[Blue]

Just thought I'd give you guys some idea of what you might be up against if you decide to fit cal tracs and monos to a car that already has the springs inboard. I made my own spring boxes when I inboarded the super stock springs I had on the Dart for the last few years. I didn't want to cut the frame more than I had to so the boxes were just tall enough to fit the front spring eye on the super stock springs. The mono front eye is considerably larger in diameter and was too tall and also too wide to fit in. The rear eye is also huge compared to the chrysler spring and was too tall to fit in the sliders that I wanted to fit at the same time. I had the rear of the spring re rolled to mopar size to take the bush that came with the sliders, and the front eye redone to fit the bush I took from the rear eye. I had to carefully grind the edges of the spring at the front eye and narrow the bushes slightly to get the spring into the box. I had to re drill the box for the larger 5/8" bolts that Cal tacs use on the front eye. With a solid from spring eye bush the spring would no longer line up with the spring perch on the axle and given that I'd already had to shim it to get the pinion angle right previously, cutting them off and starting again seems like the best option. When I got it mocked up enough to sit the car back on it's wheels I found it sat 1" lower than with the super stocks which doesn't work for me. Springs are currently back at the forge again getting a bit more arch put in them to correct that. The Rancho shocks that are recommended for this set up are considerably larger diameter than the Comp Engineering 50/50's I was using before and would not clear the back brace on the axle, not helped by the fact the axle is moved back 3/4" from stock. Best fix for that appears to be turning the bottom plates around and fit the shocks in front of the axle, meaning I have to make a new crossmember to fit the shocks at the top. So that's where I am at this point, a killer deal on a used cal trac set up that I thought would take an afternoon to fit has taken 3 weeks so far and I'm still throwing money and effort into it, it had better be worth it when I finally get it finished......

 

[acpat]

ouch sorry about you luck keep us posted. now if you could find the guy who sold them to you bbat

 

[EFIDart]

I phoned caltrac up and told them my dart had the springs moved etc. They sent me the whole kit with everything I needed (shocks, springs and caltracs). The only thing they changed was they welded the plates together with a tube instead of having a bolt so it can clear the front spring box. The only bad thing they forgot that chryslers run a different size front spring bolt then most so I drilled my front spring holes in my reloc boxes bigger instead of having them send the the different inserts, id rather have the bigger front spring bolt anyways. I had to send my springs back to be exchanged for +1" higher then stock and they covered all shipping which was nice! The car hooks and goes straight, I dont know why I didnt goto them sooner. My settings are - 5 on both rear shocks, and with myself sitting in the car just make the front spring bolt touch the spring to have no reload. I also dont have the same front travel they recommend etc.. its short but it still seems to work just fine.

As for the rear spring segment I thought they were different spring rates rather then just the arch? I would deal with Caltrac on the front springs im sure they would help...

My axle sits about and inch farther back from stock but ive never had a problem with shocks even before the caltracs. Here is a pic on how my friend notched the backbrace to clear the shocks. They sent the bottom plates with the caltracs and I just washered them back a little bit just to give me some breathing room also.


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[mopowers]

I phoned caltrac up and told them my dart had the springs moved etc. They sent me the whole kit with everything I needed (shocks, springs and caltracs). The only thing they changed was they welded the plates together with a tube instead of having a bolt so it can clear the front spring box. The only bad thing they forgot that chryslers run a different size front spring bolt then most so I drilled my front spring holes in my reloc boxes bigger instead of having them send the the different inserts, id rather have the bigger front spring bolt anyways. I had to send my springs back to be exchanged for +1" higher then stock and they covered all shipping which was nice! The car hooks and goes straight, I dont know why I didnt goto them sooner. My settings are - 5 on both rear shocks, and with myself sitting in the car just make the front spring bolt touch the spring to have no reload. I also dont have the same front travel they recommend etc.. its short but it still seems to work just fine.

As for the rear spring segment I thought they were different spring rates rather then just the arch? I would deal with Caltrac on the front springs im sure they would help...

My axle sits about and inch farther back from stock but ive never had a problem with shocks even before the caltracs. Here is a pic on how my friend notched the backbrace to clear the shocks. They sent the bottom plates with the caltracs and I just washered them back a little bit just to give me some breathing room also.

Which ranchos did you get? Do you have the part #?

 

[Blue]

Well I'm glad it worked out for you EFI! I had the shocks spaced an inch back off the brackets and they were still touching the backbrace, no option but to move 'em. I'll strip the whole lot out and start again in the new year. Also found what was causing the rear brake judder ever since I fitted the wilwoods, the disc mounting bolts have been hitting the caliper brackets under heavy braking, bolt on's don't you just love 'em?