Why does the rear passenger wheels stick out more?
 

Me, nor Martin, or Chris have ever noticed this before until my younger brother pointed it out on my car. The rear passenger side is out more than the driver side. I have new bushings in the back end, Moser axles and eibach springs, Martin is all stock, and Chris has Racing beat springs with new bushings. Like I said all 3 of them hare more offset one way. Its more noticeable with my wider wheels now. If anybody has any clue of why it is that way let us know.

if ur positive that both rear rims have the same offset/backspace, maybe ur rear end is cock-eyed, bent arms etc etc.

Too many mods?

is it lowered a lot?

when i measured mine in the front it was different too, but thats because the alignment IS different with no driver

If you lower the rear, the watts linkage will cause a slight shift to one side. But I'm about as low as it gets, and I can't see any offset at all. Maybe someone slid into a curb at one point?

mine is lowered as well and my rear end is a c hair to the drivers side. Very hard to see, didn't see it with stock SE wheels but with the 225/50r15 you can barely see it.

i noticed this on mine too... lowered it to about 25 inches? (top of the rear wheel well)

I have slid into a curb, which would explain my car having the issue, but not the other two. Our cars have the axle sitting more towards the passenger side. It's an oddity that I believe could be attributed to the watts linkage, or perhaps has something to do with the offset angle of the drivetrain. If anyone has noticed the engine/ trans sit a little angled and this may have something to do with the odd positioning of the rear axle. I've been drinking a bit so this may all be total BS. Sam just pointed this out to me today and I thought it was very very strange.

it annoys me. i thought it was just an optical illusion

Mine and Chris's cars are the only 2 lowered ... Martin's suspension is all stock but yet all 3 have them, Mine more than Martin's car I'll see how chris' compares to mine tomorrow. I'll take some measurements too while I'm at it. Its just really odd

the watts link is the lateral axle locator on the 1st gen. our watts link is built wrong - the links are not equal length, and the pivot is not centrally located. thus the damn thing will not perfectly locate the rear end like a watts should. As the rear suspension compresses, the rear end will shift to one side. Conclusion: no suprise to me it shifts to passenger side.

But this is noticeable when the car isn't even moving. I checked mine when I was parked, when Sam called me and asked me about it. I went outside and sure as shit there's a noticeable difference. Definitely makes sense that it's the stupid watts link causing the problem though. How did Mazda manage to make a halfway awesome sports car? I mean, a poorly designed rear end linkage setup, and a steering box out of a pickup truck. Come on, I thought those boys in Hiroshima were smarter than that.

hmm considering i'm always on the full line of gas , and knowing that martin is usually on the lower end of gas tank that might make up for a bit of a difference.

would the mazda trix watts link part fix it?

if you're refering to the watts link re-inforcement piece , then no that is only there to not break that piece off. Orion just installed that on his car actually.

yeah.. i kinna figured that out once i posted it

orion did you notice any difference from the feel of the car after you installed teh mazda trix piece? I'd expect the less flex there is in the link the more solid feedback you'd get.

I noticed this problem also when I installed my 15x8 rota rbs in the rear....... It made it close enough it'd rub more on one side than the other...... I put the same wheels on my newer 7 and they don't rub.... yet. I'm still yet to install the 1.25 inch drop springs.. :)

Yep, just went out and measured my SA. Its 1/4 inch further out on the passenger side. I have the RB springs which didn't seem to affect my ride height that much when I installed them. I guess the old springs sagged almost as much as the new springs lowered things.

I wonder if you had it at stock ride height if it would even out?

hmmmm i've got the same thing. i never noticed it until you brought it up, but yeah, the passenger side is off...

my OCD makes me want to go buy a new wheel with an offset difference to correct it...

25 inches!!!! you must be close to scraping your door handles off.

So would the g-force Tri-link and panhard bar fix all this?

i would like to know the answer to this as well.

lmao, mine sticks out to the drivers side!

mine's like 25" from the top of the wheel arch to the ground too

Mine does it too, towards the passenger side. Not a biggy. just more incentive to go 3-link and panhard when I get the cash.

You must have the Aussie diff, then... :rolleyes:

alcohol and smoking funny stuff will make you see things differently.

Then I need to stop smoking and drinking cuz I think I see a WackyRacer! :lol:

yeah so far just about everything on my car passed tech but turned out to be assembled wrong or not at all!

they forgot the big gland nut that holds the strut cartridge to the shock tube! among other things, and it passed tech, and did a few track days!

My car sits 23" from the grond to the wheel well in the rear an 22.5 in the front, and It's maybe a 1/4" off. After your drop your car losen all of your rear suspension componets. All 4 laterall arms and all 5 watts nuts. Then put the front wheels on blocks and set the rear axle on jack stands. The car has to be on it's full weight before you tighten up any of the rear links. This is how you do a rear end "allignment." If you don't do it this way after you lower your car things will be off.

have 3 first gens, and all of them have the rear driver side sticking out farther out then the passanger side. Canadian models. Stock springs, wondering now if it would balance out with a driver in a car.

Was thinking that too... maybe the stock setup is centered when the car is loaded; 2 people, full tank.

Well I honestly can't say, because I installed full poly bushings in the rear end at the same time so that's the difference I noticed. The bracket shouldn't be a noticeable change. It's only purpose is to put the watts link bracket studs in double shear, because they have been known to break off during hard cornering in racing. I don't race much, 1 autox so far, but since I got the poly back there I figured it was good insurance. Mine broke off when I was trying to get the watts links off the bracket, so I had to replace the studs with nuts and bolts. Works fine. The bushings made a HUGE diference though. Quieter and smoother on the highway, takes the bumps better, and of course, rotates like it should. The car is actually just a little tailhappy now. No big deal, it's nothing I can't catch, but I wouldn't want to let just any person hop in and drive it. Liable to see it wrapped around a telephone pole.

but you trusted me to take it out for a drive! Whats wrong with you Chris :P :lol:

I'm running on Racing Beat springs, poly watts bushings, stock trailing link bushings. The passenger side wheel is about 1/4 inch closer to the fender than the driver's side. So it's 1/8 inch off center.

If you buy jim Suskos book , you can call him and he will tell you ....... I bought the book but am sworn to secrecy :lol:

marketing propaganda! now i will go and buy his book

What's the secret there? It's a weld-on part with adjustable links so you center it for the ride height that you will be using. Panhard rods DO shift the rear end laterally with vertical motion. So it doesn't stay centered with compression/unloading.

A watts link shouldn't shift the car horizantally with and vertical motion, no matter how poorly it's set up. You guys need to properly adjust your rear ends to fix the problem... It's just that easy! :lol: A panhard is fully adjustible and will works wonders on our cars, the only thing I don't like about panhard bars is that they literally center the axle and arc through vertical motion. So your car literally rolls 1/4" one way or another. how you set it up depends on which side gets that laterall movement. That's why I p[lan on doing a custome watts link in the long run.
watts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J4xkHuP7QY
http://www.gripping.dk/img/Guy_Watts_Link.jpg
panhard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQUW0-IEecA RC truck, but same damn thing. You can see the nasty arc.
good panhard site:
http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/panhard.shtml

so would you rather have the panhard or a properly built watts

was that a serious question? a watts is better than a panhard in every way. I'd really like a mumford, but that's out of the question. lol.

Lol, I feel weird, mine is like a little bit towards the drivers side. I guess I'm the odd man out.

lol i was just kinna confused by your post. thanks for the clarification.

Wow. I just re-read my post, and it was pretty retarded. I was a t work. It's hard to post cohearently there without getting in trouble for, "looking at your car crap agian" What I ment was that a pan hard will help recenter the axle and you have an adjustible roll center which is better than what we got from Mazda. But, A panhard bar moves in an arc as the suspension moves up and down. Making your car handel better on left or right turns depending on how you set it up. With a properly set up watts you don't have that. The axle stays perfectly centered nomatter where the suspension moves around. The only problem is designing it and figureing out where to mount it. Panhards are very simple and easy to package. Look at mumford links they are the best way to locate a solid axle, but they're big expensive and hard to install, but you could put the roll center below ground if you wanted to. lol!

i think that that is normal, i have it too, theoreticaly with our watts links, with just the driver in the car, they should balance out, same way when you jack up your rear end off the ground, it shifts to the drivers side.

The g-force panhard bar will fix this. And lower the rear roll center so the car handles more consistantly and is easier to control.

The tri-link fixes the pinion angle problem when you lower the car, and solves the short, angled upper links from binding since you replace them with one long link.

The heim joints are noisy and have to be replaced every 1-2 years on a street car. But there are poly joints on the market that can be used instead. If you can find ones that fit the tube and bracket. Mini-truck and offroad truck shops/websites sell those predominantly.

so we should probably find a place that sells them and then sticky it.

watts > panhard, but the panhard is easier to package, and if you set it up right it will be in a part of its arc where it doesnt make much difference

I'd love to see Respeed do a centered watt's link and 3rd link set-up. Panhard is a step backwards IMO.

I won't do a panhard simply cause NASCAR uses one. Yuck, we might as well buy a Holley 4 barrel and put on a restrictor plate and cover out cars in duct tape.
Hyper4mance Industries has a watts link in end phases of development. Testing will begin by end of the year. Production run by 3rd quarter 2010.