Heavy steering on my Hunter

[dogoncrazy]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Mike I would check the ride height if you have that much negative camber. There is or was a recommended figure for the distance between bottom of front crossmember and ground -variation will affect camber. Can someone advise on figure as I no longer have access to manual![or car]

[Cabrio_Simon]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Mike

Info on ride height from the build manual:

"As a rough guide with 195-65-15 tyres the height under the front cross member should be 270mm and beneath the rear floor 225mm"

Simon

[dave_kitson]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Hi Mike,
As regards ride height, I never got very close to those figures! Make sure you've got enough clearance to get over speed bumps happily, and get all the wheels central in the wings, is the best guide. The rear can be adjusted by winding the top spring seat up/down with the weight off the wheels (there is a lock nut on top). You need a 36mm spanner, the best source of this is a viscous fan spanner (they come in 32 & 36mm), this should be strong enough. For the front you need a C-spanner to turn the bottom spring seat - there may be a locking ring or there may be a grub screw (allen key required). Of course, every time you make an adjustment, you need to settle the suspension again to see if it looks right - drive over a few speed humps again!

Returning to the wishbones, the front pivot of the top wishbone is on the right of the photo, the rear pivot is hidden by the tower which locates the top of the spring/damper. In case you are confused, the spring/damper sits on top of the outer end of the top wishbone, which locates the top of the hub. There is no lower wishbone, the bottom of the hub is located by the Ford track control arm, just visible behind the track rod and steering rack bellows. Also the antiroll bar, which snakes from one side of the car to the other, behind the wheel line helps with location.

You can see the M10 nut on the pivot bolt on the right of the photo, this is holding the U-bracket onto the top wishbone. The bracket is mounted to the chassis by captive M8 studs, the nuts for which are behind the triangular fillet where a cable is running. By loosening the M8 nuts, you can pull the bracket away from the chassis far enough to get shims in. If you dismantle completely, it's tricky getting the studs back in the holes, but it's easier to design the shim. For the shims, I suggest 16 gauge galvanised sheet, cut to a trident shape, with a piece turned 90deg at the end. It is then a matter of sliding 1, 2 or 3 of these under each of the 4 brackets and checking the verticality of the wheels, to get the right number. The turnover makes it easier to remove them again.

If you are still in doubt, I should have a spare shim somewhere, so I could photograph it and attach (if I can work out how, size, etc). Alternatively I could drop it in the post as a pattern; it might take time to find it though.

Dave

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Guys
You've certainly pulled out the stops with information! Thanks Dave in particular for your ideas. Must admit that my brain was hurting to digest the info. I'll print out the messages, and go through them while crouching by my car.

Also, I've booked in with my village garage, who are very keen on kits. Their main task is to check out my battery/alternator/starter motor problem (see another message), so they might as well do a few measurements on the suspension while they have the car. Perhaps I can get them to sort out some of the detailed stuff if they have the equipment.

I'll feed any progress back to this area.

Cheers
Mike

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Guys
First stage was to entrust my village garage to check out the steering and anything else relevant. They have all the kit, hoists etc, which proved worthwhile because they found that the lower nearside ball-joint was completely knackered. Strangely, the offside ball-joint was OK.

Bearing in mind that my car had a MOT test only 2-3 months ago, and had done only about 200 miles since!! Makes you think about the quality of the MOT garage doesn't it?

My local garage will also check/adjust the tracking, but can't do anything about the camber or castor angle - down to me. (I realise that changing the camber may affect the tracking, but at least it will give me a datum to start with.) Also, that new ball-joint might make a bit of difference to the steering.

DAVE, you mentioned that you might be able to supply me with a template of a spacer, or even a spare one, for the top wishbone. Could you perhaps e-mail me on [email protected] and we could come to some arrangement? In the meantime, I'll get hold of some galvanised sheeting. Would aluminium sheet do the job, as I think I've got some in stock somewhere?

Cheers
Mike

[dave_kitson]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Hi Mike
I've not been able to locate any spare shims in the garage. In it's simplest form all you need is a rectangular plate, the size of the base of the U-shaped bracket, with 2 9mm holes in it to clear the M8 studs. In this form, aluminium may be ok but you need to completely undo the bracket to put the shim on.

If as I suggest, you slot the holes to the edge to make a trident shape, so that the shim can be pushed over the studs without taking the nuts off, then aluminium may be a bit soft and the legs may splay out under pressure. The only other enhancement is to make a small (1cm) return at 90 deg at the front so that the shim can be levered out with a screwdriver. Again ally may be a bit soft and you may end up straightening out the return.

Of course you can use ally to test everything out and it is easier to work, but I would feel happier with the final shims made out of steel. You may need up to 3, front and back at each side, ie 12 total. You just have to experiment, but any more than this and the thread on the studs will be getting a bit short.
Cheers - Dave

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Thanks Dave
That's all useful stuff. I'm going on hols next week, so this will one of my first jobs on return.

My village garage gave the car a fair going over, and of course found things wrong that I didn't realise = broken exhaust strap. More dosh!

The guy said that the tracking was desperately out of tolerance, badly toe-ing out I believe. Since doing this the brakes pull to the left, not badly, but something that wasn't obvious before. Might chat to the guy and see if he can put each wheel on his MOT rolling road brake-tester.

In the meantime, as a precaution I had the front pads and callipers off, cleaned up everything, thought that one of the pads might be stuck fast in the calliper. No ovbious problems, so copper-eased the right places and re-assembled. Still pulls slightly to the left on braking!

To complete the brakes dept, I'll take the rear drums off and make sure that there isn't a leak from a slave cylinder. Had this problem with the last Marlin. Added this to the 'after holiday list'.

Cheers
MIke

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Heavy steering on my Hunter

Just to up-date my previous message:

Took car a second time to village garage. The proprietor/ mechanic had originally re-set the tracking to zero, then on advice I obtained from Mark @ Marlin on this second occasion he used 2mm-3mm toe-in.

He also ran my car on the rolling road per MOT tests, and was found to have a more efficient nearside front calliper than the offside. By itself, that would account for the 'pulling to the left' problem, which is not quite so obvious now.

The guy suggested that I might be able to improve the action of the weaker calliper, by pumping the piston out/in a few times a small amount and perhaps rubbing brake fluid on the outside of the piston. The only other solution would be total replacement, possibly of both caliipers to get a matching pair. I was surprised & pleased that this second garage visit was a free-bee.

Going on hols in a few days, so all kit-car mechanics will be on hold for a week or so.

Cheers
Mike