arse_sidewards
Contrary to everything
- Joined
- May 19, 2020
- Member Number
- 71
- Messages
- 7,813
After finally finishing up the post-crash parts swapping I took one of my shitboxes to be aligned.
Prior to this I just spun the tie rod end on without giving a fuck because "fuck it I'm taking it to be aligned anyway". Despite the wheel being turned 1/4 turn left when driving straight and the wheel wanting to turn left rather than re-center as you approached left lock it drove fine, or as fine as it could for being toed in so far.
So I got it aligned. They said they couldn't get it dead nuts on because a control arm was slightly bent but they were able to get it pretty close. I looked at the printout and was satisfied with how close they got it and none of the numbers stood out to me as being far off. I can replace the control arm but will almost certainly put it off until I put a new trans in a different car and free up a garage bay.
As it is aligned currently the car properly re-centers except when you go all the way to the left lock but it wanders substantially on the highway and pulls left when you get on the gas. It's way more eager to turn in and it body rolls substantially more on turn in and has way more roll steer than it used to. Normally I'd just tolerate this but this car drove amazingly before so I'd like to un fuck it. Due to the lack of sway bars and rear suspension geometry I understand that it's gonna roll in turns and roll steer a bit no matter what I do but I own two other copies of this car and they don't drive this way.
To me the wandering on the highway and pulling when I get on/off the gas sounds like not enough toe. The wanting to steer left at full lock makes sense assuming the right control arm is bent back a little thereby moving the contact patch inboard a little making it want to re-center less.
I'm at work but I'll dig out the before/after printout from the alignment place when I get home. If I'm lucky I can find an old printout from months ago when it was dead nuts on. Y'all will just have to speculate in the meantime.
What do y'all think my issue is?
I'm hoping to do the fine adjustment and get this car driving nice enough myself. I have a caster/camber gauge but no good way to measure toe adjustment other than counting turns on the tie rod. Once I get it dialed in I'll pay someone to put it on a rack and tell me what the numbers are for future reference.
Prior to this I just spun the tie rod end on without giving a fuck because "fuck it I'm taking it to be aligned anyway". Despite the wheel being turned 1/4 turn left when driving straight and the wheel wanting to turn left rather than re-center as you approached left lock it drove fine, or as fine as it could for being toed in so far.
So I got it aligned. They said they couldn't get it dead nuts on because a control arm was slightly bent but they were able to get it pretty close. I looked at the printout and was satisfied with how close they got it and none of the numbers stood out to me as being far off. I can replace the control arm but will almost certainly put it off until I put a new trans in a different car and free up a garage bay.
As it is aligned currently the car properly re-centers except when you go all the way to the left lock but it wanders substantially on the highway and pulls left when you get on the gas. It's way more eager to turn in and it body rolls substantially more on turn in and has way more roll steer than it used to. Normally I'd just tolerate this but this car drove amazingly before so I'd like to un fuck it. Due to the lack of sway bars and rear suspension geometry I understand that it's gonna roll in turns and roll steer a bit no matter what I do but I own two other copies of this car and they don't drive this way.
To me the wandering on the highway and pulling when I get on/off the gas sounds like not enough toe. The wanting to steer left at full lock makes sense assuming the right control arm is bent back a little thereby moving the contact patch inboard a little making it want to re-center less.
I'm at work but I'll dig out the before/after printout from the alignment place when I get home. If I'm lucky I can find an old printout from months ago when it was dead nuts on. Y'all will just have to speculate in the meantime.
What do y'all think my issue is?
I'm hoping to do the fine adjustment and get this car driving nice enough myself. I have a caster/camber gauge but no good way to measure toe adjustment other than counting turns on the tie rod. Once I get it dialed in I'll pay someone to put it on a rack and tell me what the numbers are for future reference.
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