Rear leaf spring floater kits

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Been looking at floater kits for leaf springs.  They all seem the same  basic design,  Clamp on the springs, with brackets up to the axle tube with spring under the axle

Wondering about a floater kit, with some ladder bars on a nostalgia car.. The long type bars you would see on the ol gasser cars.

Or maybe there is a newer , better solution?  

Mount the springs over the axle?

[tomslik]

ladder bars will work better w/sliders.(floaters)
if the pivot points aren't the same as the frt spring eye, they bind up sumpin terrible...


is there a better way?
4 link or cal-tracs i suppose....

i'll let ya know on the cal-tracs and possibly the split mono leafs but i'm gonna try a few things 1st..


wheelies are cool...stick with the ladders;)


uhhh, what would be your reason to put the axle under the leafs?

[Crosley.In.AZ]

uhhh, what would be your reason to put the axle under the leafs?

Just a random idear

[GPster]

Build shackles for the front of the springs too? If the wheelie bars are fastened tight to the rear axle they would be like the Chevy truck deal and you'd need some kind of cross bar or watts linkage. GPster

[Hooley]

Crosley,
           I ran ladder bars with floaaters in a 56 Chevy Wagon that I bracket raced.  The rear end and the springs float so there is no bind during travel.  The bottom bracket under the spring has a slider hole to allow it to move forward and back and clearance between the spring, with grease to keep it from binding.    It lanched hard and hooked up. I wouldn't be afraied to use them again.  The Henry J  I built after the wagon has four link and a hole lot more power.

                                    Hooley

[Crosley.In.AZ]

How about regular mounted leaf springs and differential with ladder bars (torque arms) that have floating mounts at the front?

[Hooley]

Crosley,
           that sounds like it might work on the street.  Is this one with rubber bushings in the front of the bar, kinda like Mustang II struts?

                                        Hooley

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I was thinking about a torque arm mount like the photo shows.  You can see the arm has pivots on the torque arm and at the frame mount too

Hook this up with regular leaf springs on rear differential.

[Hooley]

I saw a rat rod PU last fall that used a set up like that. I visited with the builder. He set it with the torque arm like he had built small stock cars. He said it worked and cornered good.  It looks good.

                         Hooley

[wayne petty]

i vaguely recall seeing the spring pads that had rollers on the sides .. not sure how the spring slipped forward and backwards on the springs..  machined teflon or HDPE sleeve to reduce friction through the spring saddle.

without the U bolts holding the spring pack together..    one might want to make sure that new spring center bolts are used...  or perhaps something a bit stronger..  i think spring center bolts are probably made from a more malleable steel ..  as i have seen some bent where others fasteners would have broken.. used in a different application..

one might even want to use  some thing like a socket head screw  or a machined cup over the head of the bolt as a guide in the to keep it centered in the spring saddle slot..

one could even use ball bearings as spacers for the sides of the spring saddle.  depending upon the type of saddle the axle has..  what ever they call it.. brain not coming up with the proper name..

this is all on what hooley has also posted..

[jaybee]

Tony, an articulated front mount like you've shown ought to deal with the binding issues when moving in a straight line.  Not sure it wouldn't still want to bind when going around corners, unless you had a rubber bushing in at least one end of the link.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Tony, an articulated front mount like you've shown ought to deal with the binding issues when moving in a straight line.  Not sure it wouldn't still want to bind when going around corners, unless you had a rubber bushing in at least one end of the link.

On a drag car , there would be minimum binding on turns.  Sway bars on rear of drag cars are very common now

I wonder if used on a street car... the top mount used could be a pinto strut arm style design?  There are smaller similar design bushings available.  I think that is workable

Trying to think outside the box via "Wayne style"

[GPster]

I wonder if used on a street car... the top mount used could be a pinto strut arm

Or maybe the whole thing like an early Vette IRS spring shackle? GPster