Last weekend my daugther and I were out crusing around in the "E". While in the process of doing some tire ripping I heard a loud pop. At first I thought there was nothing to it, but after smelling a burnt rubber smell on the way home I gave it a closer look. I noticed that the left rear tire was moved toward the back about two inches and almost touching the rear of the flare. My first impressoin was that the bolt that holds the springs together had sheered, but I was wrong. After lifting the car up this is what I found. The leaf spring had snapped clean into. Funny thing was I drove it about three miles to my home and there was no noticable difference in how the car drove or handled. Anyway, I guess a new set of springs are in order and if you guys have any ideas on how to prevent this from happening again I'm all ears. I'm at or a little over 500 ft/lbs of torque. Here are some photos.

 

Yikes. Lucky you didn't tear something up real good.

 

thats because you drive a classic mustang. handle and mustang dont go in the same sentence together.


jk ive seen your cars pictures, im speaking for the rest of us mere mortals.

 

I'd chalk it up to a freak thing. I've seen Jeeps pushing 40" tires on 100:1 total gearing hammer on it and not break the actual spring. I have seen enough wrap to break u-joints though. I'd just buy a replacement set and see if it happens again.

 

That's caused by spring wrap. Under heavy torque the pinion rises, stressing the springs just in front of the spring pad on the axle. Eventually...well..you see what happens. Traction bars will prevent that from happening. Not the snubber kind, but a good one like a Caltrac:

http://www.4secondsflat.com/CalTracs.html

 

+1

Traction bars should be considered a requirement on any V8 Mustang. Shelby put Traction Masters on all of the GT350's, which is what I'll most likely run when I get to that point. But at 500ft-lbs, you probably need CalTracs.

 

mmmm rear disk brakes

and yeah I would thing thats mostly a freak accident, but those traction bars look tasty! I can't even really see the break in the pics, maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot, but sounds pretty nasty to turn your wheel in like that

 

yep. I agree to traction bars. you are twisting your leaf like a brezel

 

Thanks guys, I guess I better do something to stop the wrap. It seems that something like the "caltrac" could be fabbed fairly easy. Anyone have a photo of a set installed or a drawing?

 

I was thinking the same thing, I really want to try to make a set