I'm looking for your opinion on front end alignment.

West Slope Rover · Aug 21, 2013

I've been going through death wobble remediation and I'd like to hear from you on your opinion on whether I should align the wheels in a toe out configuration (old school manuals) or parallel (new school) as I put everything back together (again).

This is on a 1993 RRC LSE

fanatic · Aug 21, 2013

As per factory spec, swivel hubs, steering damper, wheel bearing play and steering centralised all help.

Also people overlook bush play on rear axle/panard rod bushes.

West Slope Rover · Aug 21, 2013

fanatic said:
As per factory spec, swivel hubs, steering damper, wheel bearing play and steering centralised all help.

Also people overlook bush play on rear axle/panard rod bushes.

Cheers Fanny. So you'd go with factory spec toe out?

fanatic · Aug 21, 2013

West Slope Rover said:
Cheers Fanny. So you'd go with factory spec toe out?

Unless someone knows better(18 years ago)
as an apprentice at independent land rover place with ex rover factory tech owner. We transformed classics with replacement bushes and general rectification of play in steering components.

Also classics police hd spec springs and gas dampers transform them.

Lse a bit of a rare beast in uk, but same thing.

West Slope Rover · Aug 21, 2013

I've replaced ball joints, steering damper, panhard bushes and bolts and increased the pretension on the swivel pins. Dampers to come when the money isn't so tight.

What I'm asking is whether there is any advantage or disadvantage to the differing alignment specs. My version of RAVE says to align in a toe out manner- 0.10 to 0.20 in, but it seems from searching the intertubes that it is now spec'd that parallel is acceptable.

The geek in me in me would like to know.

fanatic · Aug 21, 2013

West Slope Rover said:
I've replaced ball joints, steering damper, panhard bushes and bolts and increased the pretension on the swivel pins. Dampers to come when the money isn't so tight.

What I'm asking is whether there is any advantage or disadvantage to the differing alignment specs. My version of RAVE says to align in a toe out manner- 0.10 to 0.20 in, but it seems from searching the intertubes that it is now spec'd that parallel is acceptable.

The geek in me in me would like to know.

Lorries used to be parallel,
now unless the advice has changed as long as it drives in a straight line within manufacturers spec-no problems

Before laser alignment we would set near 1 end of spec and if it didn't drive right tweek it.

I'm sure there will be different opinions- but that is how we did it. If tyre wear on edge a tweak some more.

Even with computer laser alignment, test drive and tweak

classic kev · Aug 21, 2013

FWIW my '91 classic is set up parallel, or at least as good as I can get it. No problems with death wobble and it handles fine. Factory spec on later classics is parallel to 2mm toe out. HTH

West Slope Rover · Aug 21, 2013

Cheers. I think I'll go with old school toe out and go from there. To me, it makes sense to have that bit of tension produced from the slight difference.

owl · Aug 21, 2013

Take the dowel bolts out of the swivel balls and fit an ordinary bolt, then you can slightly rotate the balls to give you more caster. An LSE will have ABS these are more prone to the wobble as there isn't much preload on the top pin (needle rollers) I always found a new standard steering damper helped. also tyres can wear and accentuate the problem.

West Slope Rover · Aug 21, 2013

owl said:
Take the dowel bolts out of the swivel balls and fit an ordinary bolt, then you can slightly rotate the balls to give you more caster. An LSE will have ABS these are more prone to the wobble as there isn't much preload on the top pin (needle rollers) I always found a new standard steering damper helped. also tyres can wear and accentuate the problem.

Thanks Owl. I just came back from a test drive after fitting new tyres and realigning it to a slight toe out. I'm waiting for a 0.03 shim to arrive in the mail to tighten up one side a bit more. It took quite awhile to find one. They're as rare as rocking horse poo here in the States.

I'm looking for your opinion on front end alignment.

West Slope Rover

Well-Known Member

fanatic

RESPECT IS EARNED, BEATINGS ARE FREE ;-)

West Slope Rover

Well-Known Member

fanatic

RESPECT IS EARNED, BEATINGS ARE FREE ;-)

West Slope Rover

Well-Known Member

fanatic

RESPECT IS EARNED, BEATINGS ARE FREE ;-)

classic kev

Well-Known Member

West Slope Rover

Well-Known Member

owl

Well-Known Member

West Slope Rover

Well-Known Member

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