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| rabbit11 |
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Hello All,
I'm having trouble with my 1994 Ute. Every since I lowered it (not too low) and placed the ford Tickford rims The car sways over the road, doesn't stay in line….only if the road isn't smooth. I've changed the shocks, (Monroe GT) ball joints, bushes, tie rod ends and plenty of wheel alignments'. Could it be the sway bar, maybe I need a thicker one, what is the difference with a XG XR6 front end to mine? What should be done? |
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| BenJ |
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There isn't much you can do. With wider wheels and a lowered car, it will usually follow the ruts/grooves in the road. It is one of the compromises for having a car that looks cool and handles the bends well.
BenJ
_________________ BenJ's EB T5 DOHC Ghia Wagon - Current Ride Last edited by BenJ on Thu May 22, 2008 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total. |
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| joolz |
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Have you checked the steering rack ends? With the front up on ramps peel the steering rack boots back to access the joints and check for play whilst someone turns the steering wheel back and forth with engine running. There should be no play in the joints. 1mm of play in the joint can result in the excess of 5mm toe.
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| relaxed_diplomacy |
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One thing that may be worth considering on the off chance is i think the XG (and probably the XF too) has a significant amount of bump steer, which might be made acute when lowered. Bump steer is when the wheels steer due to movement of the suspension. If there is too much it means the manufacturer made a bad compromise during the design process. When the XF was designed suspension and tyre technology was quite different to today.
You can make a reasonable assessment of this yourself, or a wheel aligner can measure it accurately. Adjusting the height and/or forward/rearward positioning of the drag link would be the way to reduce bump steer. I guess you've got wheel alignments from more than one place, and checked/replaced the lower wishbone and radius rod bushs.
_________________ wrecking 9/97 EL fairmont sedan burgundy 6cyl auto 270k modBAintake |
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| relaxed_diplomacy |
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Hang on, you haven't mentioned the steering box. After 305000kms mine wasn't good so i adjusted the play out and now it's great.
_________________ wrecking 9/97 EL fairmont sedan burgundy 6cyl auto 270k modBAintake |
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| relaxed_diplomacy |
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I guess you used a lowering block on the rear? How are the leaf spring bushes? Have you used plastic bushes, i.e. nolathane?
_________________ wrecking 9/97 EL fairmont sedan burgundy 6cyl auto 270k modBAintake |
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| rabbit11 |
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I haven't lowered the back, but you raise a valid point, the steering box has never been changed and the car has done over 385Klms….I will look at getting a change over box…also I will look at changing the wishbone bushes also the pitman arm. I'm also looking at getting a whiteline heavy duty sway bay for around $220. What do you think….also where and how do I measure the Bump Steer. How??? Thanks….
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| gstewart |
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In my experience i would say that while the steering box is probably half stuffed and should be reconditioned that BenJ is pretty much on the money
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| relaxed_diplomacy |
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Road forces at the outsides and insides of wide tyres would have more leverage against the steering, which would be compounded by a low profile that doesn't absorb as well.
_________________ wrecking 9/97 EL fairmont sedan burgundy 6cyl auto 270k modBAintake |
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| relaxed_diplomacy |
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rabbit11 wrote: I haven't lowered the back, but you raise a valid point, the steering box has never been changed and the car has done over 385Klms….I will look at getting a change over box… I recommend adjusting the box, the only real hard bit i found was sorting the good advice on how to do this from the bad. Quotes i got on reco box's varied massively, so look into it. From memory Pedders was by far the most expensive. Quote: I'm also looking at getting a whiteline heavy duty sway bay for around $220. What do you think…. Is it going on the front or back? I find my 6cyl XG's handling fairly neutral, but i have an LPG tank where the spare wheel normally is. Quote: also where and how do I measure the Bump Steer. How??? Thanks….
You would need to measure and record the toe in increments while you move the wheel through a suspension movement. Going from full droop to full bump means you get all the data. I think you would only do this if you were really keen. I do know there is more than minimal bump steer. While my wheel alignment wasn't great, and i then had a bit of an off making it worse, when i towed a car on a trailer it raised the front and the toe in became horrendous, enough to wreck the tyres in a couple of hundred kilometres.
_________________ wrecking 9/97 EL fairmont sedan burgundy 6cyl auto 270k modBAintake |
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