Front Wheel Alignment

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Now I have had a search and despite the fact that I know there was a good discussion on this, I can't find it.

 

Anyway, The Nurburgring looms on Thursday so I've been getting the car ready. The front suspension was a little on the low side so I have wound up the coilovers a touch and then retracked it.

 

Now for a while I've not been that happy with the turn in of it, especially at low speed. One good example is the hairpin at Cadwell, where my mates Mk1 Fiesta will turn in brilliantly, whereas the 205 seems to push on.

 

Briefly the spec at the moment is;

 

250lb springs on AVO dampers.

Eccentric top mounts, not measured the camber recently but roughly 1.5 deg neg.

309 22mm front ARB.

205 width track all round.

21mm rear torsion bars with std rear ARB.

 

Now in the past I've usually set it up to the standard toe settings, but this time I'm going to try it at 30' toe OUT instead of the toe IN as standard.

 

So really any thoughts, if I had time I've a 24mm rear ARB to shorten and fit, but I can't see that getting done between now and Wednesday morning when we are due to leave.

[Anthony 1,002]

I can't help but think that the reason that it washes out is the somewhat mis-matched overall spring rates front to back, mainly thanks to that 309 front ARB.

 

If you've got a 205 one laying around, refitting that would probably make a massive improvement to front end grip. Certainly that was the best thing I did to my 205 a couple of years back (removing the 309 front ARB and going back to a 205 one), and that was running a bigger rear ARB so it must be even worse with a standard one!

 

Back to tracking, my '89 205 currently has a bit of toe-out on it (no idea how much, but quite a bit given it's visible to the eye) and that has very agressive turn-in on it, but is very nervous and tiring to drive at motorway speed. I *really* wouldn't want to drive it over to the 'Ring in its current form, especially on the heavily rutted motorways through Belgium.

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

I'm taking the car there on the trailer so no worries about motorway work, fingers crossed a bit of toe out will help matters. I'll have to have a think about anti roll bars then I guess. I was going to fit the 24mm rear one to hopefully even things up a bit.

[AdamP 0]

I went from running standard toe in to running parallel last season. The turn in improved but it follows road camber a lot more now, to the point of feeling pretty nervous at high speeds. I would imagine running any toe out would make the car feel pretty hairy on cambered roads!

[j_turnell 134 3 Cars]

I think fitting the 24mm arb will improve things a lot, i ran the 22mm front arb with standard rear and didnt like it atall, fitted a 24mm and it made things much better in terms or turn in. For front toe i would go with between 0-10mins toe out, i'd never set it to toe in, only on rwd, that should give you improved turn in but without making it twitchy or pointy at speed. What rear arms are you running?

[marksorrento205 80]

I have 24mm rear arb with 21.3mm torsion bars with a 309 setup and I have the front set to parallel. I think the turn in is spot on. Just need to ditch the 306 front hubs to get some of the neg camber back When I swap the hubs I will try a tad toe out too.

 

Edit: thats with a 205 front arb

Edited July 18, 2010 by marksorrento205

[Tesstuff 222]

It doesn't seem to have been mentioned but never forget the part the tyres play in this.

 

Fine tuning suspension set ups then having the wrong tyres or even wrongly inflated tyres for that set up.

[Toddy 7]

Some people seem to forget that setting it to parellel when static will still be toe in when under power.

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?s...=21mm&st=10

 

Tom see eeyore's post in this thread.

[marksorrento205 80]

Some people seem to forget that setting it to parellel when static will still be toe in when under power.

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?s...=21mm&st=10

 

Tom see eeyore's post in this thread.

 

So if its set to parallel static, roughly how much would it move under power?

Edited July 18, 2010 by marksorrento205

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

I run 15 minutes out, -2.0 deg at the front wheels and it's fine to use daily. That's with a tran-x set on full preload too!

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Thanks for the comments chaps, following this and a ponder overnight I have reset the tracking to 10' toe out this afternoon, maybe my initial 30' out was a tad keen.

 

I'm also going to try and get the 24mm rear bar in, but herein a stumbling block- I'm short of the 306 type rubbers that fit on the end plates. Anyone got a pair, that they could bung in the post Monday morning??

 

Thanks

Tom

[Toddy 7]

So if its set to parallel static, roughly how much would it move under power?

 

That is hard to quantify, maybe 0.75mm, 15' is roughly 1.6mm toe out, try this and see whether you notice an improvement, if it's too pointy reduce it slightly until you are happy. The biggest problem is finding someone who can set it up consistently, better to have it set up with the weight of the driver included.

 

HFH

[B1ack_Mi16 67]

So if its set to parallel static, roughly how much would it move under power?

 

Depends on how stiff bushes you have, and the amount of power of course

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Well a brief update, I retracked the front to 10' toe out, then last night I shortened the 24mm anti roll bar. Another member has posted me some rubbers but good old snail mail has let me down, so instead I made some bushes from nylon to do the same job.

 

On a quick drive locally after doing all this it seems pretty good, turn in slightly improved. I'll have to see how it fares at the ring, although with the weather forecast I might be putting the smaller bar back in again yet.