TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

Hi all.

I have recently been working on my suspension, installing dtss elims, pinion snubbers in the rear, and changing some bushings.

Anyways, driving around today I re-noticed and reminded myself that if I turn sharp either way I get some massive front wheel hop that I can feel in both my butt and steering wheel. What causes this? Is it just cause I need an alignment and one wheel is drag or pushing the other? I'm guessing that a lot of it will have to do with my 19 year old shocks/springs/bushings.

Let me know what ya think.
Thanks
Tweak

niburu

iTrader: (1)

thats part of it, plus probably the stock camber settings
basically it's your car understeering

toplessFC3Sman

iTrader: (1)

yea, id say you def need an alignment

SpeedOfLife

iTrader: (16)

yeah, alignment should at least be checked, but I wonder if your springs are worn so bad you're bottoming out or coming close. wheels don't maintain good road contact when the wheels are too easily deflected by whatever pressure is applied from the ground whether it's a bump in the road or a sharp turn.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

kk I need to get an alignment after I shim my .... um.... steering rod(?) so I have more steering angle anyways. Might be a good idea after I installed DTSS in the rear too...

I know this sounds like I am a little drift kiddy, but I am seriously going drifting at a track in a week. Would you guys get the car aligned any differently for drifting? Do I just want everything as strait as possible?

niburu - What camber would you recommend?

And yeaaa I really REALLY need to upgrade or even replace with just stock rated struts and springs. When I turn you can feel the car tilting really badly and the car will bounce back and forth when I hit the gas or brake. :\

Oh and I forgot to say, I installed a lower arm bar and that didn't help with the wheel hop, although it did make seem like I have tons of overstreer now. I'm guessing it's just because the front is gripping better than the rear and the rear is breaking loose first now.

Thanks for all the help guys.

TehMonkay

iTrader: (-1)

Your shocks are blown.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

Ok. I will have to wait till after winter to get coil overs I guess.

So the wobble after going around the poll in this video of me caused by the blown shocks or the stock anti sway bar?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bzb42uECUAY
(youtube seems to have broke the video nevermind)

Digi7ech

iTrader: (1)

Here's an easy one.

How old are the tires and how much tread and what are they?

I had the shittiest understeer at my last drift event because my nitto's were old and just not gripping.

I had perfect grip when I was using brand new 205x60x15 fuzion hri's. I was actually amazed.
===
Also check you camber/toe with the tires from lock to lock.

You'd know if your struts were blown. The front of the car would bounce up and down like you were in a wave pool when you hit bumps.

RX7MAVEN

The inner wheel in a turn must track with the outer wheel, The inner wheel turns a smaller circle than the outer wheel. It sounds like you are not tracking properly and one wheel is hopping to keep up with the other wheel. Start with a good 4 wheel, thrust alignment. You may possable need camber plates to get the car in spec. It sounds like your struts are shot, but I doubt if that causes the hopping.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

ok found something weird today. I'm about to jack up the car and take a closer look.

When I was measuring my car to see if I should get a 1 inch or 2 inch wheel spacer for the front I noticed .. that on my passenger side that the wheel was at a \ angle. The top of the wheel was closer to the body, and the bottom of the wheel was further away. When I push on the top of the wheel towards the car I hear a clunk clunk sound.... I notice also (on my trip back to my house to get my jack) that I only have wheel hop when I turn sharp and of fast left.....

What should I be looking for while I am under the car, and also what do you think I have broken? When the wheel is like \ is that toe or camber? or something else?

Thanks
~Tweak

RX7MAVEN

Your describing posative camber and a bad ball joint.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

ok just took off the wheel and looked at everything... when I had the car up and pushed on the top of the wheel it LOOKED like only the wheel and the brake disk were moving..

ok so how hard is it to change a ball joint? I'm guessing I have had this issue for a while now since I have had the front wheel hop when I turn left for a while.

I have a second gen parts car at my house right now (3 hours away) but the pass front side of the car was smashed so Im guessing that ball joint is ruined. But I would guess that the drivers side one is ok. Is the drivers side and pass side interchangable? How easy of an install is it? I will have like 5 hours before I have to leave for a drift including an alignment when I get home. Is there anything other then worse front traction and the possiblity of making the ball joint worse if I drive on it?

THANKS a LOT guys!

This guy had the same issues kinda and he had a bad ball joint.
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ght=ball+joint

I'm pretty sure thats what I have now.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

! OK OK OK sooooo I took my wheel off and popped off the little hub thing, and tightened the huge bolt in there with my pipe wrench and now I have no wheel hop when I turn left!!! It feeeeellls soooo weird not to have the hop! I went for a test drive and turned left and almost turned right into a SUV in the left turn lane! haha I never realized how my brain compensated and expected the hop every time... crazy I have much more grip and now my car has severe over steer showing how bad my rear tires are. Drifting = much more controlled. I can't wait to get my DTSS elims in! it's going to be fun!

THANKS ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! Got weird wheel hop?! make sure your ..... wheel hubs are bolted on snuggly! haha

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

double post im so excited hhaha sorry

If this is what it feels like to have a working STOCK suspension I cant wait to get rid of all my 19 year old bushings, shocks, and struts!

xclusive_one

you can get your alignment done but the only thing they're going to adjust is your front and rear toe... but if its not a performance shop of known alignment shop they're most likely not going to adjust anything unless you have the parts to do so... maybe camber plates up front and some sort of camber adjuster in the rear...

VortecBowtie

On a side note, wider wheels/tires, if you have them, will do this. I learned this on my truck. IT's due to the inside spinning slower than the outside and the tire actually folds over itself then recoils (like wheel hop almost) As soon as I went from a 275 tire to a 235 in the front I now don't have that issue. Of course thats a heavy truck so a lighter car may experience it with even a 235series tire...

twistedriver

If your wheel bearings are loose you would most likley need to pack your wheel bearing with new grease and maybe check the grease seal. This is especially true if you are going to drive the car hard. If your wheel bearing comes loose after a few days or after hard drives torque the nut to about 3-4 foot pounds. The 2nd gen wheel hubs are poorly design and are known to come loose. Good luck on your drift day!

toplessFC3Sman

iTrader: (1)

alignment places can adjust camber in front on our cars too. The strut is slightly off-center of the 4 mounting studs that you see at the top of the strut tower. Because of this, rotating the strut to each of the 4 positions will give you a different caster/camber setting.

If you are going drifting, id try to get the front camber to slightly more negative than the rear (the actual number will depend on how much spring sag you have, since that will put you in at different part of the dynamic camber graph, usually resulting in more negative camber than if the springs were at their un-fatigued height) to give you a little of a front-bias in terms of ultimate, steady-state cornering grip. However, I'd toe in the rear wheels about half of a degree so that as the car starts to oversteer, it will be a little slower/more progressive.

Camber, weight distribution, and tire size affects the overall grip of the front of the car vs the rear when cornering, while things like toe, ride height (more specifically roll center height), spring and damping rates affect how it acts in the transients (turn-in, roll-off, dropped throttle, slalom etc)

Stanis

iTrader: (2)

I'm going to assume you are talking about the castle nut on the spindle. The one with carter key going through it? There is a torque spec to that and no pipe wrench is involved at all. You will ruin your bearings if you do that.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

hmmmmm so its not something that should be pretty tight? I was able to turn it with my fingers before I tightened it....

THANKS on all the drift alignment tips. Keep em coming. I'm please to see that you guys don't think of me as some wana be drift kitty, and I thank you for that.

I'm going to go take the car for a test drive again. When I get home in a week im going to check all my castle nuts.

beastyrx7

iTrader: (1)

mate
i wouldnt bother hitting the race track with stock shocks and springs, unless u love massive body roll,and most likely to crash,
for drifitng you need, coil-overs, wit camper and damper adjustment, camber about -3degrees on the front, the rears about -1-1.5degrees, and frojnt damper on stiffest and rear about 2-3clicks of the stiffest setting. and you need a lock diff, or a 2Way LSD, so it never singles. also a front and rear sway bar.
and most of all some power.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

I disagree as I know there are people successfully drifting stock 7s. I hope to have a video of my drifting after the next weekend. Although I think the suggestions above will make it a lot easier I think that the driver is 90% of what makes the car drift. So instead of need I think you should say, would want or prefer coil-overs and so on.

I am hesitant to accept your numbers for an alignment seeing how you have 6 posts and joined in august. Do you have any real experience drifting and fc? I still think that DTSS elims and steering angle would be more important, but I could be wrong. Although I agree that a new stiffer suspension would help in stability, I think that even with a rolly chassis a driver would just have to be less jerky with their inputs. I know I won't be able to throw the car around like a pro especially on my first day out, but I'm sure I can make it slide successfully.

I have a 184.5 whp 6 port turbo
stock turbo lsd
stock t2 suspension (I think the 88 gtu had turbo shocks and springs)
good tires in front, horrid tires in the rear.

I will have in the next few days (SHIPPING to a dorm SUCKS!)
DTSS elims
Steering mod
1" wheel spacer adapter to push the front wheels out
2 pinion snubbers in the back to band aid my horrid rear wheel hop
an oil filter adapter to add a working oil pressure and oil temp gauge
new alignment
Oil and LSD fluid change.

That is it. Maybe I am completely wrong, but we will see. If the camber and such is really that important let me know. I will buy some camber adjusters ASAP and have them shipped FAST. I am getting nervous cause today is basically the last day I can buy stuff online to have installed on the 7 in time for the drift.

Again thanks for the tips. I will take any tips so don't feel like I attacked you. It's hard to take comments like "Don't even try with your current setup." If someone could backup his setting that would be awesome.

Keep the recommendations coming.

Thanks
~Tweak

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

I'd be careful adding any negative camber in the front. FC's are tail happy by nature and w/ old saggy springs and worn out struts, the front camber is probably already negative.

Add to that shitty rear tires and you've got a recipe for spin outs and donuts.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

Ok, thank you very much. I was thinking that it would be a good idea to run good front bad rear just so that it would be easier to start and keep the slide. Although it will limit me contol and max grip wise, do you think that is a good idea or should I get better tires for the rear also? I'm not sure I have enough power to break them loose w/o some massive clutch or ebrake drifts.

sharingan 19

iTrader: (16)

Sounds like a nice theory, how long does it take to swap wheels? I say switch em, go do a few practice slides somewhere, and see how you like it.

I've got pretty crappy (and 195's at that ) tires in the rear and the only time I can get a decent, controlled slide is in the rain. In the dry the back end just wants to come around.

My springs sag so bad no one believes I'm running stock suspension, so the negative camber might have something to do w/ it.

And I'm in the same place as you as var as power. Thats why it works in the rain, its easier (more progressive) if you can use power to initiate the drift, which you can only really do in the rain w/ a stock TII. Most of the time when I try the ebrake or clutch kick, the back end just swings around.