Hotchkis leafs, rear discs and traction bars

[dhardison]

I have the rear end out of my '70 Nova while installing rear discs (Touring-Classics) and new Hotchkis leaf springs. I have the rear discs installed and upon test fitting the new springs with my existing Lakewood traction bars I found that the driver's side e-brake interferes with the traction bar. The passenger side is fine since the caliper mounts on the opposite side due to the staggered shocks. Attached is a pic of the problem. In this pic the rear is upside down and the hole in the bracket is where the e-brake cable goes.

The way I see it I have a few options (open to others opinions/options).
1) Remove the traction bars altogether and re-install stock shock mounting plates, which I'd have to buy. I've read many posts that state once Hotchkis rear springs are installed, traction bars are no longer needed (i.e. the leafs eliminate wheel hop), but I'm somewhat skeptical about this......
2) Replace the slapper bars with Slide-a-links or Cal-tracs, which might clear the e-brake cable, but that's an expensive theory.
3) I could drill a hole right through the traction bar, weld in a piece of tubing with an I.D large enough to accomodate the e-brake cable. I have concerns that this would compromise the strength of the traction bar, plus would be sort of a 'hack fix'.

Any other thoughts on how I can take care of this problem? Do I still need the traction bars with the Hotchkis springs?? I need to hook up the e-brake, so just leaving it un-hooked isn't an option.

Dan

[alky]

I have the same setup on my '69 Camaro with Cal-tracs and clears okay.

[MrQuick]

Hey Dan, yes this is a common problem. You can redrill the holes in the mounting bracket to rotate the caliper so the e-brake is over the spring. Or an even off the wall solution would be to drill a 11/16" hole in the traction bar and weld in a 11/16" od .120 wall pipe to pass the cable through...sorry its late and i haven't slept much.

[wrcamaro]

if you can, try it with out traction bars for awhile and see how you like it.

[dhardison]

Thanks for the replies everyone! It's good to know that the Cal-tracs will work without interference, but I think I'll hold on to that $400 for the time being. I had actually thought about weldinging in a piece of tubing as well. I'm going to try it without the slapper bars for now and she how much wheel hop I get.

Thanks again!
Dan