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Author: Subject: shortening track rod bits
Dillinger1977

posted on 28/8/05 at 08:04 AM Reply With Quote
shortening track rod bits

assembling my quick rack + track rod + extensions + rod ends, i have crazy toe out!

im guessing something needs shortened, do i just take an inch or so off the threaded part of each rod?

cheers!





-Rog

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JoelP

posted on 28/8/05 at 08:08 AM Reply With Quote
is your quick rack shortened? you usually want IRO of 50cm between your steering rack knuckles.

[Edited on 28/8/05 by JoelP]






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smart51

posted on 28/8/05 at 08:24 AM Reply With Quote
Rog,

I have exactly this problem - mad toe out. I sent the track rod extensions back to marc to have them shortened but I over did it. I had to buy some new ones. The 1st mistake I made was to measure the excess toe out with the car off the ground, with the camber not set properly and with some of the bolts loose.

OK, when the car was on the road properly and with everything set up right, I still had bad toe out. I had my new track rod extensions tapped out further. They only had 33mm of thread in a 45mm hole (50mm on one of them). My combined toe out is now 11.5mm the the extensions screwed all the way on. because one extension is tapped deaper than the other, I have 8mm of toe on one side and 3mm on the other. the solution seems to be to lathe out the threaded holes deaper and trim 10 or 20mm of the end. Your car may be different of course.

Marc has been quite helpful, without finding me an answer. I even took some photos on my film camera and posted them to him. He says he can see a problem.

Are all sierra bits the same or do some cars have longer track rods?

As for shortening the track rods, mine now screw in all the way up the thread. cutting a bit of the track rod won't help me.

[Edited on 28-8-2005 by smart51]

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smart51

posted on 30/8/05 at 07:47 PM Reply With Quote
A friend with a lathe altered mine today. He drilled out the hole by another 10mm and tapped it all the way in. He also turned 10mm off the end. Mine is now set to 2mm toe in (1mm each side).
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Dillinger1977

posted on 31/8/05 at 07:56 AM Reply With Quote
was that on the extensions?

any advice Marc? im still thinking that an inch off the threaded part of the rods might work okay in my case, but havent done anything yet..





-Rog

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smart51

posted on 31/8/05 at 03:14 PM Reply With Quote
Yes, it was the extensions that I had modified.

Check before cutting the track rods. Set your wheels to the right toe angle (with the extensions not connected to the track rods) and see how for up the track rod threads the extensions go. I ran out of thread on the trackrods and so had to shorten the extensions.

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Dillinger1977

posted on 31/8/05 at 06:10 PM Reply With Quote
hmm looks like that may be likely on mine too.

looking at the distance it should be to have the wheels in line, it looks to be 50 inches.
my assembled rack layed out on the floor (screwed in as far as extensions allow) measures around 52 +1/2.

theres probabaly an inch of thread left showing on the 2 track rods so even if they were screwed into the extensions fully it'd likely still have a bit of toe out. (and no adjustability)

perplexed...





-Rog

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smart51

posted on 31/8/05 at 07:28 PM Reply With Quote
I cut a U shaped piece of plywood to fit inbetween the front weels and around the chassis. I marked it for the edges of the wheels and measured it. with a depth gauge (or steel rule) I meaured the gap between the wood and the wheels to and added it all together. this gave me the toe out of the wheels as a pair. I rekon its right to within a millimetre. I plan to have it aligned properly but this method will get me close.

I would recomend doing something like this before cutting any metal work to make sure you get it right.

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marc n

posted on 1/9/05 at 02:21 PM Reply With Quote
best bet rog is to send them back, and will shorten we seem to have 4 sets of extensions that are a completely different length from the other 40 or so in stock, bit confused as they are all cnc machined
just shows sometimes machines get it wrong too or maybe the operator

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