Ok so my boyfriend has an 89 Camaro. Well he's put a decent amount of work in the engine and trans. Originally the car came with a 305, now with the 350 in it we are getting a lot of wheel hop when he takes off when racing. Well we just started getting a list together to work on the suspension. So, he asked for traction bars for Christmas. But, someone told me he didn't need them because it has coil springs on the rear. Can we still use these? If not what else can i buy him for around the same price ($100) that will help him out.

 

traction bars i'm not sure they work on a coil springed car. I have them on my 79 Z28 but it has leaf springs they also call them slapper bars. I guess they could work but they would slap the LCA's. and them not being solid or boxed would cause problems i assume. To correct the problem you could get him a set of lower control arm relocation brackets. they adjust the angle of the rear to the car more or less. i'm guessing he's squatting pretty bad to get the wheel hop. probably some replacement rear springs and shocks will help also

 

oh ya i forgot to clarify one more thing....i called my b/f to tell him that they won't work. ANd he said that is has coil springs that sit on top of leaf springs. Is this true? I have a formula the same year, but i can't remember and i'm not driving.

 

No it's not there is no leaf springs in are cars. I think what he really want's is lower control arms here is a link to some

http://www.spohn.net/category.cfm?categoryid=1032

 

wow he is so positive that it has leaf springs. ANd i know he knows exactly what traction bars are. So why is so sure he can use them...

 

When you accelerate, the differential wants to rotate upward. With leaf springs, this would actually twist the springs. The traditional traction bars fit under the springs and had a snubber that would hit the underside of the spring as it would twist.

With a coil spring setup, there's no way to do this with a traditional traction bar. Since the suspension is completely different, a different kind of traction device is required.

For third gens, you get an adjustable torque arm to change the pinion angle. You get Lower Control Arm relocation brackets to change the angle of the LCA. Getting an aftermarket panhard bar and LCA is also recommended.

None of the third gen suspension upgrades are cheap.

 

no idea but there are no leaf springs the springs sit on top of the rear end. he could use traction bars but it would be long before they damaged the car. plus if it's a driver whenever he takes off they'll slap. not comfortable to drive daily with. about the best picture i have of the rear suspension is this color coded very quickly in ms paint lol no making fun of it!

blue is the springs
green is the rearend itself
yellow is a panhard bar relocation bracket
red is the lower control arm (LCA)
orange is the swaybar
purple is the tubular panhard bar

see no leaf springs. you see the springs sit right on the perch thats welded to the rear axle tubes. If i recall the traction bars for the 3rd gen bolted to the LCA and slapped the subframe itself. But with the car squatting horribly they wouldnt work anyway. It would be a useless part. I wouldnt do it, stephen said it right. the whole suspension needs done and it's not cheap.

 

thanks everyone for you info....you really helped me out

 

If he's fighting wheel hop, one of the first things he needs to do is a "tune-up". Think if this, do you think it had wheel hop brand new of the showroom floor? No, it didn't.

New shocks, new bushings and new springs are the first place to start. Then LCA relocate brackets and boxed lca. - Lakewood makes poly bushed box lca's for under $100, which would kill two birds with one stone. Just don't waste any money on the lakewood "traction action" bars.

- as stated, if its an 82-92 camaro/firebird, it does NOT have leaf springs.

 

Actually, it did. These cars wheel-hopped like a beotch when they were new. And few of them have got better with age. The 350 cars were horrible; although the weaker ones, like the LG4 or CFI ones, weren't so bad when new, since they had no torque. On the other hand, you can make just about ANY of them with a stick shift, maybe even a 6-cyl, start hopping if you drive it wrong.

But yeah, no sense modding a car that's simply worn-out, to overcome the worn-out-ness. That's kind of stupid. A set of new shocks and rear springs often does wonders for the problem. But not always... the more power the car has, the more it exposes the faulty design of the geometry.

 

My all factory 89 GTA L98/700r vert pulled 1.92 60fts on all factory suspension and low buck 255/50/16's on factory wheels. If you launched too hard it'd spin easy, but no hop issues ever. The 91 Z28 I had never had hop issues either.....even on the 80k mile 12 year old (at the time) shocks.
I but my stereo in the vert (heavy in trunk) and an eibach sportline kit and got 1.87 60ft's out the vert, everything else still factory. At around 100k I started loosing 60ft and I dropped in cheapy monroe sensa-junks and was good to go again. Then came some hp and along with it came relocates, boxed lca w/ poly ends, and a tube remote mount tq arm = 1.7X 60fts. Then came more hp, manual trans and the 17x11's with 315/35's, which has netted me consistent 1.66-1.71 60fts.

...just saying they didn't all wheel hop.....

 

I test-drove no telling how many of these cars at dealers when they were brand-new, from 82 on up until I lost interest in buying any new ones of them in about 88 or 89. I could make every one with a 4- or 5-speed hop, even the ones with the weaker 305s, and every one with a 350/auto. The better I got em to hook, the harder they'd hop. The weaker cars wouldn't do it quite so much of course. The 83 HO car I still have, I could make wheel-hop so bad that I could (and did...) break the trans mount the very first time I let the clutch out. Like, put in a new one, let the car off the jack stands, back down the driveway, and take off and break it right then and there; swear, drive back up the driveway, go buy another one. I finally got sick of it and put in a poly one. Didn't stop the hopping (LCA reloc brackets finally did, though); but at least the mount wouldn't break in half.

 

You could be right on that, all mine have had the poly mount since the first one broke, which was usually pretty quickly. - What you're saying makes sense, I'll buy that.

 

I don't see a problem. Buy him the traction bars, gift wrap them and put them under the Christmas tree. When he's ready to install sit in a chair on the driveway and enjoy the comedy show when he tries to install them. If you have a video camera that would be better yet.

"Merry Christmas honey, I got you exactly what you said you needed" "I got a comedy tape for myself too, I just need to film it first". "You won't mind if I post it on youtube will you?"

Lon

 

Best idea yet.

That would go along with those "I have a 600 HP SBC with no power adders and pump gas friendly" people or those "I have an 11 second street car that gets 30 MPG"

Until I bought a third gen, I had no idea what kind of suspension was under one either but I didn't go making claims on stuff I thought it needed. After doing a little research, the first thing the car got was SFC. After that I bought Herb Adams LCA and Panhard bar. Finally I bought a Spohn torque arm. Now my car has none of that under it except the SFC.

After he realizes he got something he can't use, take them back and trade them in on something (you) can use.