Installing Super Track Bar with Bags

[5150]

This may be a stupid question, but I was trying to install my CPP super Track Bar kit and can't seem to get it right. It wasn't off but about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in the first place, but I wanted to try to get it perfect. I worked for a few hours on it and thought I had it. I tightened everything down and dropped it and IT WAS OFF MORE THEN IT WAS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!

Any secrets to this??

[gringoloco]

Are you trying to center the rear? It will only be centered at one point in the suspension's travel. I set mine for ride height. It will move to one side or the other when aired up or down. It's basically trial and error- I wish they were threaded on both ends ala tie rods- would make life a lot easier...

[5150]

yes, I was trying to get it centered when it's aired out, but you are saying it's not going to happen?

[gringoloco]

Maybe not. There may not be enough adjustability in it. I center mine at ride height so that 1) it will not rub any where while driving 2) it will not dog leg or crab walk down the road.

[5150]

Okay, I'll play with it again. Was just so mad after 3 hours of up and down, up and down. Got it on schrader(sp?) valves until the wiring is done.

[vin63]

...as gringoloco mentioned, it's best to make the adjustments to the track bar at ride height because it will push the rearend out/in depending on where in the suspension travel you're at. I had a similar problem you have...then I had to break out the geometry and do some math, which mad me even more upset. After some customizing, I was able to keep my rearend movement to within about 1/2" total side-to-side movement in a 7-inch vertical travel, but I did a semi-custom track bar - I ended up only using the trackbar from my kit, and I had to modify the bar to boot. It is now a J-type bar (I put a bend in the bar) and fabricated a mount and welded it directly to the back of the trailing arm. I had to do a few other things to modify the trackbar's angle of travel, but that's probably more than you want to know. Here are a couple of photos of what I did...

[lolife99]

vin63,... thanks for the picture.
I'm in the process of making the same type of modified bracket.
5150,... put your truck up on jackstands (under the rearend) and use a come-a-long or ratchet straps to center the frame. (basically pulling the frame/body left to right until you have it centered). Then thread out the track bar end until it bolts up. Air it up and down while its on the jackstands to check for rubbing/ side movement.

[suville]

vin63 info on that sway bar set up been lookin at that option myself just wondering what or who you got it from. Thanks for your time

[VA72C10]

So would you recommend the super trac bar kit or just a simple adj. track bar and making your own bracket for someone w/ bags on trailing arms?

[vin63]

Originally Posted by suville

vin63 info on that sway bar set up been lookin at that option myself just wondering what or who you got it from. Thanks for your time

Don't mean to hijack...I went with a torsion-style sway bar because of the issues I was having with the track bar and how low the truck was with the air bags. The 36-spline torsion bar and arms were leftover from an earlier project (Speedway Engineering). I used a 1 1/8" tube as a housing/crossmember and used spherical rod ends to the rearend housing.

[chevydog66]

Hmmm, interesting, I am getting ready to frameswap my 72 GMC onto a 71 Chevy frame so that I can install the airbags on the rear. I will be installing a c-notch and blocks, and adj. trac bar. I wanna watch this one. Lets see some more pics and options/opinions.

[VA72C10]

ttt

[vin63]

Originally Posted by VA72C10

So would you recommend the super trac bar kit or just a simple adj. track bar and making your own bracket for someone w/ bags on trailing arms?

The Super Track Bar kit is a great rearend centering device because it is adjustable and should work great for most applications, including those with air springs. I had to modify mine because I'm using a sheetmetal Ford 9-inch housing that the center section extends back about 5-inches further than a stock rearend housing. The other compounding issue for me was the low ride height. As a result, I had to customize my Super Track bar extensively and then fabricate my own mount brackets. Here a couple of shots of my set up that might help better explain why I had to customize my track bar...this is at full drop.

[j.files]

A trac bar is such a simple concept and it is nothing like a pan hard bar. I have used trac bars with every vehicle i have ever bagged and never had any side to side movement. It all depends on how u set up your trac bar. If you mount the trac bar diagonally from one link bar to the other and not to the frame it will not move side to side. You start to get side to side movement when you mount one side to the frame and the other side to the rear end or link bar. If you look at the trac bar in the picture you will see it runs from one link bar to the other.

[vin63]

Originally Posted by j.files

A trac bar is such a simple concept and it is nothing like a pan hard bar. I have used trac bars with every vehicle i have ever bagged and never had any side to side movement. It all depends on how u set up your trac bar. If you mount the trac bar diagonally from one link bar to the other and not to the frame it will not move side to side. You start to get side to side movement when you mount one side to the frame and the other side to the rear end or link bar. If you look at the trac bar in the picture you will see it runs from one link bar to the other.

You still have to mount any rearend centering device to the frame. It looks like what you have is a diagonal link that runs from the front of a link mounted at a fixed frame mount to the rear of the opposite link - this is what I run on my four-link drag cars. Those work well for shorter link applications, such as ladder bars and four-links - looks like you are running a shorter link than the factory trailing arms? However, for long spans like the factory trailing arms, the bar usually has to be so thick to prevent bending and twisting that it is often impractical - not to mention drive shaft interference on lowered applications. Some of my friends have bent the diagonal links in their ladder bar suspension driving their drag cars on the street. Just a little of my experience setting up drag race and trailing arm suspensions over the years.

[XXL]

Originally Posted by j.files

A trac bar is such a simple concept and it is nothing like a pan hard bar. I have used trac bars with every vehicle i have ever bagged and never had any side to side movement.

Do you drive this on public roadways? What you've got is a failure mode that just hasn't happened yet. You're asking your shock bushings and the fronts of your trailing arms to do all the work of centering your rearend... all at highly leveraged points, so the mechanical stress is orders of magnitude greater. I thought the "2 link" craze had started to fade.

Also, the term "Trac Bar" as it's being used in this thread, is indeed a Panhard rod that is longer than the stock unit. The longer unit allows for less side-to-side motion of the rearend as the suspension compresses and rebounds.

[Shane]

oh my ...

[vin63]

Originally Posted by XXL

Do you drive this on public roadways? What you've got is a failure mode that just hasn't happened yet. You're asking your shock bushings and the fronts of your trailing arms to do all the work of centering your rearend... all at highly leveraged points, so the mechanical stress is orders of magnitude greater. I thought the "2 link" craze had started to fade.

Also, the term "Trac Bar" as it's being used in this thread, is indeed a Panhard rod that is longer than the stock unit. The longer unit allows for less side-to-side motion of the rearend as the suspension compresses and rebounds.

X2...if the rearend centering device is not attached to the frame on one end, you're asking for trouble. In my case, I had to make a lot of modifications to the Super Track Bar kit because the bar would've hit the back of the rearend housing center - that's when it turned into a cluster for me. The other type of centering device that provides better accuracy is a Watts Link, but I don't have the room behind my rearend for that type of set up.