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Which rear leafs should I buy? Removing Cal Trac system.

Dude, do it the right way. No shackle extentions either ! S/S springs, factory rear shackles and the correct length rear shocks. Will give you a nice stance and good ride quality. Jihad the caltracs full setup with Rancho shocks on my '65 coronet, it was hard on the street but very consistent on the track. For my full street cars I go the s/s spring route, never had 1 complaint about ride quality ! Good luck !
 
Yeah, post a pic of your car as it sits now and we can go from there....

I think something has been started....1/4 redneck, 3/4 redneck. Could use percentages too....I kinda like 15% redneck on my junk but I still use 3/4 cams :grin:

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I got the mopar XHD springs. Fabbed my own extended shackles. Kept the air shocks on it too. I gained probably 2"-3" depending on how much air I have in the shocks. I don't like solely using the air shocks to Jack it up. That's what the extended shackles were for. The air shocks were mainly to get the right comfort zone for the rear ride quality. It works pretty good for me. This is on a 67' coronet.

Air shocks are only a problem if they are the only thing holding up the car's butt. Guys who use them instead of replacing saggy old leaf springs are basically putting all the weight on the air shocks, which is putting all that weight on the studs of the mounting plates, which aren't designed for that load and they snap.

Air shocks are fine if they are used in conjunction with the springs and sharing the load with them.
 
Dude, do it the right way. No shackle extentions either ! S/S springs, factory rear shackles and the correct length rear shocks. Will give you a nice stance and good ride quality. Jihad the caltracs full setup with Rancho shocks on my '65 coronet, it was hard on the street but very consistent on the track. For my full street cars I go the s/s spring route, never had 1 complaint about ride quality ! Good luck !

You do realize that this will get you on the 'No Fly' list, don't you? lol
 
Air shocks are only a problem if they are the only thing holding up the car's butt. Guys who use them instead of replacing saggy old leaf springs are basically putting all the weight on the air shocks, which is putting all that weight on the studs of the mounting plates, which aren't designed for that load and they snap.

Air shocks are fine if they are used in conjunction with the springs and sharing the load with them.
I've seen broken lower shock mounts when using stock shocks too! It's not that common or at least I haven't seen it very much. When you look at how much loading you put on any kind of a shock, the stresses can be pretty high when you are going over real rough roads and the more heavy duty the shock is, the higher the stress load is. An air shock is usually a fairly heavy duty 50/50 shock. It also doesn't add much loading to the mounts with say 10psi in it as it doesn't take much to raise a car 1". I'm almost tempted to drag out a scale and put a bottle jack on it and raise the back end of my pickup just to see what it reads. Heck, it might surprise me....
 
The problem, and this more lately than back in the day, is owners, and more than a few flippers, prefer to raise a sagging rear with a set of $50 air shocks instead of replacing the leaf springs. This allows them to lift the rear further than a set of hydraulic shocks and saggy springs could, but it also puts all the load on the shocks and those studs.
 
The old air-shock argument......:angryfire:

Anyway. So today I kind of changed my mind about the CalTrac/Monoleaf setup. Until now, I had been just drving around with a driver's seat bolted to the floor. Since I installed carpet with underlay, rear seats, and a boot over my 4-speed shifter, the noise is a lot less jarring. BUT, I can still hear it and it has a bit of a "bouncy" ride.

For now, they stay, until I figure out a better solution with a better ride with more height. Traction isn't a huge concern for me....
 
The old air-shock argument......:angryfire:

Anyway. So today I kind of changed my mind about the CalTrac/Monoleaf setup. Until now, I had been just drving around with a driver's seat bolted to the floor. Since I installed carpet with underlay, rear seats, and a boot over my 4-speed shifter, the noise is a lot less jarring. BUT, I can still hear it and it has a bit of a "bouncy" ride.

For now, they stay, until I figure out a better solution with a better ride with more height. Traction isn't a huge concern for me....

What shocks are you running again? I not experiencing a bouncy ride with mine. They're firm, but not bouncy.
 
Air shocks.... the get that extra ride height

Yeah..... Air shocks will give the bounce. The nice thing about the Calvert split mono's is if you want to adjust your ride height and or spring rate, all you gotta do is change the rear leaf. They're really good about taking care of the people who use their products. I bought my system over 3 years ago and eventually came to the conclusion that I needed shorter front halves and shorter link bars because my rear end was sitting too far back. Even though my parts were installed and used, they sent me brand new parts right away, no questions asked with a return label so I can ship the old stuff back to them once I do the swap. They didn't charge me a thing. Might want to give them a call to see what they could do for you.
 
I've always used air shocks on my cars, even my police interceptors. Nothing I hate more than when we load up the trunk for a trip and the rear sags. ;)
 
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