“Bolts are a critical thing we find wrong with a lot of racecars. Correctly-shouldered bolts should be used throughout the chassis, and if the shoulder does not go through the bracket but the threaded part does, the clearance lets the bolt move around, and the threads will then eat the bracket up. You need a bolt with a shoulder that goes through the bracket or the rod end and out the other side.”

“With a dragster with rear suspension, check it through its travel, make sure nothing is bottoming out or topping out or a four-link bracket is hitting the frame rail. It hurts performance and makes the car inconsistent. A lot of cars are not put back to its original ride height, because the purchaser doesn’t know what that was. It comes back to calling the builder and asking them what the ride height should be.”

“Check your car every so often for cracks. Just visually inspect it at all the joints, where things mount. Some cars can crack between weld joints. The car needs a visual inspection and bolt-tightening every week. We check our Pro Modified cars every run. Larry Ensslin of Lakeland races my ’53 Studebaker Pro Mod/ex-A/Altered. Kenny, Mark and Scott Voss of Live Oak, Florida race the ’57 Chevy and ’57 Ford Pro Streeters. Also, check the shocks for oil leakage, brake pads, wheel bearings. You would think this is logic, but we’ve had cars come back that have never been checked.”

 

Project 4-Link [11/9/04] It has been and exciting race season and we reached some goals Back 2 Basics [10/28/04] We were busy toward the end of the season