| 07/11/2000 |
Finally doing something on the car! Removed the old front uprights (left one was quite badly bent) and replaced them with standard EN1 uprights.
The new ones haven't been modified to turn the tie rod ends the other way round. Put it all together and found the tie rods are about 20mm too short (I was hoping they would be just long enough, but they aren't.)
With unmodified uprights the tie rods are nearly parallel to the road at its current ride height, whereas they were pointing down at a terrible angle with the modified uprights.
This will change the steering characteristics somewhat, but hopefully in a good way. Previously any compression of the front suspension would straighten out the tie rod, thus toeing in the wheel.
The net effect of this was terrible bump steer (HORRIBLE bump steer!), but it did turn in really well into corners (it was effectively steering into the corner as the suspension was compressed.)
The possible (if any) reduction it turn in should be more than offset by the reduced (I hope) bump steer and the returned adjustability (previously 5deg. neg. camber was the *minimum* available on the left wheel!).
Also the tie rod ends (especially the left one) looked like they were binding up on droop, which should be eliminated. |