Self Centering

[Guest robin]

i know, i know its been discussed a thousand times but i've honestly tried the search tool to no avail.

 

i'm after the holy grail of definitive answers to how to get my 2b to self center.

 

at the moment it does it perfectly when i'm going in reverse but does the complete opposite when travelling forwards.

 

i've tried varying degrees of positive and negative camber and before anyone says, i know its the castor that has to be adjusted but its not adjustable.

 

is there a certain degree of camber and toe-in that would at least make the sva man happy?

 

 

 

aaaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!

 

robin

[Guest salty_monk]

Pump the front tyres up to about 35PSI, that'll sort you out for SVA...

 

 

Dan

[Guest gordon_macnab]

Yeh put on the skinniest sierra tyres you can pumped up hard and get the tracking set-up and it should start to show some inclination to self centre.

[Jon Bradbury]

No need for that. Get the TRACKING professionally set at 1 degree toe in and it'll start to work (even if you have 195s on Arays alloys). You can't do this yourself, it's too easy to get wrong. Set the top joints so the top rim of each wheel is slightly inboard. I think Richard uses a fancy tool - spirit level with a couple of bolts sellotaped to it to make contact with the wheel rim, sets them level then about 1/4" in at the top. But the most important bit is to sort out the tracking. The camber you can't doo much about on a 2B (I know about rotating the dummy McPherson strut but it's a bad thing to do if it leads to the joint binding, which it does).

 

Do the tracking before overinflating the tyres - you may be surprised. If you do blow them up, drive slowly as it's very dangerous.

[Guest Battery Bill]

You can't do this yourself, it's too easy to get wrong

 

Has someone stood in something?

 

We did ours ourselves and so did lots of others.

 

Robin

 

Don't worry yourself too much re self centering, a lot of it depends on who you get on the day most SVA men seem happy even if it tries to self centre a little bit.

 

[enforcer]

I would have to agree that you should get the tracking professionally set up. I tried to do mine myself using lengths of angle iron, and tape measures and spirit levels and I was sure I had it right. But it wouldn't self-centre except in reverse where the wheel would whip back hard enough to break your thumbs.

 

My 'best effort' equated to 15 degrees of toe-in! I'm sure a few people have managed to get theirs to self-centre following a DIY set up, but if you're going to drive 'enthusiastically' and let's face it, who doesn't, is it really worth risking a DIY steering set up when for a tenner or so you can get it accurately set up?

 

I watched the guy do mine and noticed the tiniest adjustments to get it spot on. Can anyone really do this with some straight lengths of metal or wood and squinting at it?

 

1.5 - 2 degrees of toe in. Get a professional to do it.

[Grim]

i got mine done today, the guy nearly had a heart attack when i said 1 degree, suggested somwhat less. Still self centres ok now, but much lighter at low speeds, and more feel at higher speeds

[Guest chris brown]

Get a professional to do it.

It's not so much the professional it's the piece of kit and yes I agree with the guy 1 degree does seem rather allot straight ahead to 20 minuets toe in should be nearer the mark as there is very little movement in the suspension and the aim is to have it straight ahead at speed where the wheels are being dragged back. But if 1 degree gets you through SVA its worth it.

[Guest robin]

cheers guys i'll try that when i give it a pre sva mot check.

 

robin

[Guest turbo]

robin i have lifted the height of my car at the front and it has stopped self centering

try lowering your car so the steering shaft is as parrallel to the ground as possible

[Guest Wozzer]

Hi Robin,

 

Mine recently failed SVA on no self centering, and to be fair it was dreadful. It wanted to turn in to the corner not out.

 

In reverse it was ok.

 

I set the camber, castor and tracking by eye............

 

I then went to a local garage with the laser tracking (make sure you take the mudguards off) .

 

When he put the laser on it did not show on the scale

 

He then set the front wheels to the rear.

 

Then he set them at 1 degree toe in.

 

It cost me £19.99 and it was like driving a different car. The self centering was great and it drove in a straight line with you hands off the wheel.

 

My advice (enforced by 'Enforcer') is to get it tracked by a professioal.

 

Warren

[Jon Bradbury]

Has someone stood in something?

 

We did ours ourselves and so did lots of others.

Looks like you're outvoted on this one Bill

 

[Guest Battery Bill]

You pay your money

 

did not cost us anything

 

(I must admit we borrowed an optical set up thingy from my mate in the trade)

 

But you can DIY it so your "Orders" on your first post can be disobeyed,

 

Get the TRACKING professionally set

 

Herr Hitler

[Guest hcgrant]

Hi Robin,

This is my experience with self centering :

http://community.rhocar.org/index.php?show...=15entry90609

Regards Hugh

[Guest timswait]

To be honest this isn't just an SVA issue, these cars are meant to be sports cars, so you want some feel through the steering, much of which comes from self centring. You can't really DIY it unless you have access to the right kit, or are prepared to built something yourself to measure it (I've been thinking about making something with laser pointers so I can play around with my set up).

To repeat what it says above: more toe in (front of wheels closer together than back) and more negative camber (top of wheels closer together than bottom) give more self centring.

The Castor is adjustable to some degree on the 2B, you can use washers to space the wishbones forwards or backwards, I don't know about other models. Moving the top wishbone rearwards or the bottom wishbone forwards will increase the castor and so the self centring tendency.