Scaling a 4 link car?

Guy's I'm looking to scale my 4 Link car and also have the shocks dyno tested. The shocks are AFCO's with a multiple adjustable settings. I have no Idea how to measure the springs or figure the Pound rating. Last how does one scale the dragster?

Ace


Tied up in Orange county with nothing to do....

This is crude, but will work for your spring rate.

The rating of the springs is in pounds per inch of travel. If you have a drill press (or have a friend who has one) put a decent scale (digital preferred) on the bed of the press and put your spring on the scale. Zero the scale. Chuck up a hole saw large enough to fit the diameter of the spring. Bring the bed up until the spring is in contact with the inside of the hole saw but does not register anything on the scale. Set the drill stop to 1". Bring the drill down to the stop and read the scale. You should have a very close reading on the spring rate. If you double the stop to 2", you should see twice the 1" reading on the scale unless you have a variable rate spring.

As far as scaling the car goes, you will need some scales. If you buy scales, get them in the range where the maximum in closest to the weight of your car, i.e. if your car weighs 2000 lbs. with driver and you can buy scales with a 5000 lb. or 10000 lb. range, buy the 5000 lb. set. Bigger is not better.

Set them up on a perfectly level surface or shim them if required to get them level. Use a laser level as required. Level is really important! Set them up so as they match the track width and wheelbase of your car. Roll your car onto the scales from matching height blocks or use ramps. Adjust your 4 link setup to give you equal rear tire weights. Some like to use a 4 link bar preload and others like to adjust the roll bar links. I prefer the roll bar link method since putting the suspension in bind doesn't make sense to me. (you will see what I mean if you try the 4 link method on the scales - side to side weight will be all over the place on every bounce because the suspension is in bind) This will at least give you a base line to start with. Go 50/50 on the shocks to start, and video or data log the suspension to see what's going on at the starting line. Adjust the shocks and side to side weight as required.

Hope this is of some help.

Well this is where I'm at right now. Shocks were tested and they are considered boarder line so I over nighted a new set from Jegs and just got the box ( thanks for Saturday deliveries) I will be getting the car Scaled this coming Wednesday and we'll see what happens after that as we have a back to back race this coming Saturday and Sunday and then the following Sunday will be the last race for the year.


Ace

Well the scaling went very well. Car was jacked up and everything was kind of Backwards? Made a upper bar location change to one hole down and set the pinion angle down from neutral (0) did some other changes that went way over my head. And these new shocks have a bazillon setting

Ace

Great, hopefully you'll get some time to tune the shock setup this weekend. Good Luck!

Well this is where I'm at. After fighting this car ( I stopped blaming my Daughter) for 2 years it dawned on me that when we bought the car the first thing we did was rebuilt the dash. What I mean by that is we built a new dash that we shortened up a little over 2" because my son legs were a little long and his knees hit it. Well that meant we sold the Mega 450 box (to a forum member) and replace it with a Dedenbear CC3 (used but with papers from Dedenbear). So what I have done is I have full scale practice tree and the Eliminator 2000. we plugged all this in and used the delay through the box and lights suck then we used the delay only in the Eliminator box and things improved a lot. Then I ran a jumper to bypass the delay box(Dedenbear) all together and is was a little better. then we installed a new button and it was even better. I've sent the box back to Dedenbear and they said there is some issues and are updating this now to the most current verson. MAN I HOPE THIS IS IT I spent so much money chasing this thing it's ridicules none the less. I just spent $650 on shocks that there was nothing wrong. The scaling was money well spent as it did have some issues. Brand new tires at the Mile High Nationals ,different converter ad the list go's on.

Worst part is I have to wait till spring now to see if this will all come together

Ace