Soft or hard rear?

Does a softer rear spring help with traction on stick cars? I replaced the leafs in my Stang with 5 leafs after wrapping up the stockers.

I seem to remember getting better traction with the softer spring. I remember reading an article on how a stiffer spring doesn't shock the tire as much on a stick car.

What are you guys using for a good launch?

Ok, I know there is a ton of you stick guys.

I use Mustangs plus 4 1/2 leaf.
I never had the chance to use the stockers so I cant say what they were like, I do know guys who use the original leafs because they aid in weight transfer, because they are softer and allows the rear to squat in a big way and the front to come up, and I imagine they are lighter. I dont get a lot of transfer in my car with the 4 1/2 leaf, so a softer spring for drag racing would be a good decision.

Hope that helps.

[addsig]

BTW the folks using the stock springs are running auto`s and I run a 5 speed, and I dont have traction problems other than over powering my rear tires, I increased my weight transfer by running more fuel in the tank and it helps, and I started getting better et`s with 20 to 24 lbs. pressure in my street tires with the increased fuel load.


[addsig]

I'm using a 5 leaf and don't think the extra stiff leafs are helping my weight transfer. The car seemed to hook better with the lighter springs in the back and the original weight of the engine.

I've dumped an extra 50lbs off the engine and it helps but still doesn't seem to be as good as it was with the 3 leafs.

look under john calvert racing he uses a real stiff leaf spring on his car which is a 4 speed car

i had the stock ones on my car for a while and am running a 5 speed. they would wrap up like crazy. i too thought that the stock springs would be better since they are softer to aid in weight transfer but they were so sloppy, when i switched to 5 leaf it made a huge difference. it felt a lot better off the line with a lot more control. one idea might be stock replacement springs. the stockers i had were probably 37 years old so they were worn out, a new set might give the best of both worlds, but im not sure. ive also heard of guys having good success with the stiffer ones.

The 5 leafs are really too stiff for casual driving. I bought them thinking[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] that I would see an improvment in traction. My last set were stock replacements but, I set them up poorly with cheap traction bars and fried them in no time. I did have respectable traction with street tires.

It's not so much the money to have 2 leafs removed or a new set of springs. I just hate to go through all the trouble and find out I had a brain fart and went through all the trouble for nothing or made it worse.

The car is making more HP now but, the traction is getting worse.[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img] All that money and time and the car really doesn't go any faster cuz it won't hook up.[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]