Wheelhop?

88 Fox GT · Apr 21, 2004

Tonight I was driving the Mustang around and two times from a stop I got on it kinda hard (not wide open or anything) and the car just started rattling like crazy. Could it be wheelhop? I didn't think it would wheelhop with the traction bars. And it used to just take off with the tires howling when I purposely try to get them spinning. What the hell is the deal?

Ronstang · Apr 21, 2004

That is definitely wheelhop. If they are slappper bars then they might be set up wrong. I prefer the Shelby bars or Cal-Tracs.....never any wheel hop fo me.

blandq · Apr 22, 2004

Wheel hop?

If you used to be able to do this before without hop and you've made no torque/HP or suspension mods then my guess is that it is not wheel hop.

A mustang is a very light car, I've managed to get mine down to 2790lbs. with me in it; vintage air, electric windows and all. I pull 12.4-12.6 in the 1/4 without NOS and break, just barely into the 11s with a 100HP NOS shot. On stock leafs and slapper bars, I never got wheel hop. I have since moved to a custom leaf from Bill Mier in Hayward Ca. The weight transfer is huge and it took a clean .1-.2 off my quarter mile time. SO WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM.

1. Do you use air shocks, if so go inside into bathroom, turn on the light, look in the mirror and repeat after me, "This is no the 70's, I'm not Starsky or Hutch and raising the back end up on a nose heavy suspension pig is really a dumb idea. You'll get better performance and drive-ability with a smaller tire that actually fits...if your running something near stock anything that fits outside your fender tops is a waste of your dollars....spend it in frame connectors instead.

2. Check your motor mounts
3. Check your U-joints
4. It's pretty hard to screw-up a slapper bar installation but review what you did, space, place, torque as the book says....this is your life your driving around.
5 Experiments:

1. Try a rolling run; get go about 5-8 MPH....or just below the 1-2nd shift point and nail it.
2. Have someone watch from outside the car when you hit it

visual navigation beats radar all to hell!

TTBullitt · Apr 22, 2004

Hey Speed Demon - Man, we underwent the same type of problem for the longest time. I don't know if it is the same thing, but we went from traction bars, to a torque strap (strapping the motor to the frame using a connecting rod), to different setups on our motor. We thought for the longest time that it was wheel hop, but it turned out, that every time we would let out on the clutch with any rpm's on the motor, the whole drivetrain would skake violently to pieces. What ended up happening was that the motor had so much low end torque, that the clutch and pressure plate started to mis-align itself as rpm's built during the clutch release point. We finally fixed the problem by going to a hydraulic clutch setup. The car almost feels like a fox-body car now. It is so smooth. I cannot support the hydraulic setup enough. It may be something different that is going on, but this swap sure helped us out. Good luck.

-Taylor

TTBullitt · Apr 22, 2004

nevermind me Speed Demon. I just saw you have an Automatic. I should have looked before posting. I apologize. Well, if anybody sees my post with a manual tranny, and you have a death vibration, check it out.....

-Taylor

88 Fox GT · Apr 22, 2004

blandq, the car has air shocks in the back. But it came that way, I didn't put them in. lol

2nd Mustang · Apr 22, 2004

TTBullitt said:
nevermind me Speed Demon. I just saw you have an Automatic. I should have looked before posting. I apologize. Well, if anybody sees my post with a manual tranny, and you have a death vibration, check it out.....

-Taylor

My clutch does that every once in awhile, but more frequently since I was stuck on a hill in really heavy traffic, doing the clutch brake thing for a long time. Could it be residue from the clutch causing the flywheel to slip? If I just let the clutch out slowly in idle, it won't do it, but if I apply too much gas from a stop then the car starts shaking really bad.

TTBullitt · Apr 22, 2004

2nd Mustang - I believe it would be the residue if it only does it from time to time. Ours was consistant from stop to stop. What tranny are you running? When I had a toploader 4sp, it never posed any threat, but then we went to the Tremec 3550, and it just developed from there. I believe that on those occations you may be having some minor misalignment. For something less minor, I do not know what your best bet would be. Anybody else out there come across this same problem?

Ozsum67 · Apr 22, 2004

Clutch slipping........could be. Nothing wrong with air shocks if you want a firmer ride, an adjustable ride, and adjustable ride height. 70s or not.

MustangMatt1966 · Apr 22, 2004

what about a clutch chatter, i have heard that might cause the same vibrations, i think i might have that....T5 conversion, maybe there is just something wrong with my clutch, i will be going to a centerforce soon, maybe that will solve the problem?

Matt

Mach1steve · Apr 22, 2004

motor mount

I had this happen when racing a freinds car.
One minute it was fine, the next run all hell broke loose.
We thought it was wheel hop...
It was a motor mount..........

Mach1steve
www.muggziperformance.com

Pakrat · Apr 22, 2004

I had the same condition with my 3spd. Let it up normally and no problem, but try to let it out too fast and mash the gas and she would buck like a wild bronco, felt like it was going to fall apart on you. In my case, it looked like the PO had replaced the clutch himself but never got the flywheel machined. Once I did that, problem solved.

TTBullitt · Apr 22, 2004

Yes, this is also called clutch chatter. Solid motor mounts may often solve the problem. I do not know if there would have been anything else that would have fixed out problem other than solid motor mounts. That is the only thing we didn't try before swapping to hydraulic. We even swapped to a centerforce centerforce before we ended up going to hydraulic, and the problem still existed. I would just make sure that your flywheel is balanced and machined very well to ensure proper grip and alignment, then you can go from there if the problem still persists. If any of ya'll are going to be driving the car often, I greatly recommend a hydraulic setup to anyone who wishes to have the consistency of a "newer age feeling" clutch.

-Taylor

blandq · Apr 22, 2004

Wheel Hop?

Ozsum67 said:
Clutch slipping........could be. Nothing wrong with air shocks if you want a firmer ride, an adjustable ride, and adjustable ride height. 70s or not.

I agree with your usage of air shocks BUT:

1. If you need air shocks because when two people sit in the back of the car
then there is another problem you need to solve.

2. If you need air shocks because you tow with your Mustang then there is
another problem, you bought the wrong car.

3. If you are looking to maximize the performance of even a stock mustang, I believe the first thing to do is get the suspension stable.

- New aftermarket leaf springs (Originals sag in a month)
Lowers by 1/2 to 1 inch
- Lower front A-arms ~ 1-inch (Shelby Mod)
- Cut front springs to preference (flat, slight rake on ride height)
- Get sub Frame connectors
- Move the battery to the back and remove as much weight of the frontend
as you can;

Stock drums to Wilwood disks 30lbs.
Aluminum Heads/Intake/pulleys 50lbs.
Headers 20lbs.
Fiberglass hood 20lbs.
Alu Pulleys 5lbs..
*Electric Fuel pump in rear 5lbs.
*Battery in trunk 25lbs.
Moving the battery/ pump is a double word score i.e -30lbs. off the front and +30lbs in the trunk area!

Improving the balance on the car by ~ 5%
Improving overall weight by ~ 7%

is huge, not to mention the drive-ability. A lowered classic stang handles much better and is more condusive to the way we drive today. And now you can apply much more of that HP to the road instead of into sub-frame torque, wheel hop, etc.

-Q

19stang67 · Apr 22, 2004

I just scanned this really quick and don't know if anyone mentioned, but look at the tranny mount too. Also, ditch the air shocks. A common problem with them, especially if you keep them pumped high, is the upper shock mounting point (behind the rear seat) will start to develop tears in the sheetmetal. Had that in both my cars (68 R.I.P. and my 67) from previous owners who had air shocks installed. If you have those tears, weld them up now before they get worse.

88 Fox GT · Apr 22, 2004

Incase some of you are confused, I have a C-4. When I leave it in drive, and mash the gas it will do this. When I put it in 1st and mash it, it will just light them up nice and smooth.

69PaleHorse · Apr 22, 2004

I also have a C$ and have a similar problem. I initially thought timing or carburetion, but no amount of fiddling with that has made any change...

Wheelhop?

88 Fox GT

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