Tracking may be off

[Dave 500]

The car seems to handle find (but a bit heavy) up to 70mph the it goes very light and jumps around a lot. Now I think it could be the wheels are out of balance or the tracking is out. The thing that pushes me towards the tracking is a lot of wear on the left tyre on the outside edge.

Any idea's

Cheers

Dave

[Trefor]

Definitely sounds like a suspension alignment problem. Could possibly be a tyre pressure problem too compounding the effect.

Most independent specialists have the gear to set your car up correctly - should make a world of difference.

[spend]

If you've had new steering UJs, sounds like:

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=9&h=0&t=93884

His previous thread described similar symptoms.

[M@H]

spend said:

If you've had new steering UJs, sounds like: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=9&h=0&t=93884 His previous thread described similar symptoms.

Hmmm.. surely having the track rod end upside down would be more likely to give you bump steer...?

[chim500nj]

Check tyre pressures and also suspension bushes...

Hope this helps..

[taylormj4]

Dave 500 said:

The car seems to handle find (but a bit heavy) up to 70mph the it goes very light and jumps around a lot. Now I think it could be the wheels are out of balance or the tracking is out. The thing that pushes me towards the tracking is a lot of wear on the left tyre on the outside edge.

If tracking is out it should wear both front tyres not just one (I think). Wear on one tyre suggests the camber setting on that wheel is out. I've been told by a dealership that the top camber adjustment bolts can come loose and allow the camber setting to change - may be worth a 4 wheel alignment check, good dealers do this as part of the service.
Matt

[lebowski]

Sounds exactly the same trouble as i had. Took the car to a so-called sports car specialist who adjusted the camber at the rear then proceeded to the front for camber and tracking. Drivers side fine, however told me that there was not enough adjustment on the passenger side wishbone suggesting it was either bent, had the wrong balljoints, or had previously been in an accident
None of which rang true and he was obviously talking B"""^^ks.
Had a word with TVR Bodyshop in Nailsea, who were really helpful (thanks guys). To cut a long story short they recommended that rear wheel drive cars should have all four wheels set-up at the same time rather than the previous garage who were doing two at a time. Pro-Tyre in Bristol did a full geometry job and wheel balance (and made no mention of bent wishbones etc). The handling is now spot on and no more speed wobbles! However, it does still very very slightly drift left due to the wear already sustained on the left tyre.....

Hope this helps

[M@H]

lebowski said:

...however told me that there was not enough adjustment on the passenger side wishbone suggesting it was either bent, had the wrong balljoints, or had previously been in an accident None of which rang true and he was obviously talking B"""^^ks.

Indeed complete Tosh.. glad to hear you got it sorted out at Nailsea.

If you're still talking about the tyres on the car when you got it from me, well the trackday I did on those tyres will have put quite a bit of uneven wear across the front of the car as the circuits obviously all corner predominantly one way so the tracking may actually have been fine..

Cheers,
Matt.

>> Edited by M@H on Wednesday 9th June 12:33

[Dave 500]

Just to let you all know had the car looked at by Mike and his team at Horion Motorsport as it turns out the car had the wrong ball joints on it so their was no ajustment for the camber. Anyway all sorted now and the car handles a lot better so a big thank you to them. I have to say if anyone needs anything done on TVR's or other sports cars give them a shout they are very good, they even took me to the shopping center when the car was being looked at.