hi all,
i'm going to get a 4 wheel allignment done at the weekend after having new track control arms fitted and new suspension springs.
i was wondering if someone can tell me what the ideal set up is for when i go to get it done?
any help appreciated.

 

How does the car get driven?
1. Mainly motorways?
2. Mainly twisty back roads?
3. Lots of track days?

 

ah good point!
mainly twisty country lanes, and some faster a roads.
i maybe thinking about the odd track day too.
cheers.

 

Unless you have a Grp A rear beam or "slot" the mounting points, the rear is not adjustable. 1.5° negative camber all round and 0'20s toe-in.

Most places will try and get you to run the toe parrallel, as this is what Ford recommends. However, this doesn't tak into account the bush deflection you get with forward movement, so if you set it to parrallel when the car is static, it will toe-out on the move causing the inside edges of the tyres to wear. If you set to toe-in slightly when it is static, you will get parrallel then when the bushes deflect in forward motion. A bit of toe-in gives the car some stability anyway... .

 

thanks for that mike!
by the way, those bayjoo springs you sold me are so much better than the previous ones i had! feels really good now so thanks again mate.

 

You think this slotting is sensible?


I was to get Zoo beam but aparently that is going to be delayed due to things happening... My rear geometry is way wrong :-/ One wheel +0,01 one -0,10

 

so like on my setup - completely std dampers & springs but fully poly bushed on 18's - insist on having the front toeing in 20 minutes when static ? ( as above, - mainly for back lane raggin)

 

If it's good enough for the Grp N boys then yes. However, once the desired settings have been reached, the holes need to be "tacked" to prevent any movement.

Your settings would suggest to me that you have a bent rear beam. The standard item is not particularly strong and given your descriptions of the Polish roads, not surprising .

 

Tacked? I heard about welding them back.

Well I changed it for a new one some km's ago but was always a little bit wrong. Still was better when the car was lower, when I raised it it got wrong. I was to change for adjustable beam anyway but it's not so easy to get a beam from UK here for reasonable money, also now it would be hard to get Zoo Beam.. is there any other make?

 

cos im lazy

can someone covert 20 minutes of toe in angle to mm on teh escos wheelbase please so i can get selectatyre to do mine as soon as its all back together

 

Mike,

does your settings go with fully a polybushed front end.

can you give me the ideal settings for fast road/track.

need work doing to mine and will have to get it all set up when done.

thanks.

 

Dave,
That is correct. To save me typing it all out again, m
My suspension settings are all here: https://passionford.com/forum/viewto...128432&start=0

 

Does this mean you're keeping it now Dave?

 

oh yes - gonna get 2 new fronty tyres and have it tracked up prperly aswell

my tyre centre doesnt measure teh toe in degrees minutes and seconds, but in mm, so i need the length of teh wheelbase and then convert 20 minutes into actual mm for their laser tracker....

 

Good man

You mamage to sort an engine or are you having yours fixed?

 

fixed

 

IF it;s modern laser thing I'm 99% sure it can be switched to degrees.

 

its not that new though, theyve had it years -

what would it be roughly, 0.5mm toe in on each front wheel?

 

Maybe Mike will disagree but what you want is only slightest of the slight toe-in. Slight toe-out will under load will help it turn but make it much more unstable. Excessive toe-is will make it hard to make it turn.

 

it feels quite unstabe at high speed, but quite sharp at low speed -

 

May be a bit too much toe-out under load then. BUt this maybe some of inherent characteristics of the car. Like relatively low castror angle wich makes it a little bit nerous but much sharper.

 

but if its been set dead parallel - under load, it will toe out - thus causing it to hunt and tramline, its a good point mike has made obout the deflection of teh bushes - not though of that before

 

thanks Mike.

 

It is, although I always set it nearly 0 and just got used to it being a little bit tricky. I don't like the feeling of car that is set to toe-in in tight corners it understeers in a way I really dislike.

 

hmmm,

suppose i will just have to try it - its only 30 quid to have to ajusted

 

If it's only...


Cheaper over here

 

bttt for mike

if i wanted it to be dead stable and not wear tyres on long motorway hauls,, what would you recommend for the toe in/out at the front end as opposed to slightly toeing in for normal fast road /back lane stuff?

 

Probably even more toe-in depending on the flexibility of bushes you run.. So that while cruising it's parallel

 

The settings I have on my car give 100% even wear apart from on track where the outside edges wear due to cornering forces.

 

thats all i need to know

currently mine wear on the inside edges, only on the front 2 though..

 

What camber you run?

 

std, its all std apart from poly bushed thoughout suspension wise
and the wear is due to one of the wheels being the wrong offset so it turns out and they ajusted the tracking (what they thought) was parallel

 

OH I see... managed to get right wheel?

 

yep, gonna swap them all round and have the odd one with the best of the old tyres as a full size spare

 

You carry full size spare? You don't have much boot space, do you?