Classic steering

[Corkheader]

My 1.6 VX classic can get very skitish over 70 on bumpy roads. I have tried experimenting with tyre pressures but it dosnt seem to make much difference

 

The car does not have adjustable dampers and is as far as I know standard, A frame bush is new.

 

Can anyone help me with tracking and castor settings for everyday road use?

 

Thanks

 

John

[allen]

You could check the ride height. The rear should be 15mm higher than the front otherwise you can do nasty things to the handling.

 

allen

[Allen Payne]

Also check the toe in/out of the front wheels; too much toe out can cause this so try zero toe in/out to start with

 

Edited by - Allen Payne on 23 Jan 2007 20:31:02

[c7trp]

I've had this on my 1.8 Roadsport.

 

Problems were:

 

1: Knackered rear damper. 😳

2: Adjusted tracking to 1 deg or so toe in from 2.5 toe out

3: Adjusted castor from > -2 deg negative -1

 

The car has been transformed. Caster was hard to adjust as the threads were seized in the top wishbones, so had to buy new wishbone 🙆🏻

 

Blat mail me if you want a copy of the settings from the build manual

[Corkheader]

Thanks for the advice - will get the tracking checked.

 

John

[sjmmarsh]

Tim

 

I think you mean -1 camber (wheels lean in towards the top of the nosecone), not castor (the angle of the strut in the wheel hub away from the vertical in the F-R direction)

 

Steve

[c7trp]

Steve,

 

Correct - soz - think the little grey cells are failing 😳

 

Caster is the next thing to check!

 

[Sheds Moderator]

As posted above the first thing to check is tracking. Slight toe in (say a degree) gives stability, slight toe out gives a faster turn in at the expense of stability. Some racers like this but on the road it's probably hard work. Between the 2 is a compromise. When I got mine I had it flatfloored (under £100) and it was transformed, with everything set up and much more stable handling.

[Corkheader]

Thanks for the posts -

 

Not heard of flat flooring, what does it involve?

 

John

[sjmmarsh]

John

 

Flat flooring (aka 'corner weighting') aims to get the weight of the car evenly distributed between all four wheels. In practice this is difficult to achieve, but it is possible to get the weights on the two front wheels equal (helps prevent one wheel locking under heavy braking) and the rake of the car from front to rear right (a 7 should be 15mm higher at the back than the front).

 

To do this you need a perfectly flat floor, equal tyre pressures and adjustable dampers.

 

Steve