I just picked up an untouched 69 SS 4 -speed. The car runs fine but REALLY suffers from wheel hop under hard accleration.

Sure I've had a ton of these that sufferd from this over the years but they all had air shocks or something else that jacked up the rear of the car. I used the old Mr Gasket No Hop Bars and that always cured the problem.

Well this car sits at stock height. If anything it looks a little low in the back. I certainly don't want to put any 'traction ' bars on the car. What's causing my Rat to hop like a bunny?

The A body suspensions just seem prone to this, you certainly are not alone! It also seems to happen with the stick shifts much more severely than the autos.

If you want to keep it absolutely stock, make sure that the lower control arm is level to the ground. Make sure you have good shocks, and consider replacing all the bushings.

If you don't mind changing things a little.... do a search, look for no-hop bars, or SSM lift bars. They will cure your hop problem. The no-hop bars attatch to the top of the pumpkin and relocate the upper control arm mount. The SSM bars replace your lower arms instead, with a new mounting plate to relocate the rear lower control arm mounts. Either one should work, there are fans of both types. I use the SSM's on my 4.66 geared 4 speed, and i USED to have massive wheel hop, but not anymore!

Also, there are braces that go between the upper front mount and the lower front mount. Some cars came with stamped steel braces from the factory. You can also buy beefy aftermarket braces. I use the ones from hotchkiss. They are supposed to really help tie things together, and are a good safety feature. I think these are especially important on a stick car.

Good luck!

chris

I've used those no hop bars before, Mr Gasket (lakewood) used to make 'em and I have the SSM bars on my L-88 equipped '67 and man, they make that car hook!

BUT this one I want to leave stock.

The lower control arm appear to be new, some where along the way the car got a boxed set w/ a sway bar. I have no clue about the uppers. One thing I know is I can't drive the car like this...might as well have a 250 in it 'cause you certainly can't put your foot in this thing!

If you want to leave it stock, the best you can do is to put new springs/shocks/bushings in. This will be "stock" and you'll have to live with the 30+ year old design. I would suspect that the springs/shocks are worn and can no longer control all the monkey motion going on under there when you get on it.

Jeff

Well I just talked to the original owner of the car and he told me it did it the day he bought it in 1969 so I guess worn parts aren't the answer. He said he put urethane bushings in it and just about cured it but many years ago took all the mods he performed over the years off to put it back to stock. Well I guess when he did that the wheel hop returned and he just lived with it....I guess I'll have to at least try the better bushings to see if that will do the trick. Thanks for the help.

A good set of poly bushings were all I needed to cure the wheel hop on my car.

Also, about the boxed arms and rear sway bar. Those could be original to the car, they came with the F41 suspension. Your car may not have had F41 when new, but it certainly was available. Be sure to reuse the boxed arms and keep the sway bar. Check that it has the extra frame braces that tie the upper front and lower front control arm mounting points together. These can help slightly with the wheel hop and significantly strengthen the frame/suspension mounting. A 4-speed big block car would have had these braces as original equipment.

I have a 65 SS 4 speed and I had major wheel hop problems when I first got it. I got new shocks, springs, boxed lower control arms and none of them helped at all. The third arm that goes from the front of the lower arm to the front of the upper arm was already there. I tried air bags, they helped but made the car ride like crap so I removed them. Finally, I replaced the upper control arms with Hotchkiss w/ polyurethane bushings and the wheel hop went away.

Forgot - I also added a rear sway bar before I did the upper control arms and it didn't help wheel hop, actually it didn't help reduce sway either. The only other thing I did that helped reduce wheel hop was new tires. I think old tires get hard after a while and can contribute to wheel hop. I would start with the upper control arms. It would be a good experiment. If you change them or just change the bushings in them and the wheel hop goes away, you could save yourself and a lot of other people on this forum a lot of money.

Originally posted by L-78 GUY:
I've used those no hop bars before, Mr Gasket (lakewood) used to make 'em and I have the SSM bars on my L-88 equipped '67 and man, they make that car hook!

BUT this one I want to leave stock.

The lower control arm appear to be new, some where along the way the car got a boxed set w/ a sway bar. I have no clue about the uppers. One thing I know is I can't drive the car like this...might as well have a 250 in it 'cause you certainly can't put your foot in this thing! If you leave it stock, it's still gonna do it. It's a design flaw. Tightening everything up with new bushings and such may help, but it's only masking a problem inherent to the rear suspension design.

Hotrods to Hell (http://www.hotrodstohell.net/truckarm/truckarm_index.htm)

I run this suspension in my car, no wheel-hop, i can adjust my ride height, and the car handles better then pretty much any car on the road, and way better then any chevelle with a stock-type, triangulated 4-link.