Steering rack’s .. do they self centre?

[TVR Beaver]

Reason I ask is my car always wants to go very slightly left... I’ve checked the geo (3 times) and although adjusted ever time??.. it hasn’t really made a difference.... It also does it when there is no road camber.... and sometime I can get a bit of diff steering... Right on acceleration, left coming off...

So I’m starting to look for other things.... It did coincide with the set up I had done after fitting my Nitrons?... stiffer springs not as forgiving on slight chassis misalignment may be??

One thing I do remember Selby TVR doing was adjusting the tracking by screwing one side out quite a number of turns and then centring the steering wheel?.. not sure why it would be done this way, but my full lock is greater turning one way, than it is the other.... by about 2” on the steering wheel... so the rack is not quite central... does this matter.... will the rack want to find its central position?.. or is this just done by the castor??

[s p a c e m a n]

Brake pad binding? My nsf one sticks occasionally and makes it feel like there's a light camber in the road.

[rigga]

Cars will always want to go slightly left due to the camber of the road, its exacerbated sometimes by worn tyres so swapping around might reduce it if they are not direction specific.
Other than that ensurethe geometry is set right.

[phazed]

You should center the rack, equal turns on each track rod end and center the steering wheel.

[spend]

TVR Beaver said:

..Right on acceleration, left coming off...

That'll be the rear end doing that, not the front.

Thrust angle correct?

[phazed]

spend said:

TVR Beaver said:

..Right on acceleration, left coming off...

That'll be the rear end doing that, not the front.

Thrust angle correct?

Agreed, rear withbone setup incorrect?

[TVR Beaver]

phazed said:

spend said:

TVR Beaver said:

..Right on acceleration, left coming off...

That'll be the rear end doing that, not the front.

Thrust angle correct?

Agreed, rear withbone setup incorrect?

you can change the camber... and the toe of the wheels relative to the centreline of the car... isn't that it?....
how do you alter the thrust angle?.....

this is what it sats on the powerflex site :- Thrust Angle is the difference of rear wheels’ individual toe angles. If individual toe angle of each rear wheel is not equal, then the rear wheels will try to turn the car from the back, not unlike a rudder on a boat. This is known as thrust angle.


Checked and re-checked?....

I tried to get it on a Hunter machine but they say they don't have TVR settings.. and they can't manual input them

Edited by TVR Beaver on Monday 26th August 18:58

[phazed]

The rear wishbones are adjustable, toie in or out.

[TVR Beaver]

Just re-checked with cotton

I get the rear drivers side toe to be in by 1mm over the rim
I get the rear pass side toe to be out by 1mm over the rim

but the fronts are strange also?... they appear to toe out to me?... coming from the back about 2mm per side having centred the wheel???...

is the distance accross the axles to the rim same back and front?... can you measure it this way?...

I reported the fronts toeing out before the last check (using cotton and blocks of wood).. they said it was okay?

I'm assuming the rim on the tront wheel and the rim on the rear wheel should be the same distance fron the ctr of the chassis for this to work?.. is that correct??

Edited by TVR Beaver on Monday 26th August 21:07

[Aussie John]

I had this on one of my cars, change of tyres stopped the problem

[carsy]

John, front and back are different. Trying to recall from when i set mine up with string but i think the rear is wider than the front.

[TVR Beaver]

If the rears are wider, thats why the front look like they toe out when referanced from the rears... If I knew how much, I could use differant size blocks on the rims....
It's a bugger when you have to do this after 3 garages have had a go!... one thing I can say now is the rears appear to be out relative to the fronts!

[carsy]

I did mine using fishing line as per this http://www.elantragtclub.com/id554.html Didnt bother with leveling th floor just the string bit around the car.

Got it pretty much spot on when later checked with laser equipment. Took some doing mind, getting the string positioned correctly.

Edited by carsy on Monday 26th August 21:05

[carsy]

This also has a good right up showing the importance of getting it square.
http://mercedes-190.co.uk/topic/6538754/1/

[TVR Beaver]

yes, I was just thinking about creating two paralell lines down each side of the car and measuring to these from thr rims... that way it takes out the need for the axles to be the same width... I'll have to read your attachment in full but guess thats what its saying...

Many thanks

[phazed]

Who can you trust professionally?

(Awaits list of recommended laser guys)!

[carsy]

And while your at it get the camber spot on. Have a look at tvrgits homemade camber gauge in this thread. Copied it and made one myself in about 5 mins. couldnt be any simpler with perfect results.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...

[TVR Beaver]

All good stuff... I've just measured the axles and the rear is wider for sure....

but I'll get some drilled pipe or wood from work tomorrow (drilled at 70") and get some lines down... see where I am....

[GTRene]

I had that once with a car of mine...
went 3 times to a station and they could find nothing wrong but the car pulled one side under hard acceleration and when I did a right turn my right rear wheel had traction problems most of the time
before that i also had a 'new' diff so I wondered that it maybe was not working properly...

it drove me nuts but also the money it cost every try

so i decided to think things out...since when did it happen...ah, I did leveled the car straight with the springs from the coil overs...hm, and the car has a pretty high nm/degree so I was thinking, the springs need al to be the same load...
so I did it all over and gave every spring the 'same' adjustment left and right, after that I did a test drive and yes...all worked again as it should even in the corners and right turn etc...

only now my steering wheel was not 100% straight anymore so I did some align work myself at home and after some test trips all was perfect again!

so...maybe you have also a bit of that?

[phazed]

Interesting, uneven coil spring loading