Frik92RS

Alright, I'm so fed up with my rear suspension and it's love for wheelhop. It seems to all be in the right rear for the most part. What is the down to earth real reason wheels hop? Is it my stiffer rear springs? My shocks back there are only a year old ad have no visable signs of failure, also if I bounce the rear of the car it seems to dampen down very quickly. Could a slightly bad shock really cause it? Do tires have anything to do with it, they are only 4 months old. I've done everything else to eliminate wheel hop: brackets, LCAs and such. What else could it be? If anyone, anywhere has any information I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

DJP87Z28

What brand of rear shocks did you install????

Frik92RS

KYB GR2, the wheel hop began when I went from an open differential to a Powertrax locking differential

CrazyHawaiian

Wheels hop when they dont contact the ground properly. They cup the ground (contact at front and rear, but not in the middle) causing a hop while they rotate. Usually happens when you apply sudden throttle, and not a good thing for your chassis. As for whats causing it, it could be alot of things. If you've done the LCA relocation brackets and LCA's, then you might want to look into bushings or like you said the shocks. Are you sure the LCA brackets made the angle correct? if the shocks are new and the rear is solid then its probably not the shocks. What about bushings?

Edit- look into the new posi unit. Not too familiar with it, but if thats what you changed when the problem started, thats probably whats causing it. Ask the people you bought it from or the manufacturer.

bennyhonda

When are you getting the wheel hop?

If it's around corners, I'd say the powertrax is too tight. If it's too tight the unit can't open up during a turn, leaving the wheels locked, and causing one wheel skip/hop around the turn. Is there an adjustment that will allow it to open easier?

If it's straight line wheel hop, the unit may be too loose. One tire breaks loose and pops the unit open leaving you with essentially an open diff. Maybe the ratcheting when the unit opens is causing the wheel to hop??

The powertrax acts like a locker/spool until the differing forces from the left/right axles(i.e. in a turn) break it open and allow it to ratchet/differentiate. I haven't personally used a powertrax but that's how I understand them to operate. If it started with the powertrax that is probably the problem.

I hope you get it fixed. With a stock motor and non-lowered suspension, I don't really see where else the problem could be.

82camaro

How a powertrax works...It allows one(and only one) tire to spin faster than the carrier. Which allows the outside tire to unlock when turning. It's giving you traction, not making the wheel hop. Check the angle of the LCA

Frik92RS

The Powertrax unit is working fine, when the hop occurs both wheels are still making trax on the ground. And there are no problems around corners. The LCA angle is correct, I had to get adjustable LCAs to ensure that but its correct now, I got the brackets to help with the hop and it did but its still there in a big way.

Could tire pressures have anything to do with it? I run my 245/45/17s at 36psi. Not having been outside yet today, and having this wonderful rainy/cold weather I haven't explored that yet but I shall later today.

Frik92RS

tire pressure has nothing to do with it

BADBIRD009

try an adjustable pan hard rod. it will adjust the angle on the diff the oppostite way the lca's do. maybe some subframe connectors would help too.

AGood2.8

If you claim your LCA angle is correct- Then your problem has to be your springs and shocks are too weak for the power to traction ratio you are putting down. Now I know you stated that they are new, but new doesn't mean that they are adequate in stiffness and damping.

When you get on it- have someone watch the rear end of the car for squat. I can almost promise you that you are having excessive squat and that is causing your LCA angle to change to a bad position causing the wheel hop.

Dewey316

how woudl the panhard effect wheel hop? it adjusts the way the rear-end sits side to side it doesn't change the angle.

to change the pinion angle, you need to get and adjustable TORQUE ARM. which might be a good next choice for you. it should really help your forward bite.

EDIT: good call agood2.8, (one of these days i need to find out your real name ) watching for squating is what you really need.

AGood2.8

Name's Dean- code name AfrikinGoodTime
Here's a passport photo I have stored in the computer ( sometimes I guess its nice to know who the h3ll your talking to right?:
Matter of fact I lived in Lake Oswego, Or. (8 miles south of Portland) back in '81-'82 Attended Lakeridge Highschool there in 9th and 10th grades. Beautiful area but I was born and raised in So. Calif and its hard to stay away from here.

Dewey316

whoo hooo, another face to match up with a name.

yeah i know your old stoppin' grounds, i live in gresham, but i work in beaverton. it amazes me, everyone seems to have a northwest connection of some sort!

BTW, not a great picture , but . . .

Frik92RS

Does anyone have any more info on the pinion angle and adj torqe arm thing. I understand how the adjustable torque arm would change the pinion angle but I don't understand how that would affect hop/traction.

When I put the locker in I had 2.73 gears and it was winter, snow, no traction anywhere, about a week later I had gears installed, the 3.23s. In that week or so the roads just stayed icy/salty wet so I couldn't really 'test' the differential. Could my pinion anygle have been screwed up by my installer causing hop

I'm ready to just buy z28 springs and new AGX shocks and see what happens. Thoughts/Ideas?

I really appreciate the help, thanks.

AGood2.8

Bad pinion angle will not cause wheel hop. Before you put in your new Powertrax in, you had an open diff. Now wheel spin was much easier because you focused more power to one wheel to break traction and the other wheel did n't fight the suspension. Now that both wheels are putting down the power, the power is distrubuted to two tires making traction and causing more squat and chatter under suspension loading. - I'm telling you again its you springs and shocks that are not heavy enough to handle the traction of your tires.

AJ_92RS

I have the exact same problem, and I also installed the PowerTrax unit.

I have yet to try and correct it since my 305 TBI isn't a torque monster anyway, but now you're making me nervous.

I hope I don't have a whole lot of trouble getting it to stop hopping.

Part of it's due to the type of tires you have. I have Cooper tires that are directional. They grab great. The only way I can get them to spin is to actually hold the brake.

Once they start spinning it's fine, but after they've smoked a little they heat up and start grabbing like a kid at Toys-'R'-Us. Once I lift my foot off the brake and let the car ride-it-out, the back starts hopping as the wheels stop spinning.

I would guess that my directional tread pattern doesn't help, but the tire compound would also have an effect.

I guess the real way to get axle hop to stop is to keep the rear wheels from spinning at all. After all, isn't that the reason we bought the PowerTrax?

82camaro

Which LCA relocation brackets did you get? Try a lower hole if possible. Stiffer springs and shocks will help. I too had the wheel hop problem after I added some traction via the powertrax--LCA relocation brackets fixed it. It's hard to wheel hop just one tire because the suspension must also fight sway bar if just one tire tries to hop.

ausrs

my guess is you have the same problem that i had
replace the control arm bushes and the wheelhop will go away
btw
i went from open to posi
fitted relocating brackets/boxed stock control arms
still had the hop
then i relaced control arms with tubular and poly bushing .it stopped

91FirebirdFmla

does wheel hop also include if you hit a bump going around a corner and your tail end slides to the side a bit?

AGood2.8

Poly bushing will in essence add a little "spring rate" because of there bind in travel. They will help dampen the wheel hop a slight bit. Rod ends however will allow for more wheel hop on a soft suspension because of freedom of movement.

Jekyll & Hyde

Couldn't he just bag onside to keep the squat at a minimum setting. This way it will force the tires down and lift the body. They aren't that expensive for just one bag.

Hulk0202

I'm guessing you have already checked your tranny mount?

JPrevost

Could you snap a picture of your suspension from the back of the car and try and get the LCA and torque arm all in the picture.
I had wheel hop when I went to 3.73 posi and had SLP LCAs (w/poly). I then installed some Hotchkis boxed (expensive) LCAs that I found in the junkyard. The rear felt a LOT better. Still wheel hopped but it felt "cushioned". Ended up being one of the SLP bushings was loose and fell out when I picked up the arm! So then I had the brackets installed, magic. No wheel hop. All gone, no more, best suspension modification I've done since the SFC. It isn't that the stock suspension components are bad, it's just that after YEARS of use they get worn out. Bushings are just that, they are bushings. They are ment to be replaced if not greased.
Why did you need adjustable LCAs? I'm still using the stock torque arm with a poly mount, poly motor mounts and poly trans mount. The car dead hooks until the trans shifts .

Frik92RS

So many questions. I ordered KYB gas-a-just shocks and picked up MOOG stock rear springs from CarQuest (the owner has a thirdgen and he gives me everything wholesale so I got the springs for half price )and I'm going to see what that does. I'm installing them tomorrow so wish me luck!

While I'm under the car tomorrow I'll take a pic and post it.

I needed the adjustable LCAs because my installer didn't weld the brackets in straight and one side was farther forward than the other one, grr.

When my car hops it's only straight line hop, if I spin going around a turn it wont get bouncy.

I'm hoping that since the hop is mostly in the passenger side wheel that it will indeed be a shock problem but I guess I wont know for sure until tomorrow. My tires do have excellant grip, they are Sumithomo HTR+ 245/45/17. Most of my hop problems are in the wet, the tires are really gripy in the wet however the motor is plenty strong enough to spin them if I get on it too hard and then its hop hop hop I go like a bunny.

Hulk0202

How about that tranny mount?

Frik92RS

Sorry man, forgot about your Q. The tranny mount is new, Prothane mount. My new shocks didn't come until 7pm tonight so I'm still in the middle of installing them, I'm taking a well deserved break from banging my head and cursing at suspension bolts that refuse to budge

I did notice that I could easily compress the GR2 shocks that were in there and I can't compress the new Gas-a-Just ones. Any ideas as to why shocks would wear out after only a year of abuse?

Frik92RS

Ok, well....

She still hops a little but the hop has been greatly reduced. The new shocks feel great, very tight rear....heh. I hop a bit at the beginning of the spin and then it's solid through it and then a little bit more hop at the end. The hop coming out is more pronounced then at the beginning, I am beginning to think that I'm just gonna have to live with it. Maybe when I bolt on more speed parts onto the motor I'll get more hardy spin and it'll go away. Everything in the rear is new except for the torque arm, and everything is poly inc. the torque arm bushing. I didn't have time to take pics of the rear suspension because I did most of the work in the dark, I will try tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your help, if you have any other ideas as to why I'm hopping I'd appreciate any input you've got. Thanks again.

myoldz

i believe lakewood sells a lower arm control kit that lowers your arms. I had a little hop but when i installed this setup it all went away. I think either Jegs or Summit sells this. Hope this helps...