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How do folks

I hope you are all well, since I've last been on I've been moving house and generally away from a computer but now the sun is out along with the mini after a long winter of hibernation, I've hardly driven it since it was built, so now I am getting to know the things that need changing.

One of my main issues is that when over taking on country roads or just accelerating hard, it doesn't fill me with confidence as it wants to go anywhere but straight on... it just feels like it wanders.

The car is running -1.5º bottom arms, standard tie bars and lowered on Hi-los. It has solid subframes mounts on the front as well. On my previous car I had adjustable tie bars... do you think it could be the tie bars causing the issues? I've had the tracking set an near enough straight on.

Any tips great fully appreciated

tom

the only way to be sure is to get it measured, but the tracking should be toe out, if you have set if parallel it will be toing in when its been driven, which will make it feel nervous.

the castor will probably be wrong as well if its lowered and running some negative

your car should feel well planted and confident, if not, its in the suspension

Cheers Rich, I Might take it somewhere to get measured properly.

tomkidd wrote:Cheers Rich, I Might take it somewhere to get measured properly.

its the best thing you will ever do to it, I promise you!

Any suggestions to where I should take it folks? Preferably in the North West on England

Bring it round to my place - we have a full round car string guage and a set of dunlops and a perfectly flat floor

properly strung up is the only way to do it in order to get the car and wheels in sync

pad

pad4 wrote:Bring it round to my place - we have a full round car string guage and a set of dunlops and a perfectly flat floor

properly strung up is the only way to do it in order to get the car and wheels in sync

pad

That sounds like a good offer Pad. PM me your number

Hi Tom
Jim at race set mine up castor camber etc what a transformation his number is 01254 831644

Don't forget to check for loose ball joints, bushings and tie rods.

Frogeye61 wrote:Don't forget to check for loose ball joints, bushings and tie rods.

Cheers!

I agree with the above, it sounds like a tracking issue mainly. a bit of toe out should cure this.

M

Look at the toe out of the rear wheels, or 1 wheel.

I mucked about lots with the geometry of my mini and ran the slightest gnats fanny amount of toe in on the rear wheels, I was experimenting with rear anti-roll bars and read about using them in combination with various non-straight-ahead rear toes.

To cut a long story short, I don't think it makes much difference about what is going on at the front, unless it's wildly out. The rear is the problem. As the car leans a bit, any discrepancy will be magnified. To illustrate the point, I ran rear toe in (a bit) and the car would try and straighten itself when you put it into a corner. It felt steady ahead but if you went into a sweeping bend, as the inner wheel lost a bit of grip, the rear wheel would try and get you going straight ahead. This was quite an annoying weave and you had to drive hard to avert it. I was away and my chum was borrowing my mini and demonstrating how you could "chuck it" around a corner because of the ARB. He chucked it to far and bent the rear subframe a bit. I was cross. The affect was to give a bit of toe out on one of the rear wheels. We are talking a very small amount, it wasn't like "bloody hell, that's been spanked". It made it feel wandery on the straight and the car would "rear steer" which was quite frightening. It wouldn't do it the other way. Since I couldn't be bothered to dismantle it, I decided to shim the other side so that it was equal. Out with the gauges and the measurements and calculations. I had a bit of equal rear toe out. It was scary to drive.....equally scary in both directions. You would go around a corner and get a bit of a lean on and the back would steer you into it which would make you lean more....a positive feedback cycle. It was wandery straight ahead and scary in corners. I can see how this may benefit autotesters, but it was mad on the road.

I would look at your rear geometry with a bit of string and I reckon you have a bit of rear toe out somewhere.

If you felt uneasy driving, like it was "floating" and perhaps about to leave the road, these are the symptoms.

Talking of which, some bits came in the post and so I'll be setting it up again soon (with new r/s frame)

tomkidd wrote:

Frogeye61 wrote:Don't forget to check for loose ball joints, bushings and tie rods.

Cheers!

... or too tight, even...

I've had this problem before with a swivel binding up ever
so slightly at some angles.

It's also a good idea to check that the steering rack is
somewhere about central. You could get more lock on
one side than the other and this could affect the geometry
as well.

What about tyre wear and pressures?