[Diesels Forever]

I know I'm just a newbe to this site, but I really want to pull my 01 reg. cab. I have competed in off road truck dragraces, basically it's held in an arena with very uneven dirt and you stage up and dragrace other trucks for about a hundred yards or so. My 01 ownes all who show up. The problem is one of my friends has an 02 ccsb, it had a juice and exhaust, and while he was staging against me his tie rod end snapped and sent him into a dirt bank. The truck only had 4,000 miles on it. GM said no on warranty, abuse they claimed.


This has got me worried. I pulled 1 time last year in an 8,000 pound open class (my truck weighs 6700#s). I didn't put any weight in it cause I figured the extra weight broke his truck. You can imagine how I did, 196 feet and lots of tire spin. I really want to be competitive but don't trust the 1/2 ton tierod that's on my truck.


I've read a few posts here that talk about strapping the tierod but I'm not sure where the strap should go or how a strap would stop it from breaking. Can't I just drop the torsion bars all the way down? I also would like information about blocking the suspension, should it be blocked all the way up in the rear or stock height?? What about a hitch, drop, raised, or straight? How do I make the front end hold up? I'm making a weight bracket for the front to run in heavier classes, if the front end will hold up that is.


Any information would be helpful.


Thanks.

 

[Micheal Tomac]

lower the torsen bars all the way down and add a ratchetstrap from the centerlink to the crossmember below it that the lower a-arms bolt to. These two things will keep the front wheels from toeing in.Edited by: mtomac

 

[Joey D]

Is the problem the tie rods or is it the center link is flexing causing the tie rods to break?

 

[Diesels Forever]

I'm not sure what causes it to break, all I know is the front of the tires both turn in twards the center of the truck when under a load in 4 wheel drive. Then snap..... the tie rod end is toast, It hasn't happened to me yet but my freinds was snapped like a twig. The one time I did pull I felt the truck want to wander one way or the other, it took 45-60 degree turns of the wheel to correct.

 

[Micheal Tomac]

here's a video clip of the lowered tbars and a centerlink strap in action

 

[1BADHD]

lower the torsen bars all the way down and add a ratchetstrap from the centerlink to the crossmember below it that the lower a-arms bolt to. These two things will keep the front wheels from toeing in.

Do you have a pic of this?

 

[Micheal Tomac]

No I don't but I do have a couple pics of the twin strap setup I was running before I started lowering the torsen bars and running a single strap. I don't run a strap for dragracing, just for truck pulling and the season is over. The front plastic skid plate has to be removed to run the single strap.

 

[Diesels Forever]

mtomac, how do you like your ATS tranny? My tranny is giving up, I was looking at the Suncoast and the ATS. Suncoast definatly has a price advantage but I'd like to hear from someone who abuses their auto tranny. I see ATS is offering a cash and carry program now, but it takes a lot of cash to carry.

I'm due for shocks and would also like you input on the 9000's.

 

[Micheal Tomac]

The ATS single sided C1 clutches I've been running since the end of Sept made tranny bulletproof. I'm putting them thru their paces running with nitrous now without problems.

You need the level 5 suncoast if you want to dragrace.

The 9000's are nice because I can crank them up for towing and for dragracing.