Alignment finally close to specs

chromedog said:

i used to be the guy who would blame bump steer any time an early mustang had an alignment issue, until i took the time to do a proper alignment for myself, and i now feel bump steer gets a bum rap most of the time.the thing to remember is not to get the car close, and allow for the crown of the road, but to ignore the crown, and get both sides exactly the same if at all possible. even though you might not get the caster exactly 3 degrees positive, for instance, but you will be happier with the results in the long run...

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jamison42166 said:

sorry to hijack a threat but its funny after rebuilding my suspension with TCP coilovers power rack etc my car goes around corners great but it does wander or want to follow road variations. I thought it was just wider tires. would one of those kits help with that.



heres the specs the car was last aligned at:
Left front Right front
Camber Camber
-0.03 .-.03

Caster Caster
2.7 3.1

Toe Toe
..03 0.01

Total Toe
0.04
Steer ahead
0.01
Left Rear Right Rear
camber camber
-0.5 -0.04
Toe Toe
-0.031 0.03
Total Toe
-0.28
Thrust angle
-0.17

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jamison42166 said:

sorry to hijack a threat but its funny after rebuilding my suspension with TCP coilovers power rack etc my car goes around corners great but it does wander or want to follow road variations. I thought it was just wider tires. would one of those kits help with that.

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BornInAFord said:

If you have bumpsteer, it is most noticed over large dips and bumps and with soft suspension. Stiffer suspension doesn't allow the arcs of the tie-rods and lower control arms to compete as much, so doesn't alter toe. What you are describing over rough, rutted or uneven roads is probably tramlining, the tires wanting to follow competing road surfaces, giving the sensation of a self-steering car.

One of the drawbacks of wider tires is that the car will often be prone to tramlining. This isn't just in our Mustangs, but in most cars with wider tires like Porsche 911, BWM M3 and other performance cars (google "tramline" if you want an interesting read). Suspension design improvements can help as well as tire tread styles (some tires tramline much worse than others of the same width/bias), but good looks have some drawbacks. I know the handling is much better since I went to 225/45R17 fronts and 235/45R17 rears from the 195/75R14 tires all around, but my car tramlines terribly (you sort of get used to it) on winter-killed roads around here even with the same alignment specs and same offset wheels. With the skinny tires high bias tires, I had no issues. I wouldn't go back, though.
Before and after:

Daniel

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