I am in the process of restoring an old original set of Traction Masters for my '57. It has the cast iron rear bracket. No front bracket. Easy enough to make but I would like to know the distance from the frame to the center of the thru bolt on the front mount. Anyone out there have an original set? Getting the bushings from Traction Master but they were no help on the spec's for the front mount. They will sell me them for $40 though.

I put a set of Traction Masters on my 55, in about 2001. They're off now, stored at a friends house. If I got a picture and some measurements would that help?

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Yes.

PM sent

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

When we were drag racing 55/56 Fords in the early 60s we were told by Traction Master to put the traction masters on a Ford facting the back as the rearend housting was foward of  center on the springs and it facing the T/M foward the springs could still "wrap" causing wheel hop. If you look at pictures of the 406 and 427 Fords racing from that era you will see T/M facing back.

I have seen them set up that way. The set I made back in the late '60s faced foreword and worked fine. I was launching my '57 at 5500 RPM with a narrow set of recap cheater slicks and was hard to beat off the line. Never broke anything. Everyone I knew installed them facing front. Seems to me they would work either way.

Well, the instructions that came with mine showed forward. But I have no real knowledge of how they really worked. I was told they stopped spring wind up by controlling the movement of the front half of the spring. So, how does the shackle at the back play into this? I'm not looking to argue, just to add a bit of knowledge to my fading memory.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Just got the new bushings and a copy of the original instructions from Traction Master. They go to the front and mount to the front spring hanger according to the instructions.