hey guys
i have almost finshed building this thirdgen, and im looking for a few idea's on which tq arm will work best, i have looked at the jegs one and such, i under stand since its short it helps plant the tires harder on lower hp engines ete, this will be going on a race car that will see a few but very little street miles, im more used to the factory 4 link syle( g bodys) im not shur which to go with long or short or what brand, im running a th350 with abrake so there is no way to hook a tq arm to the tranny, ill give some info about the setup so maybe it will help a little.
383 sbc makes 495hp crank hp with out bottle
forged 4340 crank
forged 4340 6in rods
Je forged pistons 10.75 comp
cam is a 533int, 555exh, on a 114lobe
ported sportman 2 heads
vic jr intake with pro fogger engine gets hit with a 300shot
850dp
tranny
th350 with a trans brake and 4000stall
have a 9in housing for a third gen 3.90 gear
lakewood drag struts 90-10 v6 front springs
50-50 rear shocks

so from this little bit of info what kind of tq arm would work best? i cant do a 4link right now or a ladder bar setup right now.
Thanks guys
hope this is the right place to put this

 

i would go with the spohn unit with tranny crossmember and ta.

 

I really like the jegs unit. I was running the stock arm but nitto DR's, spohn lca's, brackets, panhard, etc. Spinning off the line if I didn't roll into the throttle. 11.50's @118 and 1.70's 60' time

I installed the jegs adjustable arm, and a set of air bags in my rear springs and now I dead hook on the street. Aint been back to the track yet though cause I'm still not legal to race. I aint got my 5 point harrnes in, window net, etc in yet.

I do have a 0-60 mph timer built into my speedo, and before my 0-60 was 3.1 to 3.3 seconds depending on how quick/hard I got into the throttle. Now with the jegs arm on the same spot of road, very close air weather, etc my 0-60 mph is 2.8 to 2.9 seconds

Here's some pictures of the arm, bags, and install of both. Webshots - Images of Jeg's torque arm, Air 'drag' bags, and other

 

that arm looks pretty good, how did the install go?

 

The torque arm install wasn't all that bad. Real straight foward. I did have to take the front seats out and pull carpet back. Two of the 7 bolts on the pass side ends up about 1" above bottom of consol, but I was able to loosen up consol and hold bolts with long nose vise grips to drop em' through the 2 holes so I didnt have to pull the whole consol out.

My 2 biggest probs was... drill bits that wanted to walk on me. Your drilling on an angle so the bit wants to run all over the place. A center punch would have fixed that but I didnt have one so I just found a real sharp self taping sheet metal screw, and my cordless elec. screwdrive and just screwed the screw in each spot to make a good 'dimple' for the drill bit to sit in and start cutting.

Other prob was drill lenght. The drill I norm. use is an elec 1/2" hammer drill and that big thing was too long to fit and drill holes at the needed angle, so I had to go dig through my old tools and find my old shorter than most 3/8" drills. A 90* right angle drill would have made it so much faster or a 3/8" air drill.

Thats the worse part, I had ordered a cheap 3/8" air drill from harbor freight before hand but it was back ordered and I done had my suspension took apart before I found that out.

The air bag install was very simple.. But if you gonna do them here is one tip I'll give you that I wish I had knew before I done it..

Un roll the air line they give you, cut it in half, install the lines on the hose barbs of bags before you put bags in the springs. Then slide the line through rubber disk and bring disk up to bottom of bag, drop the air line through spring then the bag, and go out it up under the car running air line through spring perch 1st, then sit spring in place.

It's kinda tough to reach up through that small crack and put the line and clamp on.

 

I'd go with the spohn ajustable with the crossmember and driveshaft loop. Mine was expensive, but works great.

 

If you're interested, I've got a Jegs Adjustable Torque Arm for sale. Used 1 season, great shape $250 shipped.

 

You're past the limits of a stocker or the Jegs unit. The Jegs piece is too short anyway. The Spohn is the best out there right now. Plus you'll have the crossmember, driveshaft loop and adjustability. You'll also want a set of adjustable LCA"s and the relocation brackets.

 

Hey 1bad406. If you don't mind, what is the tire wheel combo on your car? (Rear) Tire size, wheel width and backspace.
Thanks

 

I've got the jegs arm also and am very pleased with it, install was a little different to say the least but the thing hooks!!

 

86t/a: I've been running this Jegs unit for 2 seasons and am very pleased with it for the cost to performance ratio. But if you've done a search then you've probably seen my opinons/findings on this short tq arm coupled with alot of power and what it does.

is this going to be a bracket car or a class (heads up type car) if a bracket car then consistency is the #1 priority, dont waste your time with air bags since they still allow the chasis to flex/twist on the hit. Get a drag racing anti roll bar and be done with it once....your 60' will thank you as well as more consistant chasis qualities for R/T's since body will not roll at all...the car will leave dead straight and level just like you want once you dial in pre load.

that short tq arm+good power will really eat up tires (I go through a set of bias ply slicks a month with ALOT of plug left but sidewalls are shot since they take all the abuse)

For a budget set-up that works well at your combination and power level: short tq arm with air bags and low staging rpm/launches for consistency

when your ready to get serious about performance/consistency: step up to a real racing anti roll bar (not some cheesy 1" factory type style") but one from Wolfe Craft and then install a factory length tq arm.

Trying to run a quality anti roll bar with a short arm is asking alot from your tires since the chasis will no longer flex/tweak to absorb some of the engines energy-it all goes into the tires. By installing the longer tq arm it will redirect the energy back into the chasis and take some of the pressure off the rear tires to do all of the hooking up.

 

don't forget the bmr unit!!!! i see problems with both the jegs and spohn units. i've seen a couple people run into the issue on high hp cars with the spohn crossmembers actually ripping the mounting bolts out of the frame of the car. this make me want to get the mounting point away from the tranny entirely. the jegs unit is simply too short for consistancy in my personal opinion. i know that IHI has had good luck with his, but i know for a fact that the bmr unit works better. it's a bit longer, and mounts to it's own dedicated crossmember that welds to the bottom of the car and runs the width of the car. here are some pics right off the bmr site.



go to BMR Fabrication Inc. for more info.

 

Is that the "Trak-Pak" setup? If so I know a few guys at the dragstrip that I was at last weekend are runnng it, and they say that the car dead hooks now. One of them was running a Jeg's unit, and the other was runnig a stock "boxed" unit.

 

yes, that is the track pak unit. i'll be designing one similiar for my own car, but i'll build it myself.

 

The force is upward during a launch at the front of a torque arm so I'm curious as to how it would possibly rip the bolts out.

 

the mounting point for the torque arm is behind the place where it bolts to the frame by a good 6" or so. it acts as a lever and rips the front bolts right outta the frame.

 

I can second that! It happened to mine soon as I installed on my 82 BBC build, I ended up cutting holes in side of frame to use 1/4 plate to bolt through utilizing all 6 holes..
And the leverage point is a good 9-12" away from bolting point.. I do plan to run kickers from hoop to the arm mount though.. It hooking very well though!

As for the jegs - what is "past the limits"? My 87 ta has gone 10.0 with the jegster, Most of time air bags with jegster do little as car lifts anyway rendering bags useless - however I use bags on the T/A because its lowered, so when my 28x10.5 slicks are on it wont rub fenders while driving through pits or at end of traps..
I do agree for a High HP car, the lift is to excessive but can work well..
They do abuse sidewalls, but I don't go through many sets at all..
My hoosiers lasted me all year with little fault, but IHI uses a trans brake and sure that really hits the tires...

Here the lift of jegster can be seen on my car..

http://media.putfile.com/1009

The jegster is lighter than Spohn and much cheaper and does not get in way of exhaust at all
but the spohn is a great unit as well.. Heavier, can't use mufflex Y-with long tubes..
Does hook well with some lift on high HP cars, and not noisy at all.. Can deffinetly rip bolts out of frame with a powerful combo, but can be fixed pretty easy..

Here the Spohn can bew seen..
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/0...9A57A5DBC0.htm

 

How did it fail? Did it simply just pull the bolts out of the bushings or did it pull the whole lot right out through the subframe rail?

I have one as well, but I didnt really apreciate just how far away the mount for the TA is until I put it in.

 

It pulled threads on the inserts, I just used a hole saw and cut 2) 1.25 holes
in sides of subframe. Placed longer 7/16" bolts through the 4 holes with washers and nuts on top of factory hardware. You will notice spohn has
3 holes in each side, I drilled the 3rd hole and used a 1/4 thick x 1.25 wide washer on upper side of frame.
Has been good so far, but the car only made about 9 passes before it spun # 7 rod bearing - Should ne back together within a few weeks but with a transbrake this time, Hopefully the spohn stays attached for that.

 

I already made 2 small holes in the floor to fix the rear ones. Ill probably end up putting high strength bolts at the four corners. Not running nearly as much power as you, but it would be nice to not have to worry about it. Was there any damage to the subframe rails? Or was it mainly just the bolts pulling out? Even though theyre self tapping, it still probably took several thousand lbs of force to yank each one out.