Alignment issues.

Discussion in 'Technical' started by chirt, May 30, 2015.

  1. chirt

    chirt Carlos Hirt

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    I'm having an issue with my mav. I just installed an electric steering column from a saturn Vue and after this mod a few issues came up. First, car wouldn't self center after a turn, so I went to the strut rods and adjusted them to give me more caster and Later on I played with the camber adjustments. my goal was to set them about 1 or 2 degrees negative but I just made it worse,the car was wandering all over the road and so on... This morning i took it to an alignment shop near my home. This guy has a new machine and he has a few classic cars and race cars so he seems to know about this stuff. I think...
    After the alignment: going straight is awesome, when making a turn to the right and letting it go of the steering wheel the car will self center to a point where i have to help it a little. No big deal I'm good with that. Now, the problem is turning left. Car won't try to self center unless it is a sharp turn then it will self center some.
    On the highway: if i'm going for example about 65 mph and i want to change lanes, going to the right lane is fine i feel total control and feedback. Now going to the left the car wants to take off a very little movement on the wheel and it goes it is very sensitive.
    I went back to the shop but the guy's response was not helpful. First thing he said was. Well it is a 45 years old car you know? Try rotating your tires it may be the tires. Ok, got home and i rotated the tires. Same thing. No changes. I called him up and then he says. Get a mustang 2 front end and all your problems will be gone LOL!

    Even if i turn the system off EPS which stays all manual steering the same thing happens. So it has to be something with the suspension somewhere.

    This afternoon my brother and I took a measuring tape and measured hub center to hub center ( front and back) and we saw that the driver's side hubs are about 3/4 of an inch further apart then on the passenger side. More wheel base on left side.

    Would that difference cause this? It is either my rear axle that is crooked or one of the front wheels is out of caster. Right?
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2015
  2. Mavman72

    Mavman72 Gone backwards but lookin' forward

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    Didn't you graft a chunk of front clip on this car. I think it was the left side??? Tower/rail etc... Is it possible the car is crooked chassis wise. That could definitely affect the handeling. As well as explane the 3/4 of an inch...
     
  3. chirt

    chirt Carlos Hirt

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    Yes, I did. But Before i messed around with the steering car was perfect. It handled really well. Who knows..
     
  4. Krazy Comet

    Krazy Comet Tom

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    The wheels should be even in fender well but of course that assumes a "square chassis"...

    One thing I've noticed on mine is the lower control arm mounts are not in line with each other, but this is a factory design because of motor mount location...

    When I was trying to get a idea where the wheels should be, I checked Brian's Boss 351 Mav, but his hadn't been aligned either since front end was apart... One of his wheels was approx 1/2" ahead of other, said it was pulling to one side... After his was aligned properly the wheels were approx same on each side, so that's what I tried to duplicate on mine... I still don't believe I have enough caster, as it doesn't return to center and is unstable at higher speeds...
     
  5. chirt

    chirt Carlos Hirt

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    I'm going to have the car checked somewhere else. Even paying Is tough to find someone who wants to help.
    My dad had many mavericks in his life and he never had to do any mods on the suspension, and back in the day he raced these cars like a maniac, we went on road trips sometimes hitting the 125 mph mark. But back then he knew good people that did things right and would not use excuses to get rid of the problem.
     
  6. groberts101

    groberts101 Member

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    I hate to say it.. but nowadays the overly capitalistic trend is to do as little as possible and make the most profit while doing less. Then move on to the next one. Smaller shops used to be much better in this respect and go well beyond to make things right with returns to preserve word of mouth, but even many of them are searching for short term volume rather than worrying about long term sustainability. Kinda sad really.

    My input is this. if you did the rough alignment yourself and things improved while not creating this newest issue?.. then you know whatever he did created the newest issue. And that's what I would use to give an A-B comparison and point out that the car is unsafe because of the current alignment spec's.. not because the suspension is simply worn out from age.

    You also need to ALWAYS get before and after alignment spec's to have a comparison and future reference points as to what worked and what spec's caused what affects in the real world. What's good for one car can be terrible for another and even tires(aggressive rubber/lower profile/wider contact patch) can make a noticeable difference in what's optimum. Not to mention personal driving styles and preferences as well.
     
  7. chirt

    chirt Carlos Hirt

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    Right! When it comes to tires,, am I better off with wide tires on the front or are narrower better? Right now i have 245/45/17 I was thinking of 225/45/17
    Wider will have the tendency of following the road defects more. Right?
     
  8. Crazy Larry

    Crazy Larry Member

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    The 245s are too tall for the front. The 225s are perfect. I don't think the tires are cause your alignment issues though.
     

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