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Brooklands Ace Wheel Alignment

Started by Wally, March 13, 2012, 12:13:12

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Wally

i, I am hoping somebody may be able to help please.
   
   We are having problems with the suspension and steering on our car. It tends to feel like you are driving on ice with hard tyres and does not give confidence as it should do. I appreciate that a lot of the steering and suspension are pre-set and not adjustable but we really would like to know as many settings and angles as possible to be able to determine what is wrong.
   
   The thrust angle is correct, we are happy it is not the usual bump steer problem and not the use of 320bhp [:)] The car is running four same size wheels and tyres rather than the larger rear tyres - what is everybody else using?
   
   We have been told that there are different suspension arms on the later cars compared to the early cars; does anybody know what the difference is as we don't know which we have fitted. This car is one of the 2009 registered vehicles and has all new parts fitted. It has now done around 8,000 miles with no undue tyre wear to front or rear and rides really well apart from the problem.
   
   We have contacted John Abel, Steve Gray and Redline engineering all without success, so if anybody can help it would be appreciated.
   
   If possible we would like the following settings
   
   Rear Camber and Toe in/out
   
   Front Camber, KPI/SAI, Caster, Toe in/out
   
   Details of suspension arms and ride height etc
   
   Thanks
   
   Graham

cobham cobra

How old are your tyres ? If they are the original tyres they could contribute to lack of grip. I'm now on the third set on my MkIV and it's like night and day compared to the original ones which could have been 10+ years old.
   Just a thought.
   John.

Wally

Thanks for the reply John,
   
   Just to give an update on this - We have made some quite major alterations to the front suspension setup and appear to have rectified the fault we had.
   It is not quite 100% perfect, you can upset the car if you try, but at least we now dare let anybody have a drive.
   
   Just for referance
   
   The rear thrust angle is spot on (Used shims in front of rear subframe to correct)
   The rear wheel alignment is toe in 3mm
   The rear camber is -1.3 degrees
   
   The front wheel alignemnt is toe in 2.2mm
   The front camber is now -1.0 degrees both sides (was 0.9 and 2.3)
   The front Castor is now 5.1 degrees both sides (was 3.4 and 3.2)
   
   We will now just have to watch out for any undue tyre wear and adjust as required.
   
   Graham

Wally

John, just to let you know, we fitted two new tyres to the front and you just can not believe the difference! It now feels like a different car and as stable as any other.
   
   Graham