Wheel hop

[Tom Welch]

Hi John,

Wheel hop is the mortal enemy of your u-joints and half shafts. You either need to spin your tires harder or not at all.

Check your tire pressure. Colder temps can sometimes result in lower tire pressure, which can cause a loss in traction due to "cupping" of the tire at the contact patch.

Here is a quick method to check proper tire pressure for optimum drag race style straight line traction.

On a clean surface do a few wheelspinning launches at normal pressure(29psi) and note the tread pattern on the pavement. It will probably be darker at the center of the tread marks indicating that your pressure is too high. Lower pressure until an even black mark is evident across the tread pattern(usually around 22psi). If the tires are too low you will notice dark streaks along the outside edges of the tread mark and hardly any marks near the center. Target the pressure that gives you the most even contact patch for straight line traction.

This may help some with your wheel hop problem, but will not cure it. It is a function of too much power with a chassis and tire combination that is not efficeint for straight line acceleration.

tom

 

[Rich Detert]

I can't say for sure if this will fix the problem, but this was relayed to me by the owner of a 93 (12K miles) on what he did to cure the wheel hop on his car.

What he did was to adjust the rear shocks to stiffen them up. He said it was kind of a pain to do, because it requires removal of the shock to adjust it.
It makes sense (keeps the suspension from moving too freely)and should help the handling too.

Tom's tire pressure tip should help too (better contact patch).

Part of the problem is just colder tire and ground temperature which means less traction.

Hope this helps.

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[Tom F&L GoR]

I have stiffened the rear shocks - it does help. I've also added toe-in (for autocrossing) and that helped. I'm not clear why that would be so, but I have heard this would. Perhaps something to do with toe/camber change on rear squat. I went down in tire pressure, I think the stiffer tire acts more like a spring and you need more damping.

Another hint was relayed to me by Sean Roe. Check the ladder bar bolts on the bottom of the differential housing. Mine were not quite as tight as they should have been. Two large bolts, bring a long torque wrench, it's somewhere around 200 ft-lbs?

 

[GTS Dean]

Tom,

You may have something there on the tire's springrate. I do know that the MXX3 has a markedly stiffer bead and sidewall support than the XGT-Z.

The rear toe link inner ends deflect quite a bit under severe loading, which requires more initial toe-in to compensate. Bobby and John Archer sell some very simple and effective (albeit rather expensive) support brackets to fix the root of the problem.

 

[venemous]

John , I have same problem in mine . I believe its normal , lots of others deal with this . I was told the tires are doing a great job on trying to grip while the BIG HP puts them in to into a war to find traction also look at the tires/wheels they are relatively heavy for the axles.

Just my thoughts....