when setting them up do i preload the lower control arm torward the front of the car, the back of the car, or leave them neutral

 

towards the back of the car, you want to push the arm not pull it

 

What kind of car? Rear wheel drive? Front wheel drive?
I concur with generally pushing the bar rather than pulling.-Bob

 

Depends on the type of driving you are doing at the time. Some instances you want positive caster some times you don't. Positive caster will help keep a car straight when drag racing at high hp levels but it makes turning more difficult so you obviously would want neutral or negative caster for autoX.

 

i have a front wheel drive integra and i mainly have them for drag racing to prevent wheel hop and one friend of mine told me to pull it torward the front of my car and u say to push so im cinda confused right now they are neutral and it wheel hopped a little bit when i launched from my two step so what should i do

 

when i talked to lakewood about adjusting mine they told me allways push never pull

 

Adjust them forward (pull) when you are at the track for positive caster. Set back to neutral or negative for daily driving.

 

Folks, I thought he was talking about wheel hop and traction bars, which generally should be loaded to push the traction bar instead of pull the traction bar..........but I have so far, not seen your design.
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A traction bar is *not* the same as a single trailing link (one per side) from the cars front, near the radiator, going back to the front axle.
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But back to the discussion as to how your traction bars should be adjusted:
If you have traction bars set neutral and you get wheel hop, you can only go two ways: either tighter or looser, and one or the other will cause LESS wheel hop.
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BUT if we are talking about a single rod (one per side) that goes from the cars front, near the radiator, back to the front axle,......when *that* rod is adjusted, if affects castor, and toe in/out which affects how stable the car goes in a straight line.

The cars I have aligned for autocrossing have always responded well
to positive castor...........but FRONT wheel drive cars work best in a turn
with zero castor, and your tires don't get eaten up as much. Negative castor makes the car darty, unstable, and deadly to drive. Toe out makes
the car darty, unstable, and deadly to drive, also.

My present front wheel drive car has no power steering, is stable at all speeds, and can be steered with one finger on the wheel.........I think I got it right, regardless of what others may believe..........and since I do alignments, I tried several settings, before I found the combination.
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Once you arrive at a non-wheel-hop setting for your traction bars, or trailing links, or whatever you have, and you want to know *what* your specs are set to, so you can duplicate it later, let me know, I will check it for free and write it off to research.-Bob

 

Adding to my previous post, I would also do some on-track
testing to see how much the body lifts under acceleration.

I have something to measure body lift under acceleration,
and would 1.duplicate the lift at home, so I could 2.adjust
the suspension so the front tires rolling surface will be flat on the pavement with tire sides verticle for maximum tire footprint off the line.

That extra bite would give better 60 ft times, at the point
where maximum grip is more important........which is *why*
people install traction bars......to get better traction in
wheel spin situations.-Bob

 

thanks again and when i launched from my 2 step i just spun but didnt wheel hop so i think that was just the road or a coincidence. but i will do some testing to see wats the best rpm to launch at is and not spin and i will see if it wheel hops agian