Cal Trac Shock Mounts

[CrateCamaro]

are all you guys using older cal trac stuff? Mine are about a year old now...just wondering if they have corrected the problem already. I havent had any problems but then again I havent been inspecting them closely. Everything seems tight but stuff breaking in transit and not knowing about it could cause some major problems. I guess some bracing wouln't hurt. Should I worried on a low 11 second stocker?

[Alex Denysenko]

From John Calvert himself.


We have seen mounts break or crack where the shock hooks up. I feel the main reason for this occurrence is how cars are transported. Tying to the rear end housing and allowing the body to remain free allows everything suspension related to move, couple this with some of the freeway conditions and realize that the Rancho rear shock set to a nine has tremendous resistance the loads are just really high.
I won't use the tie-down method as a reason not to take action and I haven't. I have crept up on it over the years. Trying to stay with highest levels of performance employing the least amount of weight we changed the design so that the area would have more structure, we tried gussets, material thickness. Our latest design seems to be working the best so far (early 07) with no reported problems since. Again, a vast majority of our customers will never have a problem even with the bars we manufactured in the mid ninety's. I do feel a discussion on tie down method would benefit many racers and not just because of this issue. All the suspension components and even the handling of lightweight tow rigs are affected by how the car is anchored.

Thanks for the info, forward this on if you like.
John Calvert

[Mark Yacavone]

I would agree that probably 95% of the flexing occurs while towing. I would suggest fixing some kind of temporary stanchion under the rear frame somewhere. Just tightening down the rear (of the car) until it doesn't move anymore, just does not seem like a good idea.

[treessavoy]

I have always tied the rear end down but the front was tied down by the front cross member, now that I'm changing over to the Calvert's I'm thinking about loosely tying down the rear frame then over-inflating the rear tires to cut down on bounce.

Can't see any other way to tie the car down without tying down the suspension or frame?

Jim R

[Joe Grippo]

I had the left side shock mount break of completely, so I checked the right side and found it was cracked also.

Originally Posted by Alex Denysenko

From John Calvert himself.

Tying to the rear end housing and allowing the body to remain free allows everything suspension related to move, couple this with some of the freeway conditions and realize that the Rancho rear shock set to a nine has tremendous resistance the loads are just really high.

So based on what John passed on to Alex, we should soften the shocks when transporting the car? Makes sense to me. Some of the roads around me leave alot to be desired.