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It's racing season again and as such it's time to pull the ol' girl out of storage and start repairing. I have a few questions based on a couple of the threads I've read. I'll start with the issue:
1. car ran like a top in our 24 hour last year until about 2am when one of our drivers decided to zone out and go straight off into a field. Following this we experienced gradual deterioration of steering control
2. by the last hour of the race, steering was alarming. Seems fine on the straights but coming into a corner there would be no feel in the steering, no response and then all of a sudden you would get what I would call "snap" steering. It seemed to connect and turn on a dime out of the blue.
3. there seems to be no play in the steering wheel - any movement in steering translates into movement at the wheel
4. From what I can remember issue happened both ways. Became alarming to race by the end.
We messed around with toe during the race as it had looked like this got shunted out of alignment but I'm not convinced as I was (2am, dark, tired). I'm going to look at the toe tomorrow to see where it ended up as we had set it prior to the race to factory spec.
Prior to the race I've got to say, this is the tightest steering I had ever felt in a first gen (it's our 4th now). So I don't want to be going and opening up the box, adjusting it and finding out I actually made the box worse and didnt address the real problem. Would the off have damaged bushings/idler arm/box?
Hopefully I described this accurately enough..
Stats:
83-85ish 1st gen 12A.
Bilstein front shocks, 375lb springs
~5 degree negative camber (nothing new for us vs the issue)
Stripped/caged
RB front sway bar
Looking for some more opinions on the specifics based on the few good threads I've found.
wondersteer/wundersteer is the term used to describe the feel of the steering box play on center. mostly felt during highway driving.
with your car it sounds like there is something else going on, something is bent/broken. you'll have to check the alignment, and condition of all the parts
I have found the problem: looks one of our impacts smacked the control arm and we ended up ripping the ball joint out. Or the ball joint failed and burnt out.
I'm glad you got this sorted out. I'm curious how far the steering wheel had to be moved off-center to get the "snap" condition you referred to? On my car I've noticed that the steering can be a bit darty when moving off-center, especially on the highway. It's not always like this, and I've just assumed the box is tight enough that it moves the car fast, causing it to "dart" somewhat. Not a huge deal in my case, but what you described sounds similar to something I've noticed from time to time.
Wow, and u guys were able to finish the race like that? I had that happen to me when the previous owner replaced the ball joint but did not tack weld it in place...I could not turn left at all.
We are fairly certain the initial damage occured around 2-3am and the race finished at noon.
I think over several hours, it started reaming out the hole and then with around 2 hours remaining it actually dropped out. Our driver for that stint radio'd in saying he felt that the car was undrivable and really wanted to come in and get it checked out. We had been playing with steering issues since 2am and didn't feel that there was anything else for us to check so naturally we told him to stay out and run at a reduced pace as we were holding a good position.
Looking at what the issue was now, probably would have been a good idea to pit and take a look..
We are fairly certain the initial damage occured around 2-3am and the race finished at noon.
I think over several hours, it started reaming out the hole and then with around 2 hours remaining it actually dropped out. Our driver for that stint radio'd in saying he felt that the car was undrivable and really wanted to come in and get it checked out. We had been playing with steering issues since 2am and didn't feel that there was anything else for us to check so naturally we told him to stay out and run at a reduced pace as we were holding a good position.
Looking at what the issue was now, probably would have been a good idea to pit and take a look..
lmao, we never pit either, until something falls off.
06-25-16, 01:20 AM
