Need some help for a dummy here . Here's the deal and no laughing or pointing. Built a rod with and for my kid. I'm using a straight axel front end (4" drop) spring over axel. Panhard bar goes from p***side frame to driver side axle.. Drag link is on the front side of the axel because of clearence issues using the steering arms on the bottom of the ford spindles (switched sides to move them in front. Steering box is stock VW with steering linkage to p*** side wheel using an additional bolt on steering arm from speewday. Problem is it is a hand full to drive. No smooth turns, jumpy comes to mind. It darts and when you correct if not really careful you aver do it and it scares the #*&& out of ya. Have read about matching the arc's the pitman arm and steering arm move in ??? How do you accomplish this. Any help would be appreciated as this is an on going pain in the back side. Makes it real hard to have any fun driving it.
Panhard bar should run from driver frame side to p***enger side of axle, so arc when going over bumps will be similar to arc of link from steering box to p***enger spindle. Bump steer will be scarey with them pivoting from opposite sides. Sounds like you might need some caster on the front axle, 5 - 7 degrees or so. Much less will promote "darting". Are your spindles sloppy on king pins? Rod ends ok - not sloppy? Sounds like you might have a bunch of play somewhere. Your Ackerman is definitely screwed up with the spindles reversed, but the problems you describe are more likely one or more of the things mentioned earlier. Good luck
Thanks for the reply. All new rod ends and hiems. I'll swap the panard bar to the other side, and see what does. Also th kings pins are new. Just does not like to go straight all steering input is mulitplied, no smooth lane changes just a hand full to drive. have to check the degrees of caster.
Sounds like the hardware is good. Check the caster and the Toe. Toe in and it plows. Toe out might get it a bit touchy. Ackerman will cause other problems, but not straight-ahead issues like you described.
Ok, moved the panard bar to the p*** side, took it for a ride and no change that I scould see. The car still darts like crazy. Really hard to steer, have to stay on top of it. I'm beginning to think either the ratio of the steering box is to quick for the set up or it's wore out.... any other ideas out there????
You have the tie rod in front and a rod end with another hole for the drag link attached to the right steering arm. How does that work? How does the drag link get around the axle/spring?? Isn't the steering reversed? Where is the steering box?? I am confused.
The tie rod is attached to the spindles and is front of the axle, I used the steering arms that a forged part of the spindles. Swithced them from side to side to put them in front of the axel to use a single tierod for the front wheels. I purchased a set of bolt on steering arms from speedway motors, using one of them on the p***enger side wheel. I am using the factory VW steering box which is bolted to the factory front beam that has been cut off leaving only the center section to work with. I am still using the VW pitman arm also. The drag lik is spaced up about an inch on the dag link to clear the center trans hump, but the drag link is not completely level and runs with a slight angle to the front not parallel to the axel maybe 5 to 10 degrees off of parallel to the axel. Do I need a longer steering arm to get it straight?. Hope this clears up my mess some how, this is my first time building anything like this, so forgive the newby dumb stuff.
So, this has cross steer behind the axle to a bolt on steering arm on the p***. side rear of spindle? Then a tie rod across the front using stock arms. right? Just want to get that in my mind. Never seen that before. Is this a VW with a straight axle adapted? Way off topic for this board if that's the case. Is there a lot of flex in the steering box mount? Did you check caster as someone above suggested? No caster will usually make the car a real bear to drive, with constant corrections. Charlie
Huh? I can't visualize any way to have a drag link interfere with a trans hump, except when trying to stuff a bunch of swap meet parts into the back of a too-small truck. Need pics, and/or a better description of your setup.
what kinda steering box? Can't steering be "geared down"...? I'm just asking, I thought the steering box had to do with how smooth it turned, and nobody's mentioned the box yet.
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