i have a 1965 mustang, its got a 289, with a 4 speed and i am getting some wheel hop when i launch the car hard. what would be a good thing to firm the car up. i will be running the car at a local drag strip here soon, so i dont want to tear it up to bad.

 

Traction bars, sub frame connectors, cal tracks, and a full tank of gas haha.

 

Cal Tracs or CE Slide A Links.

 

Traction Masters traction bars work well and are much cheaper than Cal Tracs or Slide-A-Links. I'm of the opinion that the latter two are a bit overkill on a low-hp street car.

Keep in mind, good leaf springs will limit axle wrap. If you have crappy, worn out leaf springs, don't expect good performance out of them.

 

There is an article on this in Car Craft magazine this month. It basically says what other have already posted. A 4.5 leaf spring will aid in limiting spring wrap and causing wheel hop if you are running a leaf spring rearend. Traction bars like CalTracs or Slide-A-Links will also help greatly with this. If you are running a coil link rear suspension, that is a different animal and I cannot help much with that.

Something to consider that I have noticed. If you are not running a sticky enough tire, you are going to get wheel spin which can lead to wheel hop. If the tires are sticking, they generally do not hop during acceleration. Now wheel hop from braking as in a road course is completely different. This can be caused from over braking the rear which can be fixed by adjusting the brake bias and the above mentioned traction devices.

 

It's not really wheel hop, it's axle twist, which causes the tire to hop. Traction Master bars will cure that.

 

If it's an 8 inch rear bring a trailer.

 

so its looking like i should jsut launch the car easier. i still do have the 8inch under there and it is been beat on. i snaped the U joints out of it last year doing a burn out. i was thinking of launching around 3k for a safe launch

 

What size tires? With the Traction Masters (or CalTraks) if you hook up really well you may trash your diff. Of course, that'll give you an excuse to get a Currie 4-pinion 8" Traction Lok, which is stronger than a lotta 9" rears.

 

I have Maier Racing leaf springs (165#) and bought them because they said traction bars aren't needed with their springs. They said Traction Master-type bars bind the suspension because the rear-end travels in 2 arcs (the spring radius and the bar radius) so they ride stiff. So I bought their springs, which are forward biased (and very nice) with poly front bushings (which squeak like crazy), and ride stiff! Anyway, I still have some wheel hop (usually one big bang on shifting). They said if I would buy a set of Bilsteins that would cure it, but I'm skeptical about spending another $150 (on top of the $400 for the springs) to give it a shot. I'm planning on going with Traction Master bars.