traction bars....suspension ?'s

I just removed a set of traction bars from my car. I bought some Competition Engineering ones from someone on Ebay who had several sets of them backstocked. Comp Engineering doesn't make them anymore for Mustangs, but they do make them for other cars. They are way thicker and stronger looking than the Lakewoods. I removed them because, besides the fact that I couldn't tell that they added traction or did ANYthing, they are very low and scrape speed bumps and anything slightly raised like that. Also, I was worried about long term damage to my rear components because of the way they work...
They are bars that are connected by the rear lower control arm bolts and mount to the axle at the rear of the lower control arm's location. Then there's a threaded link that attaches to the front of the traction bar on one end, and up to a clamp that bolts to the axle on the other end. The idea behind them is that when you accelarate strongly, the rear end naturally wants to twist backwards. When it does, the threaded link pulls up on the front of the traction bars and the rubber snubbers on the traction bars "slap" up onto the frame and keep the rear end from twisting backwards. So the idea is that the force that is trying to twist the rear end would be used to push downward onto the tires and provide traction. The original leaf spring traction bars that were invented in the 60's (can't remember the guy's name) were nicknamed "slapper bars", since they slap up onto the frame.
So the reason that I removed mine.... Any time you turn a corner and the car sways to the side, the traction bar on the side your turning into is pressed with the full weight of the turning car. This, in turn, is pushing on the upper control arm and pulling on the lower control arm.... HARD, and twisting the rear end forward on one side. If this was on a track-only car, maybe it wouldn't be a concern, but I drive mine daily and I worried about the added stress to the rear parts. Also, like i said, I couldn't tell that they did anything at all. A good set of aftermarket control arms will do what traction bars claim to do anyway.... stop rearend twisting. I think that leaf spring traction bars do work, just because of the way they are designed. Leaf springs need that kind of extra stiffness. But think about it, how many fox body Mustang drag cars do you see with traction bars? Not many.... that's because there are much better products for gaining traction for these cars than old fashioned traction bars. There are other similar products that do work though, like Southside machine bars, Mega-bites Jr's, etc.
So to summarize my long story (sorry about that)... I thought they hurt more than helped, so I took them off. I didn't really want to at first because I thought they looked really cool, but taking them off was a good decision. I have tubular upper and lower control arms, Eibach drag launch springs, subframes, and other mods to help the car's traction and handling, so the bars weren't nessesary. The traction bars didn't allow the rear of the car to squat much at all, but since I removed them it squats down nicely when launched hard.
This was just my experience with them though, other people may have had good results with them. I'm not saying "they suck, don't get them" I'm just giving my input with the experience I've had with them. If you do still want to try some, mine are for sale.
Sorry so long... hope this helps.

Not that this is relevent or what you wanted to know, but since the purpose of traction bars is to control axle wind up: the best way to stop axle windup (without back-halving the car) iswith a torque arm- and it handles corners fantastic.

TrophyHead said:

Another question: You know when you see a Mustang with drag slicks and it sits perfectely even with the rear fender lip. Are they using adjustable uppers, lowers, or both?

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You mean even as in fender gap spacing, or even flush with the fenderlip in/out as in track width?

hey whats up BADpony....yeah i have teh same bars he had and the only thing i can say so far is that that look friggin killer from the back...makes the car look sweet when driving away..not sure how they hook or anything because ive never been to the track with them...ill probably be taking mine off soon too.

BADpony, how did u take them off? anything tricky? what bolt did u use for where the LCA attaches to the rear, the same longer bolt? and was it a B*itch to line the 2 up when taking them off, just liek ti was installing them? hit me with a PM cause ill prolly be remving mine too. later

Hey man, what's up! Yeah, I finally took them off. As you'll remember me saying, my traction bars didn't allow the rear sway bar to fit anymore. I finally did try installing the sway bar while the car was on the ground, too.... it didn't work. So I had no front OR rear sway bar on the car, when I would make a turn the car would sway like crazy.
I agreed with you though, that they do look mean from behind and from the side. But I actually do like the way the car looks without them too. It looks nice and straight and clean. I had my good friend who owns a Mieneke shop in NC to help me do everything we did last weekend. We put in a new clutch, took the traction bars off, put the rear sway bar back on, installed HPM subframe connectors, and re-did my tailpipes since I didn't like how they were done here locally. It's very tricky fitting tailpipes in a cobra bumper.
Taking the traction bars wasn't that bad, but then again we were at his shop and the car was on a lift. We had the car up in the air and placed thier stand-up air jack under the rear of the lower control arm, removed the bolt, then let the air jack down till' the spring fell out. We just used the original bolts/nuts that came off my car when we put the traction bars on. The traction bars' bolts would have worked, but I wanted to save them in case someone wanted these bars. Then we just put the spring back in, raised the arm back up with the jack, and installed the bolt.
One wierd note though...
I have the Eibach spring set with the right rear airbag in the spring. The car had sat a little higher on the passenger's side than the drivers side in the rear after the Eibachs were installed. I had been wondering if the airbag was keeping the pass. side spring higher than the driver's side, so we took it out. Turns out the airbag WAS keeping it higher, because the car is level now. BUT.... I had 295/50R15's on the rear, which had been rubbing a little on the inner fender when turning and with the combination of removing the airbag and removing the traction bars, the rear was lower and the tires rubbed severely all the way home (about 3 hours) and cut the tires all up on the outside. So when I got home I went up to my local tire shop and had a set of 265/50R15's that I already had, installed. Now there's no rubbing, no traction bar scraping, no swaying and I'm very happy with the whole project.
Anyway, sorry for the long reply again.
Good luck with yours!

TrophyHead said:

Stangbear427- I mean fender gap spacing (looking from the side). I'll give MM a call later and talk to them about the TQ arm.

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OK. The fender gap is a combination of overall tire diameter and ride height (springs). You don't want to adjust your control arms to set the gap you want, they are only adjustable to square the rear with the chassis and set your pinion angle on the driveshaft. Sometimes when you lower the vehicle it will throw the pinion angle off, so you get adjustable control arms to dial it back in to spec. Adjustable uppers are all that's necessary for that, and adjustable lowers if you need to square the rear as well. This is actually more common in autox than drag racing. Usually you will find that drag slicks are a bigger overall diameter than normal street tires, which is most of the reason that they have the look you're asking about- drag racers tend to put the biggest tire under there that will fit, which fills the wheelwell and closes the gap nicely- as well as giving you a theoretical advantage on the clock.
If you are wondering about the many merrits of a torque arm, calling MM would definately be my suggestion.