I tightened mine on the ground. So that way the control arms would be at regular ride height. Otherwise, when the control arm goes up when the weight of the car goes on it, it would put extra strain on the traction bars.

 

Zero-K, thank you so much for posting photos of the installation steps. I have been interested in these for months and was the first one in the second batch, but I've never been able to visualize them well because no one's ever posted pics (seems like JClaw didn't want pics but I hope he doesn't mind now). Anyway, now I have a much better idea how these fit on. I will be installing mine in about two weeks.

Everyone, once you get your bars on, post impressions ASAP. It might be a good idea to do a few hard launches before installing the traction bars so you remember what it feels like.

 

JClaw can 1 more be made I have payment in hand

 

Are you taking any more orders?

 

how thick is the plate? seems like it could easily torque, but that's probably not the case. have any problems like that come up?

 

Well, it's 1/8" steel and the way it's mounted most of the forces will be in the plane of the plate, not perpendicular to it, so I don't think there will be much torquing going on.

 

those pics look great, i am waiting for my friend to finish his motor swap in his max, then i will do my interior swap and the traction bars, also 95blkmax mine package was opened... instructions were all wet though.

 

ah, alright. i guess the way i looked at it, it didn't look like it was all on the same plane. but if it is, i'll take your word for it. that would make more sense, too.

 

Well look again at this photo, it's clearly in the same plane; the plate's not going to bend forward or backward:




The traction bars are designed to prevent the front-to-rear motion of the control arm which is the prime cause of wheel-hop. There's not going to be much side-to-side motion because of the way the control arm is attached.

 

Reading that you guys are tightening these after install makes me worried about alignment. If you're on OEM LCA bushings there is quite a bit of slop in the bushings. Even in the ES bushings there is some movement still. My concern is that overtightening these will affect caster. Pulling the wheel further forward that the stock caster recomendations will be good for braking and anti dive but will make the car more skittish and inconsistant as the front wheels will try to flop from side to side. This will be especially magnified for those of you running more than -1.5 degrees camber. Just thought I'd throw it out there so people don't go cranking it down to elimnate the wheelhop but die soon after due to flopping all over the road. I know I'm exagerating but...

 

Good point...I was also thinking about that. Which brings to mind why traction bars made for trucks are positioned behind the front axle towards the rear of the car. Not only does it eliminate wheel hop but it stabilizes the front end more due to positive caster. When I get mine, I won't crank the traction bar too far to the back as that will cause negative caster which will make the car hard to steer straight.

 

As long as there's no play in the traction bar setup, it shouldn't matter how short or long you adjust it, correct? If adjusted properly it will be holding the control arm firmly in the stock position so it can't move forward or back, but shouldn't mess with caster or camber.

 

Question, how much should the connecting bolts be torqued at?

 

Zero-K thanks. and BUMP for DR Max's question. IM going to install mine tonight

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but it sesms like you're kinda contradicting yourself Tom. I agree with this part.
But not with this part.
I would think that if it is short it will be pulling the LCA foward as it goes upward through its range of motion.

 

Sorry I wasn't clear. All I was trying to say is, you can adjust the bars to any position and it will hold the LCA in that position. So if you adjust them to hold the LCA in the normal position (rather than pulling it forward too much) it shouldn't affect camber/caster yet it will prevent the movement that causes wheel hop.

The whole issue about what happens when the LCA moves as you hit bumps and dips is something I hadn't begun to consider. So are you suggesting that the farther the suspension is compressed, the more the traction bars are angled up and therefore the more they pull forward on the LCA?

Has anybody noticed adverse side effects from the TBs? Worse ride, strange handling, etc?

 

I just got mine today! Just a word of caution, the brackets have sharp edges, be careful as it could easily cut your hand. Carefully file the edges off.

One thing I'm having a hard time understanding is adjusting the bar. If both rod ends are bolted down and you twist the bar, the bar will either move to the left or right depending on the direction that you are twisting it. One end of the bar will move closer towards the "hoop" of the rod end while the other will move away from the "hoop" of the rod end. So how would the bar lengthen so that it will push the LCA towards the back?

 

What I would do is probably keep the bar in a neutral position, not to push back on the LCA. If you look at the photo below, pushing on the LCA towards the rear can give you a negative caster. This means that the lower ball joint will move towards the back bringing the top of the steering pivot of the front wheels to lean forward. This means that the steering will be light and the vehicle will wander and be difficult to keep in a straight line. Pulling on the LCA forward, towards the front of the car, results in positive caster. This means that the lower ball joint will move towards the front bringing the top of the steering pivot of the front wheels to lean backwards. This will stabilize the front end however, if the caster is too positive, the steering will be heavy and the steering wheel may kick when you hit a bump.



Leaving the bar in the neutral position will keep the caster settings intact while limiting the frontal or backward movement of the LCA.

 

One of the rods is left hand thread, the other is right hand thread. When you turn one way, they both turn in, when you turn it the other, they both turn out.


OK, I started to get some rubbing and creaking going on. I think its because of the angle of the bars. I read somewhere in the threads that the bars went on the outside of the brackets towards the outside of the car. Hence the reason I installed them this way, but after looking at it closer, it looks like it would be more straight of a run if they were on the inside of the brackets. This might eliminate some of the noise. So I'm going to be changing them tonight. I'll let you know if there is any improvment in it.

 

Thanks for pointing that out! That makes a lot more sense now.

 

Looking at the photos above, if you move that end towards the opposite side of the bracket, the middle of the bar might hit something. Looks like the middle portion of that bar is already in close proximity of that black shield. I'm not exactly sure, nor can't see, what is behind it.

 

Right now it does hit the splash guard...but thats only a piece of plastic and easily moves the 1/4" it needs.
The creaking I'm hearing I believe is either coming from the ends rubbing on the bracket, or the bar rubbing on the control arm. I might have to put a small spacer(washers) on the top of the control arm to bring it up a little bit.

 

Good idea!!! I was thinking of the exact same thing. Please let us know if that fixes the issue. I would try the front ones first since this is the area in which the bar pivots on when the LCA moves up and down. The LCA side has no pivot point because of the way its mounted, horizontally onto the LCA. I'm going to have a traction bar install day with some of the orgers in my area as well. Two of us have already received our traction bars, not sure about the others. We're planning on the install this weekend.

 

Who hasnt received their bars that were on the 2nd batch list. I still havent got mine and in 6 more days it will be a month since they got sent out.

 

Maybe my control arms are different from you guys but I tried to install the bars on the outside of the plates and there was no way for them to line up with the holes on the LCAs. I mounted them on the inside of the plates and then they lines up perfect.

Another thing, I know its been discussed already but Im still messed up from bacardi 151 from last night ( ) so Im a little slow, but how do you solve the issue of the bar hitting the oil filter?

JClaw it seems that its a pretty common thing for the bars to need spacers. Maybe on future batches that you make you could include a few extra washers. Just my .02

 

I just finished installing my traction bar and I wanted to share some install photos. Although the entire install should only take 30-45 mins, I took the whole afternoon doing trial fitments to determine what is the best way to install the traction bar. First I sprayed some penetrating oil onto the tow hook bolts to make the removal process less painful, then I installed the brackets that came with the traction bars. Prior to installing the traction bars, I adjusted both of the rod ends to show equal amounts of threads to keep them balanced. Then I installed the LCA end first, but I didn't tighten the mounting bolt as of yet.

Based on Zero-K's reports of rubbing and creaking I did something a little different. I bought some nuts that are a little over .5" wide. I used them as spacers to space out the rod ends away from the mounting surface. I think this is what is causing the creaking noise as the traction bar moves with the suspension. See pic below:


I also did the same thing when I installed the bracket end. And I mounted the bar on the inner side of the bracket. Also, notice how the spacer is letting the bar move freely, not rubbing anywhere on the bracket. See pic below:


It seemed like a great idea at the time until I started eye-balling some areas that could interfere with the traction bar. I slowly lowered the car back to the ground and noticed two places that will definitely interfere with the bar. The oil filter was the first obvious one, and then the pic below (not sure what to call this):


So I decided to remove the spacer on the LCA end and move the bracket end to the outter side. I left the spacer in the bracket end of the traction bar. This is how they look like now.

LCA end:

 

Bracket end, the bar is still not hitting the bracket:


All is well except for one thing. One of the traction bars is made incorrectly, both of the ends are either left or hand threaded so that when I turn the bar one way, it moves left. Turn it the other way and it moves to the right. I'm going to PM JClaw about this.

 

Went for a drive for about an hour, ran some errands while I was at it. One thing I notice is a slight (single) tick or click when accelerating from dead stop (not to be mistaken from axle clicks due to bad axles). This could be due to the torque caused by the drive-axle/wheel transfering to the traction bar. The sound was not there prior to installing the traction bar so I'm hoping that it's not going to harm anything in the long run. If you guys have experienced this, please chime in.

Another thing that I noticed is that my tires are rubbing at full turns. I have 235/45 tires so I'm sure its just the width of my tire. I'm going to get some thick washers and go down on the width of the spacers. Maybe that'll fix the tire rubbing issue.

Over all I can't complain...I have never tested the traction bar to its potential as I couldn't get the opportunity to launch hard from a dead stop. Street traffic is pretty busy for a Sunday night so I'll report later once I am able to do so.

 

Would using thin rubber or poly bushings at the mounting points help to insulate some of this noise?

 

Not sure, rubber would deform and get squished in due time. As for poly bushings, I'm not sure if you can find something that is .5" or less.

 

Your tires are rubbing on.....the traction bars? I have 235/45 on 8" 40mm offset wheels, hope I don't get that problem. Thanks for the photos and info!

Won't be doing this for at least a few more days, but I think I'm gonna go out and spray down those tow-hook bolts with PB Blaster now....

 

Good idea...I sprayed mine down an hour before I started. Meanwhile I unpacked the traction bars and the hardware that came with it.

I'm on 17x8 Rota Subzero wheels, not sure what the offset is. It only rubs at full turns. I'm going to remove the .5" spacers and go with 3 washers (per side) which should amount to half the width of the current spacers. That might make a difference.

On the first post, JClaw stated that you can use spacers to space out the brackets to clear the oil filter, and mount the bar on the inner side of the bracket. I did mine differently, as you saw in the photo. I spaced out the mounting location of the bar instead. I didn't want to space out the brackets themselves.

 

Still haven't recieved mine, and I haven't heard back from ya.
Canada Post's update is pretty much worthless... Is there a way I can get a realy update on this?? It's been quite a while now.

Thanks,

Mike

 

I installed JClaws' traction bars last weekend. So far I'm happy with them however there's a couple of issues that I am still trying to iron out.

Because the hole in the LCA is in near proximity of the oil filter, the traction bar has to be angled out in order for it not to collide with the oil filter when the suspension is in full compression. Thus, the other end of the bar (the one that bolts onto the bracket that replaces the tow hook), has to be spaced out a bit (towards the tire) using some washers. It is now spaced out at .25", before it was spaced out at .5" inches. The issue for me is that I have wider tires, 235/45 to be exact. At full left turn, the inner sidewall of the tire is rubbing the bar. It is rubbing a lot less than before when I was using a .5" spacer. The dilemma is that if I totally eliminate the washers to move the traction bar inward in order to clear the tire, the bar will collide with the oil filter. The driver side is ok, no issues whatsoever.

To resolve this, I am thinking of getting an oil filter relocation kit. I have never looked into this stuff before so if anyone has any knowledge on this in regards to the spin-on filter thread size or what kit to get, please chime in. Also, if you are having similar issues, chime in and post what you plan to do to resolve it.

Here are some pics...

1) Oil filter and traction bar:


2) Tire and traction bar (at the time the pic was taken, 3 washers were being used to make a .25" spacer):


3) Bracket and traction bar (at the time the pic was taken, the .5" spacer was being used):

 

me too hope they get here soon

 

Still waiting for my bars, wondering what is the status?
Any news Jclaw?

 

I never had a problem with mine hitting until this weekend. I was cut off and had to drive into the shoulder of the road. I hit a few potholes and the bar came up and hit the corner of the filter. Mine doesn't come anywhere near as close as yours does. I'm just using a cheap filter because it was shorter than most.
But I'm thinking of going with the oil filter relocation kit too. I'de rather be safe than sorry.

 

Well can you try going with a Sports Filter which is Short than the Normal Filters

 

Huh.....I started a new thread with those pix last night! I guess the mods took it out and put them in here.

Anyway I failed to mention that this oil filter is slightly different from the regular kind. This is a Mobil1 Extended Life filter so I figured that this filter is a bit taller than the regular Mobil1 filter.

 

There are definitely some short filters out there. The ones I run are crappy little Milegaurds that are about two inches. I know they're crappy but I change the oil every week or so for various reasons.