Preloading a traction bar

csudman

csudman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Statesville
This is from an old thread on pirate that I bumped and have gotten no response on. I an building my traction bar tomorow and came across the idea of preloading the traction bar so it hooks up instantly.

Funkel said:
I have a normal ladder-style Anti-Wrap bar installed in my SOA CJ. I'm looking for some information about the dynamic effects of the bar on the suspension.

I understand that the antiwrap bar creates antisquat, which ultimately pushes the axle down under load, right?

What about preloading the traction bar? What I mean by that is setting the axle end (upper and lower) then extending the shackle at the frame end to put some load on the leafs (in essence turning the pinion up, slightly).

Is there any advantage to adding some preload to the system?
Click to expand...

Thoughts
 
i preloaded my old one....by about 2 degrees, from top to bottom, and....it worked great on the road and on trails....but when i jumped it a couple times, ended up tweaking it so it was no longer preloaded......then had no more problems.....the only issue i think about with preloading it, is that you add alot of extra stress on the traction bar itself, that i think isnt needed....when under power, the bar is going to load almost instantly, and if it is preloaded, its just going to load more.........just make sure every part of it is bulletproof
 
if anything.....you want the pinion down slightly ( opposite from the quote from pirate) b/c when eveything flexes under power then pinion is going to rotate upward, so if you start it downward, then under power it will be correct.....if you have it upward from the get-go, then it will just rotate upward more, possibly breaking ujoint, driveshaft, tcase, pinion, etc...... even though the idea of having the traction bar to limit axlewrap, is to keep the pinion from rotating upward, the bars are still going to flex some, and pinion is going to move slightly
 
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