A friend of mine has a 68 Mustang that wheel hops bad when you get down on it. The car has KYB shocks on it, he bought the car as a roller and is just now getting it going. Do you guys think it maybe the shocks?

 

Most Mustangs have this issue. It's a downside to leaf springs. There are a couple fixes.

1) New leaf springs. Old, worn out leaf springs will allow excessive axle wrap, creating a lot of wheel hop. 4.5 leaf springs, or those obtained from Maier Racing, even have a special leaf placed to help prevent axle wrap.

2) Traction Masters traction bars (not the cheapo bolt-on deals). They weld to the frame rail in the front and bolt to the axle, preventing any kind of axle wrap without binding up the suspension too much and affecting handling.

3) Cal Tracs or Comp Engineering Slide-A-Links. These traction bars mount to the front leaf spring bolt. I hear they work very well, but are very pricey and overkill for most street cars.

 

agree. in the four wheel drive world we call it axle wrap, you can actually watch the axle twist the leaf spring. traction bars would help.

 

Not really. Shocks don't develop resistance until there is movement along their axis, and don't provide much resistance until the movement becomes rapid - and rapid movement is precisely what you're trying to get rid of in this situation.

An alternate factory band-aid for axle hop with leaf sprung cars was to mount one rear shock ahead of the axle and one behind. The idea was to dynamically resist the axle wrap (one shock is compressed, the other is extended) and hopefully hold the chatter to a minimum. Even though it was better than having both shocks either ahead of or behind the axle, it still didn't work all that well.


Norm