History lesson first!

Up to last year, i had sorted my car to drive straight and handle steer etc in a manor that was acceptable
so, it was easy to drive with no hidden vices, assuming it was being driven safetly !

however last winter i pulled the offside suspension right off and placed all the packing washers all in order of were they came from, on a tray under the car, for safe keeping
all good so far!
a good clean up and paint of all the wishbones stub axles etc, and then, not sure how kicked the tray, resulting in all my washers bolts etc strewn all over the place!

Bollox

anyway, all was assembled, back to what i thought was roughley were they went, along with a new top ball joint
yet the car, now permantley steers right, not a lot, but does need a left hand down hold on the steering wheel

The near side was also done, but lessons learned, so all back to orig spec

So, what could i of done? to much or little castor? or camber?

I will add, that the car pull to the right is worse under braking, but it is deninatly not a brake issue, as both wheels rotate for the same amount when spun

regards

steve

You don't happen to have a picture of the area before you took it apart where you might be able to see the washer detail?

Cheers

Fred W B

Fred, that would of made life sooooooooo much easier, but no !

Camber first as it is the easiest and it up sets the toe-setting if it is changed.

Then try decreasing the the castor by a couple of washers on the wheel you were working on --- if no change try it the other way

If the car still steers right shorten the left hand track rod by 1/2 turn and lengthen the right hand track rod by the same amount.

Even if any of the above fixes the problem I would check the toe across the axle.

I recently had to set the toe-in and re-centre the steering on a tintop after a subframe change --- it was well off-centre even though the subframe was manufactured on the same jigs.


Tyres getting swapped around can also cause this sort of problem.

Thanks BT, will try that later

regards

steve

Rear toe problem
Get it measured, repack and test

Snapper,

The rear was never touched, so in theory, out of the equasion


BT, just to get this right, but more castor will mean the steering "falling into a turn" ?

Steve

Because of the fairly large scrub radius any difference in castor between the two sides will have a bigger effect.

Mixed up shims ? Are these used to locate the wishbones, if so check that each bone is in the sme relative position as its opposite.

Just hold a straight edge against the ends of the wishbones! It should be around 7 degrees off vertical, if one is more or less than the other it will try and turn.

Lots of angle say 12 degrees and it will self centre heavily, 0 degrees and it will stop self centreing altogether.

The top bone should be behind the lower when viewed from above.

To prove tyres swap left and right over and see if it pulls the other way, I had this recently on an old tyre it was as if the tread had delaminated from the carcass that was on a very expensive Bridgestone.

Regards Mark