Having made the tie rods and fitted them and the live axle to my chassis I now have 2 questions.
1 The lenght from the half shaft centre to the front bottom ball joint centre differs by 4.5 mm is this a great problem or not? I do have a fix in
mind if it is.
2 There does not seem to be very much movement in the trailng arms to allow for body roll. I can understand why, but wondered if it puts quite a
large torsional load on the welding of the eye tubes.
I know that if i'd used rod ends none of this would be a problem so don't start on me
quote:
Originally posted by omega 24 v6
Having made the tie rods and fitted them and the live axle to my chassis I now have 2 questions.
1 The lenght from the half shaft centre to the front bottom ball joint centre differs by 4.5 mm is this a great problem or not? I do have a fix in mind if it is.
2 There does not seem to be very much movement in the trailng arms to allow for body roll. I can understand why, but wondered if it puts quite a large torsional load on the welding of the eye tubes.
I know that if i'd used rod ends none of this would be a problem so don't start on me
Your first question I think is basically the wheelbase? If it is, 7mm is generally accepted as being within tollerance in the accident repair business. You may well find that your 4.5mm will disappear when you get the car on the road, all those bushes need to settle in etc
What are you measuring it with, a Stanley tape? My mate found all sorts of differences when I was building mine and was concerned I had a 3mm
difference from side to side on some components but when the tape was held at both ends and pulled tight it was less. 3mm didn't bother me as my
old Mini had one front wheel 3/4" further back than the other and still drove straight 
OK cheers everyone I'll away back out and crack on with some more work.
Small errors--- sometimes they cancel out sometimes they stack up against you --- 4.5 mm isn't bad but you could try swapping wishbones and/or suspension links left to right to see if it reduces it any.
anyone remember the Renault 16? it had full width torsion bars at the back, one in front of the other result a difference in wheelbase side to side of
2 and a bit inches. I think they used the same layout in some other cars possibly including the Renault 12 that is still being built in Romania as the
Dacia!
Our family Renault 16TS managed 108 miles an hour fully loaded with 4 up along the Mulsane straight in 1969 when it was still an open public road! It
also managed 100 miles an hour indicated in the last week I drove it in the early 80s racing a porsche 924 who bottled it! It died of rust and
knackered half shafts, about the 8th set in 14 years!
Caber
quote:
Originally posted by Peteff
My old Mini had one front wheel 3/4" further back than the other and still drove straight
That was usually due to an amateur replacement of the rear subframe!