Help with traction

[Marble]

Pinion angle isn't going to change your ability to hook, it just prevents driveline vibration.

Your problems are no prep, manual trans, radial tires, your springs, and your dampers. You're going to have a hard time launching a stick car with no prep (especially on the street, which is what I assume we're talking about here). There is just too much debris and oil on the street to get a tire to hook well, the stiff sidewall is also hurting you. There is not as much sidewall flex to absorb the initial hit and leads to traction issues. Stock dampers and those Eibach springs are also not your friends. You need to be able to slow that hit down with the shocks, control body movement coming back up, and get a spring that isn't so stiff that it won't allow weight transfer.

Ideally you would want to do all of that, but if you're trying to keep the budget small, focus on driver mod and ask your tuner to soften the tune up for the hit. If you have some money to play around with, shocks are probably going to be the most critical component to making the car work better.

This guy speakith the truth. I'll be seeing his input over the next year as I get my suspension where I want it.

 

[07 Boss]

Well I found those shocks but... I remember when I put them away I turned all the adjustment knobs to full tight on both compression and rebound and when I did that one of the knobs just kept turning and turning. It never hit a stop like the other knobs. So with that said I'm not sure that you would be able to adjust them properly or even if that valve can even be adjusted. I was going to have Viking rebuild them one day if I was ever going to put them back on the car so I don't know if you still want them. I'm not sure how much a rebuild will cost but I will give them a shout on Monday and check if you want. Who knows they might just fix it for free. I have since gone with Lakewood fixed 50/50's in the rear and their 90/10 struts up front.

 

[Towelie]

Let me know what they say man. Shit if they won't touch it I'll still take the other and buy a matching one

 

[07 Boss]

Let me know what they say man. Shit if they won't touch it I'll still take the other and buy a matching one

OK, I'll let you know. Send me a text reminder on Monday or I'll forget to call them.

 

[BlueDevil]

I have since gone with Lakewood fixed 50/50's in the rear and their 90/10 struts up front.

Just curious... Why did you go from Viking to Lakewood?

 

[07 Boss]

Just curious... Why did you go from Viking to Lakewood?

I'm usually a one man band when I go to the track. I have nobody to help me film launches and let me know what the car is doing. With 18 x 18 possible settings I was pulling my hair out effin adjusting these things all the time and making no progress because I was just guessing at shit. Anyways, I just decided to go with a fixed shock and learn how to launch with them instead of trying to dial the car into the way I launch. With inconsistent track prep it was hard to dial in the shocks with 60' times. You would need quite a few data points to make the proper adjustments. Just don't have that kind of time and effort to spend with that method so I just took them off. I've used Lakewoods in the past and they have always worked good on heavier cars. Don't know if that makes sense but that was my thought process at least. I also got them in a package deal with the struts that I needed to replace my Bilstein HD's with. Since the car rarely saw street duty I was OK with this set up. But now that she is seeing more of a daily role I'm kinda thinking about switching again. The 90/10 struts get a little bouncy sometimes. Towelie would know, southbound hwy 95 just after the spaghetti bowl, that left hand lane would get my car motor boating across the waves pretty good. I think I scraped my front spoiler last time I flew through that section of freeway.

 

[Towelie]

Can confirm. 95 isn't maintained for shit.

 

[07 Boss]

Well I took a good look at those shocks and called Viking. I tightened the set screws on the adjustment knobs but the one shock feels funny with regards to the way the adjustment knob moves. On the one side it is really hard to turn the knob and it doesn't click into position like the others. I'm not sure that it is even making an adjustment to the valving on the inside. I would feel apprehensive about selling these to you not knowing if it is in working order or not. These are relatively inexpensive though. I think I paid around $350 for the pair. I can't remember if I got the through Viking or BMR.

 

[Towelie]

Damn okay. I'll just get a new set through a vendor. Thanks man