Hi all,
It was pointed out to me that my off-the-cuff analysis of Dan Walters'
Torque Arm was incorrect. After thinking about it some more, and re-reading
parts of Fred Puhn's book that dealt with weight transfer, I now agree. The
torque arm does NOT promote forward weight transfer under braking. In fact
it actually reduces at least one component of the weight transfer because it
reduces pitching of the car during both acceleration and braking.
I also visited the Cal-Trac manufacturer's site (not the DIY site pointed to
by Bob Hokanson). Their solution advocates replacing the front spring
bushing with an aluminum one. This is suitable only for drag racing
applications. In a normal cornering situation, the leaf spring tilts
relative to the car body, and if you have a rigid bushing in the front
spring eye, it will force the leaf spring to act as a long torsion bar. It
does that to some extent anyway, but putting rigid bushings in the front
will accelerate wear of the spring clips, the spring leaf isolators, and the
front spring mount on the chassis.
Theo
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Theo Smit
Sent: December 28, 2005 12:28 PM
To: Peter Laurinaitis
Cc: tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Traction Bars
<snip>
Dan Walters' torque arm is a very good solution; its only downside is that
it tends to promote forward weight transfer under braking, but that's pretty
manageable. It's basically a bolt on solution, and there are probably
hundreds of Tigers running around with the torque arm, or an equivalent
solution.
<snip>
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