I've had my traction bar on for 3 days now. its a 3rd gen etd. i went and got the car alighned and now when i take off slowly in first or slow down it makes a clunking noise. before the alignment it didnt make a single peep. so i got under the car and messed with the aluminum rods that conect to the LCA. both sides have joints, so thats a totoal of four joints. with my hand i can move the rods, is any of this normal. ill try to post pics later.

im ancious to use the 2 step with the traction bar but need to figure this out first

PICTURES ARE UP!!!!!

its hard to tell but the first pic.


second picture the heim joint is touching the LCA, like i said its hard to tell but when i move it in a twisting manner it makes the same noise like when i drive in first.



Modified by jdm_dc_fan at 4:25 PM 2/28/2008

 

off to work, so bump my thread please!!

 

You'll want to pre load the bars. make them longer. You'll know when it's enough. It's a feel thing.

It doesn't take much.

You also may have a cv joint going if it's clunking when you turn the steering wheel.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1992Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You'll want to pre load the bars. make them longer. You'll know when it's enough. It's a feel thing.
It doesn't take much.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

its not a "feel thing" or a "make them longer" type matter...

the bars need to be properly adjusted on an alignment rack.

Caster

Caster is the hardest to explain of the three commonly used alignment angles. I like to use the motorcycle analogy. Lots of positive caster is like the forks on a chopper; the wheel is far in front of the support for the wheel. No car that I know of uses negative caster, so I'll describe less positive caster as like the forks on a regular street bike, the wheel is only slightly in front of the support for the wheel. Caster will not affect tire wear, but it can cause a slight drift if it's not equal on both sides. Caster is an angle that only applies to the front (steering) wheels of a car. The more positive caster is, the more stable the car feels, especially at higher speed. More positive caster also improves steering wheel return. To help understand what steering wheel return is, try this experiment: next time you turn a corner, let go of the steering wheel when you are done turning. You will notice that the steering wheel spins back to the centered position. Without positive caster, the steering wheel would stay turned until you manually turned it back to the center position. The only downside to lots of positive caster is it make the car hard/slow to steer. The reason positive caster adds stability, steering wheel return and increased steering effort is the weight of the car is trying to straighten the wheels. You may notice on some luxury cars with lot of positive caster (and powerful power steering) that the front of the car will rise when the wheel is turned to the side, and sinks as the wheel comes back to center.

 

positive / negative \

 

As you launch the car the front end wants to raise up. longer bars help keep the LCA in the proper location.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1992Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You'll want to pre load the bars. make them longer. You'll know when it's enough. It's a feel thing.

It doesn't take much.

You also may have a cv joint going if it's clunking when you turn the steering wheel.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

i did pre load the bars when i first installed it, but after i got it alighned and got the camber and caster fixed by an alighnment shop it started making the clunking noise. funny thing is though the guy just kept asking me questions about my setup and "how fast is it in the 1320" and how easy it was to do the alighnment with the aftermarket traction bar, that it made me confident that he knew what he was dealing with.

i need to post pictures to explain this better. ill do it timorrow.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2fast4u831 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">positive / negative \ </TD></TR></TABLE>

are you talking about camber?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1992Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As you launch the car the front end wants to raise up. longer bars help keep the LCA in the proper location.</TD></TR></TABLE>

longer bars? i dont really get what you mean. but someone did tell me that my tires were to forward in the wheel well. and before the alighnment during hard acceleration my car would jerk hard and would be hard to control. no wheel hop though

 

Think about what happens as you launch the car...what is the body doing?
When the front end lifts... the front tires want to tilt in at the bottom, / the longer bar helps keep the tires |

 

what are you talking about ? camber or caster ?

if you are talking about camber, please enlighten me as to how the adjustment of the radius rod will effect camber ?

 

All I know is that's how I adjusted the rods on the car last season and it seemed to work.

Why don't you try shortening the rods and see if you can get a better 60ft time. I'll do the same thing this year as I did last year.

You only have to adjustments longer or shorter. In my simple mind longer seemed to be the way to go.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1992Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">All I know is that's how I adjusted the rods on the car last season and it seemed to work.

Why don't you try shortening the rods and see if you can get a better 60ft time. I'll do the same thing this year as I did last year.

You only have to adjustments longer or shorter. In my simple mind longer seemed to be the way to go.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

if i shorten it will it mess up my alignment i just did to it? thats the main reason i dont want to fukc with it anymore.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaveF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what are you talking about ? camber or caster ?

if you are talking about camber, please enlighten me as to how the adjustment of the radius rod will effect camber ? </TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah, pretty much thought that the radias rods kept the suspension stiff and in place thus no wheel hop.

wont lengthening the radias rods push the suspension back toward the passenger and driver and not be dead center in the wheel well?

 

Your not moving them that much. Your just putting a small preload on them.

Don't over think this...your just taking the slack out.

 

they prob have some rather cheap heim joints on them also that will cause rattling

 

pics are up

 

So its best to disconnect the traction bars before getting an alignment?

 

With decent heim joints preload doesn't mean anything!! Do they preload the heims on F1 cars? lol besides, I dont think ETD cheaped out on their 3rd generation of this mechanism the status quo has dubbed as the "traction bar". If preloading works to get rid of this noise than all you are doing is band-aiding shitty heim joints or bolts that aren't slip fit.

It could be a few things..

The traction bars 'frame' may be moving around and this will make a random clunking sound, I've see this happen to a CRX where the welded nuts inside of the chassis sheared off - this is because your typical 'traction bars' are inherently a bad design. I always suggest that people stitch weld them on but you wont find that info on honda-tech so it's an insane idea... anyway,

To check to see if the frame is moving around use a yellow metal marker or some touch up paint and draw a perpendicular line where traction bars meet the chassis.

- Take it for a drive
- when you hear the clunk slow down using your e-brake only (I have my reason for this I'm just too lazy to explain)

It should be obvious if the frame part of the traction bars is moving around

----------------

Can you twist the bars and mimic the sound with the car on all four wheels?

If so, this is what you want and you will have to live with the sound (another flaw in the design). The suspension needs to be able move around without unscrewing the heim joints... you'll want to make sure that the noise you are hearing is just that and NOT the jam juts cracking loose.

Good luck

 

im shure you checked , but does the bolt that goes in the hyme joint, fill the hole,
could this just be wrong size hyme or bolt, also wondering why its not connected at strut with a clevis,, its futher out , other brand bars connect there
just reread, you said could mimic sound, twisting bar,, maybe joint is smaking control arm as suspesion unloads,, try adding a washer/spacer of same width of center busing under joint , so sides cant hit ..

 

i think tomorrow im just going to jack my car up and tighten the radias rods like i did the first time and hopefully my alighnment wont get expletiveed up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondamanXxX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So its best to disconnect the traction bars before getting an alignment? </TD></TR></TABLE>

i was under the impression that that the alighnment shop knew how to deal with traction bars, guess not

 

YEah, it's a good thing that I looked at this thread before getting an alignment myself.

 

That is a very bad design for an EF or DA. chances are that clunking sound is the LCA wrapping around the heim.

 

Also there is NO WAY to preload that setup with that type of traction bar. Look at your pics, being that there is a heim on the LCA and how high that it is mounted trying to preload the suspension is just going to twist the LCA around the LCA bushings, and will soon lead to destroyed LCA bushings.