Wheel hop!!

[BIGBRUDDA]

I got it. :mad:
Who's had it?:confused2:
Where does it come from, and how do ya get rid of it?:clap:
Already have a welded double pivot k frame, with energy poly bushings.New struts& mounts.
A solid bobble strut,poly front mtr mount. New side mtr mounts,W/hydraulic dampers.
This thing Gallops like a Clydesdale!!!!:nod:

[shadow88]

It comes from the loading and unloading of the drivetrain as far as I know.

I went after it as a 2 part problem. 1st part is to keep the tires from spinning, 2nd is to keep the drive train from moving so much.

I moved my battery to the passenger side to try to limit the right front tire fire.

I replace my bobble strut with a rod. It's the top half of the factory bobble strut and the bottom half of a sway bar link from a Grand Cherokee. pre-measure the size and weld it together.

My car only hops in the rain around corners now.

[DodgeZ]

more boost

[turbovanman²]

Are they regular side mounts or poly?

Wheel hop is the drivetrain loading and unloading so you need to figure out what's moving. When does it wheel hop?

How did you install the Bobble strut?

Kevin is right, if your not making enough power to overcome sticky tires, it will wheel hop.

[Vigo]

Well wheel hop isnt really the drivetrain loading and unloading as much as it is the wheel hopping! :p Regardless of what is causing it, wheelhop itself is the wheel/tire moving away from the ground (not off it usually but just unloading it til it spins) and then down again over and over. This motion is usually allowed by the slack and slop in the suspension. It is usually in the control arms but can also be contributed to by loose struts.

[168glhs1986]

Softer compound tires got rid of my wheel hop.

[Mopar318]

Softer compound tires got rid of my wheel hop.

Not only that but a softer sidewall will get rid of wheel hop. If you have a loose shock and a heavy spring then you will get BAD wheelhop.

I used to get wheel hop in my Dakota after I installed a locker. Installed some different shocks to control the rebound, and put on some ET streets. Wheel hop was gone and it hooked really nice.

[Vigo]

I think the shocks thing is overlooked pretty often here.

Anyway the drivetrain loading and unloading is really a symptom of wheelhop but not a cause. The drivetrain loads up harder on slicks than it ever will on street tires but noone gets wheelhop on slicks.

So yes limiting engine movement is a good thing, it will treat the symptom and that may be good enough that you just stop there.. but wheelhop is initially caused by the wheel being able to move in a way that it shouldnt be able to move just from putting power to it.

Either forward/aft (control arm bushings)
or up/down (strut)

Its really a combination of both (and other things like tire sidewall and tread compound) but sometimes addressing just one symptom will make the problem invisible to where you can drive it just fine.

If you've already got control arm bushings and motor mounts i would look at the struts.

[turbovanman²]

Well wheel hop isnt really the drivetrain loading and unloading as much as it is the wheel hopping! :p Regardless of what is causing it, wheelhop itself is the wheel/tire moving away from the ground (not off it usually but just unloading it til it spins) and then down again over and over. This motion is usually allowed by the slack and slop in the suspension. It is usually in the control arms but can also be contributed to by loose struts.

It is because if the engine and trans move back and forth etc, then it will cause wheel hop. RWD car's, not so much, FWD cars, yeah.

[ohlarikd]

If you've already got control arm bushings and motor mounts i would look at the struts.

So I have Energy suspension control arm bushing, I think new motor mounts - and Koni GLHS struts. As you know, I have tire spin, but also hop. Now a lot of this is cold weather, and old tires. But assuming I finally get some stickier rubber in the warmer springtime 2010, and I still have some hop, what is the recommended strut settings?

Is it more compression, more rebound (not sure if I have these options... I do on my motorcycle...)? Harder / Softer? I think I have that big 'Firmer' knob on my strut. I haven't had this car long enough to make any concrete determinations of anything, still 'testing' and 'fact finding'. But I do have hop.

From the paperwork that I have, the front struts came from 'Shelby Performance' in good ol' Whittier CA, part number 7301, in 1990! Not sure if they have been rebuilt ever.


Derek

[Vigo]

You would want to go firmer on the struts if you have the option, but if it gets to where you dont like how the car drives like that you'd have to go at it from another angle.


Simon, the engine will only move one direction until the tires let go.. its not going to move back and forth on its own.. its just going to load up in one direction, and when the tires let go it lets it move back the other way (the energy being stored in the motor mounts gets released) and then the tires catch and it loads back up again.. effectively once the tires start hopping it lets the motor mounts act like a spring with no shock, storing energy and releasing it and bouncing, and makes it harder for the tires to stay hooked because powers coming on in sharp spikes. The bobble strut is actually a shock for the spring action of the motor mounts, but they're usually worn out on these old cars.. anyone who's driven a manual car with no bobble strut or a worn one will tell you how how massive of wheel hop it will have until you break a mount or 3.

[minigts]

I have 85 suspension with a larger sway bar, polyurethane bushings, 525 transmission with a terrible dogbone bushing, standard motor mounts with RTV filling, coil over suspension with 215/40-17 Z rated tires and I don't have wheel hop.

[fishcleaner]

The welds had cracked on my drivers side transmission mount and I didn't find it until I pulled the motor out.