Monday, December 04, 2006 - 04:30 pm, by: Chris Papas(Papasc)
Recently lowered my V8 by adjusting the rods (same amount of turns). I'm pretty sure the driver rear is slightly higher (will adjust ASAP). Will this account for the tramlining ?
Rear tyres are on their last legs as well.
Rob Andreacchio Moderator Victoria Supercharged VT Calais & 1991 JZZ30
Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 03:32 am, by: Mark Paddick(Sparks)
More caster, possibly more camber (mine has), and even narrower front tyres can help. Can't remember what the toe-in did.
The absolute cure for me was 50mm offset wheels but it got pretty good with alignment and 45's. The change to 50mm was incredible. We'd got the effects right down with the 45's and tramlining disappeared forever the moment the 50mm were bolted on.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 12:43 pm, by: Harry Lemmens(Wombat)
Check the steering box bush. There is one bush that holds and centers the steering box. If that bush is buggered, the effect is that the car appears to tramline.
This bush gets covered in oil when the power steering pump fails, and this seems to rapidly cause the bush to disintegrate.
I would not be suprised if most Soarers suffer from this bush being less than ideal.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 02:56 pm, by: Mark Paddick(Sparks)
Yes, I was assuming that all else was OK
I tried to get Neil to put some in mine but he wouldn't. The pump's never leaked and the bushes are OK. New ones are still in the glovebox.
These days with old airbags some of them are getting pretty bad. The airbag is OK and will go on indefinitely until it gets punctured by a wayward shock shaft. Usually caused by running too low, but it'll happen eventually anyway. And the shock itself because there is no oil left in it. It leaked out ages ago and the shock progressively rattles and moves around more as is pounds itself to death. This can often feel like tramlining and has the same efffect as the wheel is bouncing around all over the place. For some reason it is nearly always the left rear shock that seems to go first and this is the warning to start saving up.
If you really must short-cut it then get someone to find a similar shock with the right sort of travel and valving that will fit inside the strut tube and cut the bottom off the strut and weld the new one in after getting all the old bits out. This will leave tyou with a good aibag strut but no TEMS adjustability of the shock. i don't think there will be any alarms but I can get rid of them if there are. The above procedure is not accurate. It is a guide of what you can do. I have never seen it done on a Soarer but know people who have done it and have done it myself with Datsun, Nissan, Mazda and Toyota rally cars. The airbag will make it a bit harder but apparently it can be done.
Personally I think this is a better solution than good 2nd hand struts unless you know how many k's they've done or at least which car they came off. And anyone who thinks they can tell how many k's based on odo readings is deluding themselves unless they bought the car new with 0km on it. Even two months old isn't good enough as I proved the other day when removing the dash from a car that was owned since then. There was a Toyota service sticker on the rear of the dash, which after some effort was thought to proclaim that the dash was changed under warranty 2 weeks before he bought the car and had 7000 odd ks wiped off because they didn't wind the new one on.
Hell of a mileage for about 6 weeks. Must've been a demo car.