Re: RE: what rear shocks to get?

From: raymond.irons@gm.com
Date: Wed Jul 24 2002 - 09:55:30 EDT


>looking for whatever will give me the best quarter mile time,
>ride quality is of no consequence John S

More then the shocks, is the rear suspension. What causes wheel spin and
wheel hop is axle wrap. When you jump on the throttle, the torque on the
axle's actually cause the springs to flex into an "S" shape. when the
spring rebounds, the snap of the rebound causes the wheel to spin or hop.
If you could look at this in slow motion, you could actually see the wheel
start to spin and then stop as the tire grips the pavement. This is hard on
the entire system all the way up to the transmission. What you need to do
is to reduce or re-direct the amount of flex on the rear springs. You can
do this in one of several ways. The easiest and probably cheapest way to do
this is with a set of traction bars. These simply clamp on the bottom of
the axle housing and over the spring. They have a rubber snubber on the
front of the bar and when the spring starts to flex, the snubber rises up
against the spring. Ladder bars work on a similar principle but are usually
fabricated by hand and are a bit more complex. Probably the best set-up
I've seen lately is the Roadmaster active suspension. This is very simple
to install and adjust. There is a plate that goes on top of the spring and
is held in place by the shackle bolts. This is connected by a threaded rod,
coil spring and hook which slips over the rear spring hanger. Once you get
this installed, you can tune the suspension by pre tensioning the spring
and even adjust for the weight of the driver. You can get the Roadmaster
set up for your Dak for about $200 and it can be set up for lifted and
lowered vehicles. You can check them out at www.activesuspension.com

HTH,

Ray Irons
Dover, DE



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