What makes a 3dr cossie tramline so bad?

Its running 17's with Avo coilovers and it tramlines so much that it doesnt give confidence at all.
They have jut been refurbished too,all bushes are new etc.

Or is it just a case of Avo being shit lol?

 

Have you got bigger rear tyres than fronts?????

 

has 215/40's rear and 205/40 front.

Wasnt realy any difference when it had 215's all around.

 

Get the tracking done, or better still a full geometry set up.

My car used to tramline a lot when the TCAs wore out.... worth a check too.

Si

 

Get the camber and castor checked out

 

Mine felt like it rode the ruts in the roads a little more with wider tyres on the rear......

 

Its recently had a geometry check and all was fine!

Will harder suspension make it worse?

 

The 3-doors were always worse than the 4-doors for it - down to suspension geometry mainly. The trade-off is responsive turn-in...

What tread pattern are you running? Some types ( esp directional) will exacerbate it.

Also 17s have less sidewall compliance than the original 15s so will also highlight the syndrome

 

Running Parada's

 

Mine was terrible on 17's and much much better on the original 15's

 

Smaller wheels arent an option due to the brakes.

 

mine used to do it badly with my 225/16's on the back and 205/16s on the front. I now have 245 17s on the back and 215/17 on the front and its so much better. Havent got a clue why as logic would say that it should be worse

 

ive got 235's on the back and 215's on the front, but ive only ever pushed the car around and its ok at that

 

I've not got a cossie, but I was running spec2's 205/17f and 215/17r and suffered terrible tramlining.

Just switching over to my 'winter' toyo's and its all but gone. I had the geo checked twice to make sure and it was almost spot on.

I checked everything apart from the tyres, but I wont be using them again.

 

So it could be the tyres

I have ran it with the parada's on the back and toyo 888's on the fron just get me home the other day and it was still shit.

 

it is the front anti roll bat the trick is to replace it with a Sapphire item

 

When you say "fine" what do you mean?

If you mean that it is set to Ford factory settings (i.e. parallel toe), then THAT is the problem. To stop them wandering Cossies NEED toe-in (2mm on the front).

 

I run toyo r888's on my sapphire,and after fitting them the car tramlined but did not before.
I think it could be a tyre issue in your case.

regards mark

 

Im sure i had them set to 2mm toe in,cant find the paperwork now though

 

Might be worth checking the toe setting again then if you're not sure.
As Pete says the 4-dr ARB gave about a degree more castor than the 3 door one - the increased self-centreing affect will help as well if you can get hold of one.

If you look at the original road tests the standard 3-doors were always noted for tramlining

This post might interest you https://passionford.com/forum/viewto...er=asc&start=0

 

Found the paperwork now and it is set to 2mm toe in

Has started pulling to the left now a little so somthing isnt right so will get it checked again as soon as possible.

 

3 door cars have less castor than all other sierras, so will suffer more.
Most of it will be down to the tyres, try an extra 4psi in them.
A trick is to get some washers(3mm thick) with a hole drilled 28mm in them, cut accurately in half, then place between the tca and roll bar so they get butted against the stop to hold them in, this pushes the wheel further forward creating more castor.
On a personal note I have always fitted 3 door roll bars on my sierras, my last had a AXLE TIGHTENING KIT from GGR with Std ford escy beam bushes, and was the best setup up yet.
AVO will not cause this problem.
tabetha

 

The trade off of course is with the twitchyness that you are describing is the better turn in on track days.

I have swapped my four door hubs for 3door hubs for this very reason!

JJ

 

Unless the ride height is dramatically different all round? The grub screws can come undone and the collars unwind...

 

Hd my Avo's refurbished not long ago and they came back with plastic grub screws on the fronts that didnt do a bloody thing!

When i have money next year they are going in the bin

 

Ride height is as close to standard as i can get it as far as im aware.

 

Interesting read this, but what the F**K does tramlining mean????

 

The car follows the natural depressions and grooves in the road, like the wear that big trucks cause instead of going in a straight line - Tramlines are set into the floor, so its just an expression to say that your car is wandering around its front wheels

 

Cool, thanx m8
Maybe i should get mine checked also, it´s always all over the road

 

my old 3 door used to feel very wandery on the road. whereas the saphs ive had havnt.

 

yep!! my 3 door was 1000 times better when i binned the 17's in favour of going back to the standard rims!!

 

The 3-door/Rs500 was set up to give sharp response to turn-in etc - interesting little bit of info in the PC road test here -> Click

Read especially the first column of the 8th page for the Sierra front suspension details.

This is supposedly the changes from 3-door to Sapphire 2wd made by Ford.
Obviously the 4-dr shell was stiffer which has to be taken into account.
Spring rates went up from 106 to 118lb/in at the front and 263 to 286 lb/in at the back.
Damper rates were made softer in bump and stiffer in rebound.
ARB was increased to 16mm on back
Castor increased by over one degree
Camber made fractionally more negative
Kingpin inclination made slightly greater.
Front knuckles re-designed to lower the front roll centre from 144mm to 70mm

Work was also done to rid the tendency of the 3-door to "pitch" front to rear.

Much of the work above was done to create a less "nervous" car and for it to have better straight line stability

Hope that's interesting



Also I remember when they first brought the 3-door out it was supposed to be even sharper on the press release - some press journalists complained about the razor sharp turn in and nervous handling - Ford took the criticism on board and changed from rigid plastic joints in the front suspension to rubber and re-valved the power steering to make it slightly less responsive before it was put on general release apparently

 

That's right JJ - Jim Green's old car had this done as well and I seem to remember bud-weis(?) saying it felt a bit "nervous" when he had it

 

I don't even use the plastic grub screws on the avo shocks, mine never move as bearing nice and free, plus taped to stop rust.
tabetha

 

Get a tape measure out and check to make sure it is even all round (as in side to side). A small amount of difference won't matter, but if it is drastic, then it won't help if the geometry was set with them all even, and then it has dropped - the geometry will then be all over the place again.

If you have noticed a worsening effect since having it first adjusted, then something will be amiss .

 

shit tyres mate..iv got prada's on mine at the moment and it handles like a bastard..i literally have to fight the steering wheels..

im changing wheels soon so going to chage tyres aswell

 

If the Paradas are almost down to the wear indicators, then it is probably the tyres, as this seems to be a propensity for Yokohamas as they get low....

 

well mine have only coverd around 3000miles..and they are still in very good nik, but just give a shit ride..could be down to the 'groove' or 'pattern' as the patter is shet

 

That "Strine" is like a foreign language...

 

Or it could be down to the fact that a LOT of numpties put bigger wheels and tyres on the car and never bother setting the geometry up, so that the car handles all over the place. They then blame the wheels / tyres, when a simple geometry set up (NOT setting the car to parrallel!!!!), would cure it .