I have had these parts sitting around for years and as the car is up on jacks, I thought I'd get into it but have a few questions.
The first is regarding what is done with all of the spare washers given, tr6racer21 in another thread posted about using them for the adjustment of bump steer: http://www.circletrack.com/chassistech/ ... explained/ but was really unsure about how to go about this or whether upon final alignment it would be done on the rack at the alignment shop.
And after removal of the stock tie rods should I take a measurement of it's center to center and adjust the heim ends to the same as a starting off point?
Probably a good starting point. but, to set bump steer you should have the car set on blocks, with the springs removed. The car should be at a height that allows the suspension to travel through its full range of motion or as close to it as possible....probably 2 to 3" on either side of what your ride height setting is.
The LCA travels through an arc, and so does the tie rod...the aim of bump steering your car is to minimize the toe effect of the relationship between these (2) arcs.
With the car on blocks/stands you can use a crude method of checking BS by attaching a laser to the hub...pointed forward/level...and projecting it on a graduated board...then move the suspension through its travel with a floor jack and observe the toe in or out of the laser on the board.....This is a crude but effective method. You can also use one of the many bump steer fixtures that are for sale by outfits like Longacre.
I am sure that this subject has been addressed many times...bottom line is that if you lower your 510...then your roll center has changed...probably close to or below the ground...to get it back closer to center of gravity we use Knuckle risers( roll center adjusters) spacers between the strut bottom and the ball joint/knuckle...on severely lowered cars we raise the inner LCA pickup point to gain back some lost camber gain in the suspension...this will cause a loss in the relationship in the (2) arcs that I mentioned earlier....to get that relationship back we can use modified knuckles and/or tie rods that have vertical adjustment capabilities. Of course we are limited in the height of our knuckle risers/steering arms...the larger you go the closer you get to the rim/tire. You can only go so far.
I am setting up the front end of the Vintage race car currently and will do my best to post the steps I have gone through.
I am sure others with much more experience/knowledge will weigh in on this topic, or make reference to 510 archives in some fashion.
Thanks, a good read.
As per Troy's recommendation, for a street car he suggests just shimming the steering links until they are parallel with the lower control arms when the car is loaded at ride height. Assuming one doesn't have any bump steer handling issues to begin with, this ought to be fine.
I would assume this would be a good point for just about any car, as long as you don't have something weird going on with significantly more droop travel than bump or vice versa.
So I am getting ready to put the new rods in and noticed that the ones that came off are 2 different lengths. The passenger side is about 3/8" longer. Is this normal?
Car was aligned with me in the drivers seat from what I remember.
Last edited by defdes on 12 Feb 2014 06:31, edited 1 time in total.
Should be closer than that. you may want to try re-centering the steering wheel. Look to see if the pitman arm and the idler arm are pointing forward or are they off just a little bit when the steering wheel is centered. Also checking lock to lock ( only possible with original LCAs and knuckles ). If you can go further in one direction than the other from center then you need to pull the steering wheel and center the drag link, then re-install the steering wheel.
All of the computer aided alignment tools are only as good as their operators.
As a base, should I split that 3/8" and add half to the drivers side and subtract it from the passengers to get the nominal length the same?
