Just been for a blast!

[anonymous-user]

Lovely evening for it tonight! Like watching all the plodders in their boring euroboxes wondering what the hell just flew past them!

Still having a strange problem when going over bumps though. Only happens at speed (50mph +) but the whole car seems to 'shift' to the left and then straighten up. I know that these wedges aren't supposed to be very good in going over bumps at speed (even read it in an old mag road test when the 350i was new!), but it still doesn't feel right. Any ideas?

[Selmer]

me too!

[dickieandjulie]

me too!

[l33]

They all do that Sir

[Matty Boy]

Me too! The scraping of the underside of the chassis is also particularly unpleasant over some of those suckers too!

[jchase]

A few questions:

What year/model is yer wedge?
which steering rack do you have?
what are your recent alignment readings for Camber, Caster & toe ?
How old are the castor bushes, ball joints and front arm bushes?

Assuming these are all spot on, it could be bump steer - can you measure this?
Anything loose in the above will exagerate damper imbalance too.

I'm in the process of setting mine up, a 1987 FHC 350i
Manual Cortina rack
2mm toe in, new castor bushes, LH castor 3.5, RH castor 3.75, LH Camber -1, RH Camber +1.
Not measured the bump steer yet, but suspect it is high, as the tie rods are way off being horizontal.

Mine has a teeny bit of bump steer, but you need to be going VERY fast on VERY bumpy roads to make it wiggle a bit right then left.

I recently put Poly bushes on the castor rods - the difference was astounding, I really didn't think it would have such a profound effect on the feel of the car.

-Jim

[adam quantrill]

Jim - try driving yer wedge up Lime Kiln lane coming out of Cherry Hinton. Near the top there's a drain cover - I'll bet it steps sideways when the rear wheels go over that.

I think it's a natural trait.