4 wheel alignment settings?

[magpies]

I'm about to get my S1 checked locally - what are the standard setting?

I have searched but can't find

[phillpot]

magpies said:

I have searched but can't find

It all gets a bit confusing............ clicky..

[LawrieS]

Funny you should say

[magpies]

Reading that lot I think somewhere along the lines of

Camber
Front -ve 1.25 +/- 0.25 degrees
Rear -ve 1.5 =/- 0.25 degrees but not sure how this can be adjusted?

Toe
Front 0 to 0.5mm Toe In
Rear 0 to 0.25mm Toe Out

[magpies]

Looked at the rack and found there is more left steering than right. So centralised the rack and steering wheel only to find that the offside control arm comes out of the trackrod end while the nearside one screws all the way in to get the wheels to point straight ahead. It is as if the control arms are the wrong length

[greymrj]

Hope I am not teaching grandmother .......etc

Are you saying that the distance from the end of the body of the rack to the steering arm (attached to the hub) is significantly different from one side the other? In other words, is the body of the rack (not the actual rack itself) a long way off centre? Rack outer to steering arm ball joint centre is about 40cm.

Assuming they are roughly the same the amount the rack projects from inside the casing should be roughly the same. If not then you need to centralise the rack inside its casing. Disconnect the steering column and rotate the steering pinion (the joint going into the top of the rack) until the rack is central.

The track arms with the ball joints should be roughly the same length when the rack is central and the wheels at central.

[magpies]

Cheers mrj

not sucking eggs yet ..... still have most of my own

however never too old to learn, or even just confirmation of thoughts

I'll try to get into the garage and take some measurements

[magpies]

I think I've found the problem?

with the rack central = 1.4 turns each way to the stops
This is with the rack set up central - approx. 1.5 turns each way to stops
Near-side steering arm has approx. 50mm of threads and is screwed in almost all the way


Off-side has approx. 70mm of threads and is screwed almost all the way out


end of rack body to track rod end bolt both sides approx. 410mm with the wheels approx. straight ahead

Edited by magpies on Monday 11th May 21:38

Edited by magpies on Monday 11th May 21:39

[dwhitaker]

Are the track rod ends the same length? They look a bit different in the picture? Apart from that, a small movement in the wheel makes a significant difference in the rack position. I would disconnect the steering, center the rack (so both TRE's would have about the same thread with wheels straight ahead), center steering wheel, then reattach.

Its possible you may then have a bit more lock one way than the other, but it should not matter.

Alternatively just so long as you have enough adjustment, and there is a safe amount of thread in the TRE, leave well alone!

[magpies]

Yeah picked this up with more lock one side. So thought I'd dismantle everything to see the cause. Looks like I'll put it back the way it was With minimum safe thread in offside and almost the whole nearside thread into the trackrod end

[greymrj]

I think you need to follow the other thread and establish exactly WHY there is a difference, there clearly shouldn't be.