Installing Caltracs on 68-72 Nova without special tools
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 เม.ย. 2020
- Episode 17 Racer X Garage: On this episode I show how to install a set of Calvert Racing Caltrac Bars on my 1968 Nova. I was able to install these in my garage without any special tools such as a hydraulic press. I was also able to get the aluminum leaf spring bushing in with simple hand tools. Check out the video to see how! This should be the same process for all 68-72 Nova's when installing Caltracs.
You can buy these traction bars at www.calvertracing.com
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#calvertracing #caltracs #nova #chevynova #racerxgarage #68nova #supersport #caltracbars - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
I just bought a set for my 74 Camaro. Your video makes me feel much better about doing it. Appreciate it. Looking forward to getting it done now.
Awesome, good luck!
Thank for making this video. I have a 1977 Nova and they actually have these bars specifically for my car. I wasn’t sure if I should try them out. Now I will ! Thanks again !👍🏾
Awesome! They are a great investment, especially if you're going to do some drag racing
Great video. I have these on my ‘76 Nova. FYI to future viewers, the rear suspension of 1973-79 Novas (and other GM X-bodies) are identical to the 1968-72 Nova. So these will fit all 1968-79 GM X-body cars.
Thanks! Appreciate the extra knowledge
Hey, I appreciate your time and like your method of instruction, which was in depth enough for the not so so mechanic.
Glad to hear it helped! That makes my day!
Amazing editing this helped me a lot thank you so much!
Glad it helped!
You are a real dude working on stuff. Much appreciated. ! Ive begun a 1970 Nova restoration myself. I recently acquired the car, by unpleasant circumstances. Im going to try to do it justice. Caltracs are in garage and waiting for their time to go on. Leaf spring bushings and frame connectors and new body bushings. Rebuilding front clip and rustproofing the car. I havent worked on cars for 35 years, however am very excited. I sub'd your channel and love your Nova !
Thanks so much and welcome! Good luck on your project, really hope you enjoy it!
Put these on my 70nova along with the split monos and some comp engineering subframe connectors. 15 years of owning it and now it literally feels like an entirely different car. Watching this vid made me buy them so thanks!
Awesome! I'm glad it worked out! I am about to buy some split mono's from calvert for my Dakota soon, so I'll be excited to see how they work
Excellent video of how to do it in real life, thank you very much for taking the time to do it
Thank you for checking out the video! Appreciate the kind words
Thank you! You helped me a lot with your tips. Greetings from Brazil
Oh man thanks! Glad to hear it helped out! Awesome to hear it helped you all the way in Brazil!
Well done. Nice ride too!
Thanks!
Good stuff, I've got a new set of CalTracs going on my 73 roadkill Nova. And I've got a 78 Buick Skylark, that could probably use new bushings. Reusable info for me. Thanks for making this
Awesome to see it is helping folks out, appreciate the view!
Well done and great tips.....Love the Nova, I may do this to mine also!!!
Thanks! Appreciate it!
This was a very well done video.
Thank you very much! I hope it helps out!
Appreciate your video man, got to learn something new...
Thanks!
Really enjoyed your video. I'm building a 71 Nova and bought these already so thanks for sharing. I'd love to see some safety glasses, just takes an instant for a serious injury. Enjoy your car, I have a video or two of mine posted and will be posting my progress as well Woot Woot.
Thanks! trying to remember to be a little more conscious of safety. Thanks for the reminder!
When I did mine on my 69 I also purchased the split model leaf springs which already have the aluminum bushings installed I also used this time to put bolt in subframe connectors in
cool! Those split leafs are nice!
Wow, your Nova is solid! I noticed the skirt under the rocker, cool.
Thanks! I think that skirt is part of the trim package, def glad they are still intact!
Thank You 4 the info..Very Helpful 👍💯🏁👍💯🏁🏁
Keep Up The Great Work 🏁
Appreciate! Thanks for checking it out!
That is a nice Nova you have there.
Thank you very much!
I hammered a cold chisel down through the sleeve straight down where the spring bends around on itself. A sharp chisel will cut through that sleeve fairly easy
good to know!
That's pretty cool bro, I was just looking to buy me a set of caltracs yeah I can put them on way to go dude
Go for it!
pretty slick Big Guy. I think you’ll like those previously enjoyed bargain Cal Tracs! Those old Lakewood style slapper bars are an eye sore especially in bright yellow. Nice job and thanks for video!
Thanks! The were worth every penny! I'm going to order a set here for my Dakota soon
@@RacerXGarage Ive got a 71 396 , M20 4 spd nova so I enjoy seeing the nova vids
hole saw work wonders Sawzall for the outer cut it at the end of the spring hole a hydraulic press is a must lol
not a bad idea! A press is def on my shop list
It's a super lucky day when those three bolts on the front spring hanger come out like they were put in there yesterday. LOL! That doesn't happen in every case.;)That top "captured" nut is known to break free and spin,,thats where the fun ends , LOL
I bet! Mine were in all good shape, I know there are some common fixes for them if they do break.
Nice
Thanks!
Im putting some of these on my 71 challenger soon.
Hopefully the install is similar, good luck!
Nice job buddy
Appreciate it!
I'm going to get a set of them
They work great! But remember to back them off when street driving
Those are just regular J-bolt slapper bars. Which are better than the standard slapper bars. But they are not South Side machine bars. South sides do not have a snubber in the front they actually clamped to the spring instead. Very differant than slapper bars.
Great Info, appreciate it!
The slapper bars have a J bolt which was a Bill Jenkins design. I had some on my 63 Chevy ll. It would nearly scrape the bumper running 9" slicks.
Old mentor of mine mentioned they were the bee's knees back in the day
Use the botton hole you want the bar as close to level with ground as you can.
It got changed later on, but thanks for the tip!
Yep
Thanks for the informative video. I didn't see any discussion/implementation of preload. Did you adjust for preload and how much?
I did the preload per Calvert Racing's instructions. I dont remember it off hand. I think it was like 2 half turns.
Great real world installation video. Thanks! I would like to ask you a question about something I saw at time mark at about 5:29 and then again at about 6:43. Along the rocker panel it looks like a bolted on brace or something that runs along the the rocker panel front to rear. Is that factory or is that some kind of body stiffening device? Again, thanks for taking the time to make this video.
Thanks! The thing you're seeing in the video that runs along the rocker panel is a factory trim piece. It's actually plastic. It's part of the appearance package that came on this car that includes the trim that runs on the bottom belt line, the black paint that runs below it and the plastic "skirt" that runs underneath.
My nova has that same brackets on it only in a SS in 68
I run caltrax on my 72 Nova. They work great. With a sticky tire it will plant the tires.
This thing hooks really well now, I'm impressed
grease those bushing aluminum on steel could seize up and helps it move better
Great video. Thanks for sharing your tips. Oh, and can I borrow your Nova SS for a few hours. I need to go to the store to pick up some milk. ;-)
Haha, gonna pass on that one! Thanks for checking it out!
Wooster hanging up in the shop, and paint or caulk on your shorts. I feel like painters know other painters lol
Haha, well I work in Medical IT, but before we sold our last house we had to paint every inch of it so I ruined a few pairs of shorts that I now use to work on cars with.
All the different penetrating oils I've used over the years, nothing works like Kroil.
I've heard good things about Kroil
I put a CPP set up on the rear of my 66 Chevy II and after three months every time I hit a small bump I got a shock sounding rattle that was unbearable, I took a zizz wheel and cut the damn things off. I finally figured out the noise was coming from that big metal bushing in the front. I’m wondering if your getting any noise from this set up. Usually metal to metal don’t last on a street car. Mine was a text book example. Let me know when you have time because I hate that damn wheel hop. Thanks. BTW nice damn car dude!!!
This car has a 4.56 gear, so I don't drive it as much as id like, but they do make a little noise going over bumps. However, I still have preload on them, and I need to back them off when I'm driving on the street. I think the noise will go away then.
Hello I have some "caltracs" made at home and in my Chevy II and I decided to make the front hubs in a plastic material called "grilon". It has worked really well and is very easy to do with a lathe, I have now bought a set of original Caltracs and I think I will also replace the aluminum front hub with one of this same material
Remember that you must place a steel tube inside the bushing
What were the 1/4 mile or 60’ times with the slapper bars vs the times with the Caltracs?
I believe 1.9 / 1.8 with the slapper bars, we did a best of 1.78 with the Cal Tracs
Nice job. Tell me do you feel some difference?? Thanks.
I actually did pick up some on my 60ft with these. I went 1.78 60ft and 12.90 at 104 earlier in the year. We have a video of it too, I don't remember the episode number but you can find it on our videos page.
I can not get the bolts off the cup that bolts up to the frame? It there a way to get them out? Also some welded frame connectors and it is blocking a bolt as well. I was able to loosen it but it can’t clear the connector to drop out. I lowered the bracket enough to hit the large pin out to remove the driver aide leaf. Any advice?
I think that you may be dealing with a common problem for these cars. Those bolts are held in by some clips that also act as a captured nut. Well, unfortunately they often break and wind up just spinning instead of loosening.
So in these cases you have to cut the head of the bolts off to get the cup to drop. Once you do this though, you can get remainder of the bolt and broken clip out. And the best news is they sell all this hardware to fix it when you go to reinstall it.
www.musclecarcentral.com/1968-1972-Nova-Leaf-Spring-Mounting-Cup-Hardware-p/sus-141-nv.htm
Thanks for the info.!
I was hoping earlier in the video that u would c that emergency cable. Lol looked horrible 🤣
yeah I'm not sure why they did that
Just picked up a 95 s10 with small block and it's got these on it you talk about a rattle trap haven't had the chance to diagnose yet but is metal on metal noise normal ?
Mine make noise over speed bumps or large ones, but not otherwise. They may be loose on your truck, but can't say for sure.
@@RacerXGarage thanks for the info & reply probably gonna shead them truck is so low they scrape speed bumps but they do look cool.
What color blue is that on your nova?
Original color is "Grotto Blue"
What size rally’s are you running?
I think these are 15x7's all around if I remember right
Is it possible to take your rear end out without taking the Caltrac kit off ?
I believe you could just unbolt the heim joint that connects to the bottom plate where the u bolts go into. After that is just removing the shocks from the plates as well. I dont see why the entire assembly would have to come off.
@@RacerXGarage can you edit the angle wit those long bars ? Make the rear end turn clock wise a little ?
@@anthonymenchaca9952 you can adjust preload, but i don't think you should use them to fix pinion angle. I'll be honest, I'm not well versed on suspension, but i believe the main point in the Cal Trac bars are to limit axle wrap. Besides that, I am not sure. Hope you fan get it figured out
Hey man love the videos! I’m trying to do my 71 right now but I CAN NOT get the three bolts out of the “cup” (5:53). All they do is spin and there’s no where to put a wrench on the other side. Any ideas??
Those bolts go into clips that often break. Check out this forum posting, it should answer your questions. (Long story short, cut the heads off the bolts and buy new J clips and bolts)
www.stevesnovasite.com/threads/leaf-spring-mount-problem.315610/
@@RacerXGarage that looks like a good way to do it. Thanks man!
Why didn't you press them in with the vice? Thats what I do. I have a bolt head on my vice and zip them in and out with the impact and a socket.
My vise is too small, i would have liked to do that but my jaws won't spread far enough. I do have a big one i need to get working and installed
Why do you NOT have frame connectors on that car?
This car is a survivor real SS car. To install frame connectors on these gen III novas, you have to drill the body tub or the frame rail. I'll never drill a hole in this car, plus, it's not a race car and I don't need to go that serious with it.
I respect that. You have a very nice ride.
@@dougrogillio2223 Thanks! Appreciate you checking it out!
Next time put those bushings in the freezer for an hour before pounding them into the leafsprings. They'll drop right in.
For sure! Freezer does help
Good video but that mallet barely balancing on the edge bugged me so much haha
lol I saw the same thing when I watched it back.... so close to falling
Bro is that a syclone i see???
We have 1992 Sonoma GT (Basically Syclone's little brother) and a 1993 Typhoon which is the SUV version of the Syclone.
No sub frame connectors???? Wassup with that
This car is a true SS survivor car. All of the sub frame connectors you have to drill into the car to mount, and that is something I'll never do. It is actually about to get make much more of a street car anyway so I'm not motivated to add any more drag or suspension items to it.
@@RacerXGarage awesome. ....beautiful car, good job on the install, thinking about adding a set to my nova......I got a lsa supercharged ls3 in it already so much for it being original. .....sweeeeet ride dude.....what is the bottom hole for on the caltrac triangle. ...the hole that wasn't used,.....diffrent height options?
The competition engineering bolt in subframe connectors slide between the rear subframe bushing and the subframe on the front subframe. Then between the body and the front leafspring mounting bucket. Shouldn't have to drill anything. At least I never had to on any of novas I have had.
Why not press them out.lols...
Not really sure, other than I didn't have a press. 🤷♂️
Lol calling it a 3rd gen
1st gen - 1962-1965
2nd Gen - 1966-1967
3rd Gen - 1968-1972
My car is a 1968, which would make it a 3rd gen.........
You gotta be shttn me c'mon man
I'm not, in any way. Promise.