Ugly is not the word

Spent the weekend in Montgomery Al for the IHRA Div 2W Finals. Had a great time. Lot's of racing. Went a few rounds in the several races. The good is that I averaged about an .009 light in eliminations, so I think I found my "spot" in this car. The bad news is that I fought the car all weekend. Traction issues. The air was good so it was making more steam than usual. The track at the Gump is also not quite as smooth as my home track. Best of 5.32 @ 132.5 but it was loosing better than a tenth while spinning. Most of the spin was in high gear.

Here is a typical run from this weekend. UGLY.

I think I figured it out though. The suspension was wayyyyyyy too stiff. It was bouncing and spinning over the least little bumps. Took a shock off today to check the spring lbs ratings they are 110's. They should be about right. But, I found I had been given wrong info on adjusting the Koni's extension. I was going backwards. There is no knob. When I tried to soften it up, I was making it stiffer. Reset them. left, 3 of 12 (1 is soft) on compression, 5 of 14 on extension. right is 2 and 5. I had the extension on about 10. HUGE difference betwen 5 and 10 on the extension. On 10 the shock is just about solid when you compress it and try to extend it back out.

I still need to figure out the gear retard in case this doesn't work.

shocks can be a killer.your maken some power so track condition will be a problem,the price of goen fast!lol. my car has ladder bars and gives me trouble at 5.40's.

At least with killer lights, you can still tune while you're racing. You're a smart guy, won't take you long to figure it out.

Having the compression (bump) valving too tight can increase the chance of "hop-skip" over rough spots on the track down course. Plus it can also make the car "think" the wheelie bars are in effect too "stiff" during a hard launch & cause too much unloading.

If the shock spring rate & 4-link settings are all real close to being "right" for a given non-power adder car, having the shock valving set/clicked somewhere around 50-60% tight on the extension & 40-50% tight on the compression is usually a good "wild guess" starting point to work the valving from. If a power adder is used then both extension & compression valving will probably need a little tighter starting point, usually extension more so than compression.

your shocks in front of axle or rear ?
I don't know your car build . that does make a difference on the settings ,
why you got the wrong info

The shocks are behind the axle. It's a ladder bar car with an anti-roll bar. Fronts end is Strange single adjustable strut. No power adder, but made 1069 hp and 920 lbs tq on the dyno. I never got to really fine tune the fuel on the dyno. Was too fat. It's very close now. I think it now makes more power than on the dyno.

The rear has Koni double adjustable Model 8211 shocks with 14"X2.5" 110 lb springs.

The bottom of the shocks has a screw with clicks (like the knob on most shocks) full counterclockwise is softest compression. 12 clicks from soft to stiffest.

The Koni top does not have a knob or screw to adjust the extension. It has a slot about 1/3 the circumference of the shock. Down inside the slot are holes in the shaft. You use a small hex wrench or similar tool to insert in the holes and turn the shaft. You can turn it 1/4 turn at a time. Total of 14 positions for the extension. Softest extension is full clockwise as looking at it from the top of the shock. This is opposite of the adjustment for the compression. Just got some bad info from the prior owner of the car. No biggie. I know what to do now.

As I mentioned the extension was set so stiff the shock was almost solid.

heck i thought your car was 4-link.i've been on the tight side with the ext with my strange shocks.the ladder bars will beat on your tires with soft shocks,make the car hop like a frog too.your koni shocks should be easy to dial in with all the adjustments they have.

On double adjustable coilovers like the Santhuff & Koni stuff, they both use a similar top "sweep window" design for adjusting the extension valving. But each company spins the adjuster in different directions to reach full tight. That is probably where some of the adjusting confusion out there comes from when dealing with a sweep window adjuster shock. It's a common deal that pops up from time to time.

I'm surprised to see yet another ladder bar car with an anti-roll since an anti-roll usually isn't really ever needed on most average ladder bar setups out there unless the LB's are installed really, really, reeeeeealy super close together.

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:
I'm surprised to see yet another ladder bar car with an anti-roll since an anti-roll usually isn't really ever needed on most average ladder bar setups out there unless the LB's are installed really, really, reeeeeealy super close together.

The prior owner/builded told me why they put the anti-roll on it. He said they where hitting it with a lot of nitrous right off the line. Car had a Big Chief 615 BBC with a plate and fogger. On the hose it was rolling and hitting the right side wheelie bar wheel so hard it was unloading the right rear tire. The anti-roll solved that.

David Cole wrote:.......On the hose it was rolling and hitting the right side wheelie bar wheel so hard it was unloading the right rear tire. The anti-roll solved that.

That is interesting. I wonder how they were adjusting the ladder bars where the housing/ladder bar assembly it's self wasn't able to control the body roll without some help.

At first I was thinking it could be possible that what they thought was suspension body roll was really just the passenger side slick wadding-up too much (on the bottle) from the air pressure being too low. But an anti-roll shouldn't cure that so I guess it must have in fact been rolling over on the suspension from something flexing somewhere. But even that raises a question because from the pics the rear housing looks pretty damn stout/rigid and not likely to twist/flex much like a thin wall tube stock housing sometimes can.

Update......

Went to the track last night. 3rd Sat of each month we have a $5K.

The suspension adjustments worked pretty well. No more bounce/spin/bounce/spin going down the track. No changes to engine or tuneup. Just softened the shocks up on the rear.

New best 60', best ET and best mph.
1.15, 5.240, 132.98 mph

Broke out 2nd round though. Humidity was rising, so I dialed up to a 5.25 thinking it would slow up a touch. I was .012 on the tree, other guy (dragster) was .010 on dead on with a 7, so not much room to play with. Went 5.249, rapping the throttle and killed 2.5 mph. Happy with the night. Car did it's job and the worst light I had was a .015, so it least I had no major screws ups.

The car leaves good, but still does not touch the wheelie bars. Goes straight on the hit. But, it does want to drift left at about the 400 ft mark. Any ideas on a fix? Ladder bars and anti-roll are neutral. Rear shocks are the same of extension (5 out of 14) Compression is staggered with the right rear 2 clicks softer than the left. 4 and 2. Without the stagger on it didn't want to go straight on launch

Nice pass's David

That thing is flying. You should leave it alone and go kick some azz!

David Cole wrote:............Goes straight on the hit. But, it does want to drift left at about the 400 ft mark. Any ideas on a fix? Ladder bars and anti-roll are neutral. Rear shocks are the same of extension (5 out of 14) Compression is staggered with the right rear 2 clicks softer than the left. 4 and 2. Without the stagger on it didn't want to go straight on launch

It is possible that the housing/ladder bar assembly & the anti-roll assembly are both fighting each other even though they are both adjusted "neutral" since they both are trying to control the same torque load/body roll action.

The staggered shock compression valving could also be having an effect too. If you need the compression valving staggerd to launch straight, that kinda shows that the side-to-side preload settings (either the ladder bars or the anti-roll) might not be optimum. A "neutral" setting isn't always the "best" setting for every car out there. The car's actual working "at launch" torque numbers really has effect on this.

Could you make the shocks the same on the rear and preload the ladder bar? Would this help with the drifting at 400'?