Never seen Lakewoods without the snubber. They could be adjusted all the way up though. Ansen had a slightly differnt style of traction bar called Ground Grabbers that could be locked solid too with a bolt.

 

After doing some digging on Lakewood's website, I found their Traction Action 21150 suspension bars, they look awful similar to these. I'm going to get a better look at them tonight. They did use a u bolt over the spring but not cranked down tight from what I'm gathering of the instructions online, they also had a snubber. I think the ones on the car do not have a snubber. I know they still have the Lakewood sticker though.

 

Southside Machine Lift Bars were that way, clamped solid up close to the spring eye with a u-bolt, and IIRC Southside Machine got sucked up by the Mr Gasket conglomerate which includes Lakewood several years ago, so maybe Lakewood continued that style bar under the Lakewood name for a while???

Maybe Lakewood aquired excess inventory at the buy out and just slapped Lakewood stickers on them till they sold off all the old stock??

I know what you are saying, I'm sure I have seen the Southside Bar with the Lakewood logo on it in the pits at the track. It stuck a little in my mind, but at the time I thought someone had just slapped some stickers on a used set of bars.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to look into this a little deeper this weekend and hopefully log on here with what I find.

 

If you had a picture I could tell you for sure if they were the Southside design. The tube/bar, right as it comes forward off the mount plate at the axle - the tube is cut/notched(or mandrel bent) and then bent up at an angle to more closely follow the spring and welded back solid. Front tabs hold a u-bolt clamped around the main leaf spring right behind/tight behind the front spring eye.

 

Would like to see some pics of these slapper bars.


Cole

 

Traction Action bars missing the snubber with the front clamp drawn down tight?

http://www.lakewoodindustries.com/P...ies.com/ProductDetails.aspx?MajID=156&MinID=1562&productID=1995&txtSearch=21606

 

A cheap and easy trick to reduce wheel hop is to clamp all the leafs together forward of the axle. That in effect, makes a solid bar from the axle forward to the frame. It sounds like the setup on the Camaro would have basically the same result. While I can't speak to how the Camaro rides, though I can imagine their might be some binding with suspension travel with that bar clamped tight, in my experience clamping the leafs as I describe doesn't affect the ride noticeably.

Andy

 

As I recall , the U bolts on the front of many slapper bars where there to keep the front nose of the bars from dropping too far when the brakes were applied

 

True but they shouldnt be holding the bar rigid to the spring, the bar typicaly has a gap at a stand still that is sometimes adjustable to "tune" the rear for a harder or softer hit off the line.

New designs use relatively solid links front and rear but have a slide joint or something similar somewhere on the bar, they act like LCA's more or less but would tend to bind if not jointed somehow.

 

Traction Action bars missing the snubber with the front clamp drawn down tight?

http://www.lakewoodindustries.com/P...ies.com/ProductDetails.aspx?MajID=156&MinID=1562&productID=1995&txtSearch=21606

That's it exactly.

 

You might want to tell him that they are incorrectly installed. That front u-bolt is supposed to float around the spring and act as a safety anti-dive/dig in protector to keep the front of the bar from digging the ground when on the brakes hard. It is not to be used to draw the snubber end of the bar tight to the spring, there should be some gap at the snubber for the bars to work their best. The instructions even tell you not to draw them down tight. Gap is neccessary to put some "hit" into the suspension to plant the tire. Tell him not to feel bad. I see lots of cars like his where the installer didn't pay attention to the instructions and didn't know any better, or were "advised" by a shade tree mechanic to "tighten 'em down" Right now the suspension is bound up, probable don't hook well at all.

 

I talked to him this weekend and he said it doesn't hook worth anything. We removed the air shocks and installed gas charged shocks and now are going to free up the traction bars and fabricate some snubbers for them.
Thanks everybody for your help,
Chip.

 

Well, I dropped the "slapper" bars last night to clean them up and modify them for some snubbers. There was a Southside sticker under the paint on both of them. Somebody painted them yellow and put Lakewood stickers on them. Is there any adjustment to them? I've gurgle searched to no avail.
Thanks,
Chip.

 

Just to be clear, Where is the clamp that is on the front section of the traction bar?? The true Southside design it is RIGHT up near touching the front eye of the spring, at the very end of the bar. On the Lakewood bar it is 6-8" or more back from the very front of the bar.

IIRC the Southside bars were adjusted with shims that looked just like the front bar mount, in 1/8" or 1/4" increments, to set pinion angle.

Lakewoods are adjusted by either cutting the rubber snubber or shimming underneath it.

You can still get replacement snubbers from Lakewood for their bars.

 

Eric, the front U-bolt is within an inch of the front spring eye. I can hold one back up there and check this evening. I don't remember any shims though.

 

Eric, the front U-bolt is within an inch of the front spring eye. I can hold one back up there and check this evening. I don't remember any shims though.

Sounds like the SouthSide design all right. The shims were just like the front mount that is welded on the bar, just a piece of 1/8" or 1/4" x 1" wide flat stock about 3-1/2" long with the same bolt pattern as the front mount. They get sandwiched between the spring and the front mount to raise or lower the front of the bar.

The shims I saw could have been something someone made in an attempt to make these bars work better, I don't know for sure. Never cared for the way the Southside bar clamped up tight to the spring.

 

Thanks Eric, I'll get some flat stock and make some shims to adjust pinion angle. Either that or get him to remove them and put on some regular slapper bars or Cal Tracs.