how to eliminate wheel hop??????

the title says it all..i have a little bit of wheel hop when launching..nothing major but enough to bother me..if im doing a regular burnout its fine but when i spin the tires off the line they hop a little..what is the best or most cost effective way to get rid of this..please help..........thanx in advance
 
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Put the quad shocks back on if you took them off or don’t have them installed.

The quad shocks are a roll of the dice. No matter what the combination of tires, control arms and shocks, some cars will wheel hop without quad shocks and some won't. There are so many variables in 28-13 year old cars with wear, misalignment and combinations of suspension components and tires that one unchanging answer won't work for everyone.

I personally would install them, and make sure they are in good shape. I do know this, that Ford is cheap. If they could have made changes in some simple component like bushings or control arm construction and saved $10, they would have done it. Multiply $10 times all the Fox body Mustangs ever made and you would be almost as rich as Donald Trump. That's a lot of $$$, and good incentive to engineer something to do away with the quad shocks.
 
The quad shocks are a roll of the dice. No matter what the combination of tires, control arms and shocks, some cars will wheel hop without quad shocks and some won't. There are so many variables in 28-13 year old cars with wear, misalignment and combinations of suspension components and tires that one unchanging answer won't work for everyone.


Removing the quad shocks is not a roll of the dice, if you fix the car correctly, you will not get wheelhop. This is not the popular opinion, because it involves going outside of the bolt on comfort zone.

If you use a quality set of control arms, preferably with solid bushings, set the pinion angle correctly, and reinforce the torque boxes, you will eliminate the problem.
 
Removing the quad shocks is not a roll of the dice, if you fix the car correctly, you will not get wheelhop. This is not the popular opinion, because it involves going outside of the bolt on comfort zone.

If you use a quality set of control arms, preferably with solid bushings, set the pinion angle correctly, and reinforce the torque boxes, you will eliminate the problem.

If this was true for every car, you could have a job with Ford Engineering making big bucks. You would be driving a shiny new Hi Po BMW M3 or M5 for a play toy instead of an older Fox Mustang. If Ford could have eliminated wheel hop cheaply and consistently, they would have done so. The quad shocks cost money, and saving money on production costs is one of the main things about building mass market cars like Mustangs.
 
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90lxcoupe nailed it. Good quality control arms eliminate the wheel hop.


If this was true for every car, you could have a job with Ford Engineering making big bucks. You would be driving a shiny new Hi Po BMW M3 or M5 for a play toy instead of an older Fox Mustang. If Ford could have eliminated wheel hop cheaply and consistently, they would have done so. The quad shocks cost money, and saving money on production costs is one of the main things about building mass market cars like Mustangs.


Ford has never/will never put good control arms on the solid axle mustangs because of NVH. And maybe 90lxcoupe is driving a fox mustang because he wants to, and not because it's all he can afford? Maybe he has an Underground Racing Twin Turbo Gallardo in the garage? Maybe you guys are friends and you were just teasing him... heck, I don't know. But your comment seemed rather presumptuous.
 
My '88 GT used to wheel hop when it had 15's on it, but when I swapped to 17's it went away. I didn't change anything else, and the car launches much more predictably and if it spins, no wheel hop. My old 15's used to hop even with very little wheelspin.
 
Good quality control arms eliminate the wheel hop


Not always.

Plenty of guys with "good quality arms" still have wheel hop. I've seen dozens of testimonials to that, as well as my own experience. I have MM lowers, with steeda uppers. Without quads, it still wheel hops. I put them back on and problem was gone.

Quad are just one of those things you should try to keep. No harm in keeping them, unless you have wheel size issues. Seems like too many people want to delete them for no reason other than thinking they are a "band-aid". Has it ever hurt performance to keep quad shocks? Doubt it. Has it hurt performance to unnecessarily remove them? Sure.
 
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I'll just leave this hot mess of victims of bad advice here

I was a victim of the no quad shock/ aftermarket control arm wheel hop fiasco... I wouldnt reccomend removing them.

I already have Megabite UCA and LCA. Don't know why I still have wheel hop, trying to figure it out...

[later]...Well, I put the factory original quads back on and fixed the problem. Haven't been to the track but no wheel hop yet.

Thanks for the input everyone.

I have Mega Bite Jr. Lowers and without the quad shocks have alot of wheel hop. Put the shocks back on and no wheel hop at all.

unless there is an elimination of the factory uppers due to the addition of a torque arm or panhard bar the quads should stay. i was one of the victims of the internet myth that when aftermarket control arms are added the quads should go.

I was one of these people that bought into the internet hype of not needing quads once I got control arms.

On my 87GT, I installed Megabite Jr's lowers with FMS uppers and I got wheel hop after I removed the quads. Sometime later I picked up some BBK uppers and lowers and also got wheel hop without the quads. BAD wheel hop at that. I installed the quads and it improved.

I've got Steeda uppers & lowers. But I still get some fishtailing when I drive irresponsibly--HA, so I just bought a set of Gabriel quads to replace my well-worn (108K miles) stockers---they DO make a difference.

My 88 GT had Steeda Aluminum LCA's, stock uppers and wheelhopped bad enough to break one of the parking lights without quads, with quads it was smooth.

I had baad wheelhop with FRPP HD uppers/no quads. Put in quads, and the wheel hop was gone.

I had really bad wheelhop just in street driving. I replaced control arms and the wheel hop stayed the same. I replaced my quads with Koni ones that I found on E-bay cheap and the wheel hop went away. Traction got much better too. New Quads were a great improvement on my car.

I have always heard toss them when you get "real" control arms. I spent close to $100 to go to a track rental this spring, and I almost took the quads with me just in case...The track was good, but my car was wheel hopping bad in 1st and 2nd. So be careful with that conventional "wisdom" that they aren't needed once you change out your stock control arms... My car wheel hops like a bitch without them.

OK a buddy was driving my car the other day and he started doing a burnout and the car was wheel hopping a little bit.
I have UPR Double Adj. uppers, Jegs Lift Bars, 03 GT rear springs and 50/50 Lakewoods...Also long gone are the quads....Why am I having wheelhop?

Glad I'm not the only one [who got wheelhop without the quads]. I have Granatelli/JD's performance arms and I had terrible wheel hop last time at the strip. 60' was 1.81 when I had the quad shocks, dropped to 2.05+ with them off.

I removed my quads when I replaced 6 of the 8 bushings in the rear with poly bushings and had to reinstall them because of the wheelhop. :(

I noticed that when i installed a set of steeda upper and lowers I experiened alot of wheel hop after removing my quads.

I just installed some lower control arms, and they didnt help at all! I still have wheel hop....

...its a 88 LX i put on JD's performance control arms. I have always heard that you leave the quad shocks off when putting on lower control arms...

[later]...put the quad shocks back on and tightened up all of the bolts, my wheel hop is almost gone...It's interesting how after putting on the quads with the new Control arms, my tires actualy squeal instead of just jump.
Pretty exciting :)

[later still] Lemme just say thanks again to MFE, and all of the other guys who gave me advice to stop the wheel hop. Its totaly gone now. All it took was 5 minutes bolting my quads back on and the wheel hop started fading fast. I think as the parts are wearing in its getting even better. At first I had a little bit of hop, but I took it out today and I couldnt get it to hop at all. Thanks again guys.

just an update...

I replaced the quad shocks with the Gabriel #14039's that MFE recommended and the wheel hop has been eliminated! The old quads were in terrible shape, and I'm glad I've replaced them. I'm accelerating much smoother now with no hiccups whatsoever.

So much for internet nuckledragger gangbang universal truths.
 
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If Ford could have eliminated wheel hop cheaply and consistently, they would have done so. The quad shocks cost money, and saving money on production costs is one of the main things about building mass market cars like Mustangs.

Show me one car that has done what i mentioned and still hops the tires!

None of what i said is cheap, especially if you fix the torque boxes right. Throwing quad shocks on a car is the CHEAP solution. Quad shocks are just a band-aid for our flimsy chassis

Just putting control arms on the car WILL NOT fix the problem.

I believe that the wheelhop comes from flexing of the torque boxes, so if you weld the torque boxes up, or add thicker steel where the thin sheet metal is, you will eliminate the problem.

I had slight wheelhop at times until i had the torque boxes completely reworked.

I'll rehash my statement, if you FIX the torqe boxes, and use quality control arms, wheelhop will be gone.
 
The kind of wheelhop that the quads help with is caused by the axle housing rotating when it's torqued hard and suddenly, hitting the limits of its bushing deflection, which unloads the tire, which causes the axle to unwind, which plants the tire, which causes the axle housing to rotate again, which causes it to hit the limits of its deflection again, which unloads the tire again, and so on. Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang. The quad shocks damp that oscillation of the axle housing. The only way to guarantee, and I mean unequivocally without fail eliminate that kind of rotation, is to put solid ends on every control arm point, or run a torque arm. Short of that, there is no guarantee that it'll be eliminated and IMHO it's downright ****ty of people to keep telling other people that there is. Just ask all the people who took that "expert" advice and found out how wrong it could be.
 
I've got UPR non adjustable urathane bushing Upper and Lower control arms with Koni adjustable shocks.
I had to rebuild my torque boxes after a summer with solid bushing Lakewood lift bars on it. Tore the crap out of the tb on the drivers side. I also welded up all of the pinch welds on the upper control arm mounts while I was at it.

I'm not running any quad shocks and have NO wheel hop.:nice:

On the other hand, I have a buddy who put BBK upper and lowers on with OE replacement shocks, and with out the quads on it still had wheel hop.

I would have to agree with 90lxcoupe that there is something to be said for reinforceing the torque boxes!!!
 
i appreciate all your info guys..thanks i dont have anything done in the rear all stock and still have the quad shocks..maybe just need to replace a few things?

Yep, torque box reinforcements and control arms. At this point (22yr old car) that's just good maintenance, but it'll help with your wheel hop problem. :nice:

Here's how it all went down on my '89 LX:

1989 Ford Mustang LX - Fox Buildup