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ERA 427 Steering Adjustment
Hello,
I recently got a 4 wheel alignment on my ERA #575. Car drives smooth, no shimmies or problems tracking the car straight. However, I noticed that when pushing the performance and applying harder steering on curvy roads, the steering feels much less linear, like I'm tracking into a turn at say 40-50mph and when the normal instinct is to start increasing my turning of the wheel, the car doesn't turn without over steering the steering wheel. So as you transition from a straight stretch of road to a gradually increasing radius, you need to apply a disproportionate turn of the steering wheel. It feels like there is play in the wheel yet on straight driving, I can jiggle the steering wheel and the car noticebly moves left and right. I could see this performance in turns being an excessive play in the steering but it only displays this excessive play in the turns. Curious if anyone has experienced this and if there is an adjustment people have done to remedy this situation. Thanks Frank in Connecticut ERA 575 |
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Quite a few items can cause the lack of feel, so let me ask a few questions: Age of tires Make and model of tires Ambient temperature outside Mileage on your chassis/build Maintenance to suspension (IE: lube as an example, tightening/checking all connections, an alignment shop may not know enough about your build to check everything) We will start with these basics, then go from there. Bill S. |
Your alignment is likely off. I think your caster and camber are not the same on both sides.
John |
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Hi Frank, If you know the settings the alignment shop used (ex: caster, camber, toe) it might help to include here for perspective. Just curious, where you indicate that when you jiggle the wheel and the car noticeably moves left or right, do you recall if on similar jiggle before did it move any more or less to the left and right? Am I correct to assume that you don't have a variable adjust steering/effort type system and that they didn't change the steering rack bushings? Thanks, Brent |
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Tires are Mickey Thompson Radials 15s all around 235 in front and 295 in rear.
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665765397 https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665765397 |
Those pics look like the the Flaming River #FR1502 that they mill down a bit to mimic the size of the original Subaru rack. So, never mind.
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Now, I can't imagine you would miss munged up rack bushings while taking your pics, and it doesn't look like they're bad from your pics anyway, but check this thread out from where I replaced mine. It doesn't hurt to just double check.
http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/era-...g-picture.html |
I don't think my bushings look great, so it probably wouldn't hurt to replace the bushings. here is a better picture.
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665768635 |
Patrick, from your post... could you confirm which parts you ordered (assuming the ones you listed were correct).
*~~*~~*~~*~~ OK, after more than a decade, maybe it's time to replace my steering rack mounting bushings. I ordered Energy Suspension #15.10.199.39, which I think is the right part, but they don't give you pictures on the Energy Suspension parts web site, so you kinda have to shoot in the dark. I'll know when they come. Do you guys put any grease on these bushings? Or do you install them dry? Am I going to need to drop the rack, or am I going to be able to squeeze them in after just taking off the brackets? And, yes, I see those funky little spacers in there under the bracket -- I'll try not to lose them, but no guaranties. |
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If one of the bushings is round, the other "D" shaped, they are duplicates of the Subaru rack that we used many years ago. We had a bunch custom molded. Send me a PM.
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I had an issue with 649, the rack would slide back and forth under pressure.
I would turn, then on a straight the steering wheel would be crooked, turn the other way and the wheel would be crooked the other way. If the rack is twisting in the frame on turns the steering could feel very strange. New bushings fixed the issue on my car. My new ERA car uses a Mustang 2 rack mounted with through bolts, a much better setup. You night want to make sure the shaft bushings in the rack and the inner tie rod ends are tight. |
You'll note in the vids that I posted in the thread that is referenced above that I put a magnetic dial gauge on the rack and measured it both before and after my repairs. There actually is a relatively common industry standard out there for steering rack slop. OK, they don't call it steering rack slop but that's what it is. And they like to call them “steering gear insulators” and “steering gear isolators.” If you don't use their particular lingo then they won't tell you what the slop value is. Regardless of their specs, less slop is better than more slop. Here is one shop manual:
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Problem solved
Ok, I think I solved my issue. From the Youtube links Patrick provided, I could see that the old style rack mounting allowed for way too much slippage inside the C clamps. I will show a before and after. In the before, there was a 1/4 inch sway and now: 0. It's not as pretty as I would like it to be but I made a square clamp to attach to the rack as an anchor point and welded 2 studs onto the outer plate. I made 3/8 rod connectors with stainless fender washers and bolted them to one of the C clamps. Posting videos in a minute.
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That's quite a difference. From that first vid the slop is clearly too much and the passenger side bushing looks particularly bad. Let us know the results of a hard corner to the left and whether the wheel returns to the same spot. Then repeat to the right, and then try and drift a hairpin at a 110 like Morris and report back.:cool:
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As Patrick has already pointed out, that passenger side bushing needs to be replaced. I suggest you do both at the same time and be done with them. Bill S. |
What would be the anticipated effect if the rack is hard mounted (ie no bushing)?
It's a Cobra, after all ;) Cheers, Glen |
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