i am thinking of going with a ladder bar set up. my question is, on a 70s camaro ( mines a 77) do you have to run leaf springs, or can i dump them and go with coil overs. i am confused about if you have to run them or not. some people say yes, and to use housing floaters and some say no, just just the ladder bars and coil overs. this is a car that will see some street duty, mostly going 1320 feet at a time on it. thats for the help

 

I'd go with coil-overs over leafs personally if money is there. I'm sure they have a lot more tunability than the leafs could ever offer. But leafs should be cheaper so...its up to your wallet? Thats my not so professional opinion

 

yes the money is there. you i COULD get away with ditching the leafs and have the coil overs replace them correct? i've been in a hour long conversation with people and the answear is still unclear. my main thing is you dont have to run leafs on a 2nd gen if you do ladder bars/coil overs.

 

You dont have to have leaf springs with ladder bars.

The prefered method is a coilover shock, diagonal link and a set of ladder bars.

 

thank you very much. that answears my question. ever run em on the street/know anyone who has, how bad to they bind up? i've heard they arent too good for cruising, but then again, neither is my 12.5.1 motor.

 

Converting to coil over's will need a diagonal link to keep the diff centered. You will need some sort of subframe to mount the coil overs to. Attaching them to the sheetmetal floor won't support the weight properly.

There's nothing wrong with using ladder bars and leaf springs. I've seen many first and second gen F-bodies and Nova's with them. You will need to install a floater kit though to keep everything from binding up.

Running ladder bars on a street car, you'll hear them hammering when you go over bumps because of the way they're designed to work. Depending on how many miles you drive, you will also need to change the rod ends every couple of years because they will wear out from street abuse.

 

Running ladder bars with leafs will work fine; you have to run the floaters since the front of the bar and the leaf spring pivot at different points.

If you choose to run coil overs instead, you need either a diagonal or a panhard bar to keep the rearend centered.

So far as tuning, not much different, although the leaf spring is heavier. The spring supports the car, the shock and ladder bar are where you will do the tuning. I also find that the floaters make more noise than the ladder bars do. My car with ladder bars and coil overs rides like a Caddy, and no appreciable noise from the rear. Ladder bars don't like off camber driveways or anything that causes the rear wheels to rise at different rates; the rear has very little torsional flex or give. Just have to pay attention when you drive it.

Either way you will need weld in frame connectors, and a front crossmember to attach the ladder bar to. Some floor mods may also be required, depending on your ride height. With coilovers, you'll need an additional crossmember in the back.

Do you really need the ladder bars? There are 9 and 8 second cars running old style slapper bars, and the CalTrac or Slide-a-link work even better.