Does anybody know where the DIY Tracking thread has gone, please?
I remember reading something on it about the car pulling to one side if that side's track rod was too long/short. Does anyone know which one it is?
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>>the car pulling to one side if that side's track rod was too long/short.
Having one track rod longer/shorter than the other will make the steering wheel be off centre when the car is driving straight - so, if you hold the wheel straight, the car will pull.
If, however, you let the wheel go, and the road is level, the car will drive straight.
Because toe in/out is something that affects both sides, and is symmetric, it doesn't pull the car one way or the other.
If the toe in/out is OK, but one track rod is shorter/longer than the other, the toe out on turns (i.e. the relationship between the direction the wheels point during a turn) will be wrong. This might lead to tyre scrubbing.
Usually, pulling to one side is when there is something a-symmetrical going on. A tyre pressure low at one side, or a suspension bush failing, for example.
Number_Cruncher
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>>If, however, you let the wheel go, and the road is level, the car will drive straight.
Indeed so, but as many roads will have camber - even if I can't see it - whenever I need to perform this "test" I do so by driving down the crown of the road with road wheels either side of the central marking. As an aside, excessive toe-out (the front of the wheels pointing away from each other) will make a car less inherently straight line stable, so even though as NC comments the error is "symmetric" a car so affected will tend to "fall down" even the slightest camber more readily.
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Does anybody know where the DIY Tracking thread has gone, please?
This one perchance?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=39618
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