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+--- Thread: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends (/showthread.php?tid=2542)
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front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - JonE - 21-03-2019
I did a quick check on the wheel alignment and it seemed to be toe'd in by about 1.5-2"! So great hopes for it going even better next time out!
I got the cotter pins out (big nut over the far end and squeezed the undone cotter nut with a G clamp) and on releasing the ends there was no sign of movement even with a little 12" rod put through the clamp bolt holes.
So it all came off.
Wirebrushed the paint off the ends. sprayed with WD40 stuff. Blowtorch heated ends. brushed on some diesel. heated again then put on more diesel. put in vice, and put rod through the clamp bolt holes enough to give 2" to hammer/turn. After considerable time, they both loosened.
I found they had both been shut down entirely (with clamp bolts both loose)
Will reassemble with grease and then next, attempt to get 1/8" toe in.
But... could there have been a reason for adding far more toe in intentionally?
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - David Stepney - 21-03-2019
Sounds as if whoever had it apart previously didn't know what they were doing. The Austin Seven handbook advocates removing the nearside steering arm having slackened the nearside trackrod end clamp and rotating the assembly the correct amount and reassembling. Setting the track to parallel works fine.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - Bob Culver - 22-03-2019
I trust too much twist was not applied to the thin tube. This topic was covered before; it was concluded that many track rods are stretched and therefore run out of thread. As with nuts, if restricted by rust moderate hammering of the tube against an anvil backing will often release. If recurving great care necessary not to induce kinks or nicks.
Two inches toe in would wear tyres markedly and make for unstable steering.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - JonE - 22-03-2019
Bob - now you mention it, the chicanes between parked cars around my mum's (practice) road did seem quite dicey...
I clamped it just below the area I was twisting. Out of interest, what sort of length bar 'moment' would you suggest was the force required for "too much twist"?
Sadly, I did search, but "the topic being covered before" demands much choice of which exact words were used, and in the heat of the moment with oil on ones hands, of course it doesn't work. The same happened with me for the torque tube anchor. I end up being able to properly review what I did wrong in the heat of the moment, afterwards.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - Tony Press - 23-03-2019
Jon,
Sorry- but if I am reading this correctly you had excessive toe in- with the track rod adjusters wound down hard- surely loosening them will increase the toe in ?
This appears to show the track rod has been 'lengthened' by straightening the bends and needs resetting to original shape.
Tony.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - JonE - 23-03-2019
Tony - thankyou for noticing that.
I would have gradually realised that as I got it back on car and starting to put it together!
Hadn't even considered, but that would explain my query as to "intention" in first post. The chap was a serial vintage restorer of great renown but in his final years and getting a final wreck back of the road from the contents of his garage drawers alone.
OK, so how do I do that safely? It looks like it has the kinks in the right places... and isn't unduly rough. More curve in centre section?
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - dickie65 - 23-03-2019
Has the car got a bowed front axle ?
I had one done for the type 65 by a reputable specialist.
It came back shorter so the track rod was too long and gave too much toe in.
The axle has now been cut in the middle and a bit of scrap axle welded into the centre.
Geometry now restored.
The original Type 65 axle had split kingpin eyes.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - JonE - 23-03-2019
no - standard '29 chassis. So I should be able to rely on bending.
Has anyone got a standard track rod off the car which they could measure please?
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - AustinWood - 23-03-2019
My 1929 track rod has adjustment facility at one end only. The other end is fixed.
RE: front wheel alignment when you can't move track rod ends - JonE - 23-03-2019
aha - thankyou - so it could be a different track rod! (Remember, my seat frame backs are pure copper - this is a seriously creative car resto...)
I didnt check the numbers on the ends but I seem to remember they did have 1A numbers and looked like ones I remember on the Nippy. Which of course would have had the same track anyway.
Thinking this through, would a measurement from rod end to rod end help... from any other car which has correct tracking?