the leafs and put coil overs on it personally.

I climbed under it to measure the rear segment of the leaf springs, if I measured it right going from the spring centering bolt to the center of where the rear spring hanger I was coming up with 35.5 inches.

when you say E Body 35" vs B body 36" exactly where are the measurement points?
Assuming spring centering bolt but what point at the rear of the spring?

Realistically, 11's is the goal.
The engine plan is 472 BB (440 with a 3.90 stoker crank that I have) , nothing radical just lots of torque for the street.

I looked at the front of the ladder bars, they have the safety loops on them.

Measure on the spring radius. Not in a straight line. Lay the tape on the main leaf from the center pin to the center of the rear eye. Sounds like you have 36”.

Did you try moving them so they were straight up and down and then run it some more with similar weather and DA at the same track? If not, maybe you should

Remove the cobwebs leaves .... run it. Unless you want to work on it.

built and used leak link stuff back in the day, for what you are doing should work fine. Never used on a car faster than 10.50 make sure the housing floaters are free and not binding and the front spring segments should be clamped, the front spring segments are acting like a 4-link bar so any flex should be removed. The other con is that it is a heavy system, but again just for street and occasional track use, and you don't need every tenth out of it or try and put 1000HP to the rear tires it will work fine. I would also maybe try a better adjustable type shock.

I wouldn't street drive a ladderbar set-up...seen a few break.

I agree. Full out race car ladder bar are fine, but for a street/strip car I'd go caltras or super stock springs.

A friend has ladder bars on his 41 Ford, for 35 years, 4 speed too

The obvious question is "Where did they break?"

Anything with poor welds will eventually break.
Poorly designed brackets will break.

I haven't decided yet whether it will stay or just go with leaf springs that are moved in (which these are).

The ladderbar itself, and then the rod ends. the driveways and potholes and turns etc are hard on a rigid suspension. With that set-up you have I'd do a Caltrac personally, and put the typical shock on it for that application.

Interesting thread title. I recently came across some pics on Facebook, in the 64-71 race Hemi group. A restored 67 GTX that actually had a leaf-link rear suspension. It was a nice car. No recollection of whose or where, though.