Suspension Bump Steer Angles

Swhitney

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
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Oregon City
I have a question about the bump steer kit I recently installed. As far as I know, the kit requires the system to be aligned in a straight manner, meeting the spindle at a 90-degree angle. However, it appears that I've run out of adjustment space, preventing me from lowering the system any further to achieve perpendicular alignment. Apart from raising the entire front of the car, do you have any suggestions to improve this situation? Alternatively, should I not be concerned about it?

Thank you,
Sean
 
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Bump-steer kits really need to be measured, with a bump-steer measuring kit.

The problem with general setting methods is that they are mostly wrong because they change based on static settings (caster and camber). A fox running more caster will have radically different settings than a car with stock settings. Same with slight differences in camber.

Short of measuring best you can do is eyeball. Do you have a photo of the stack setup and control arms?
 
Have bump steer kits on both my Foxes. Put it on the ground and get the tie rods parallel with the LCA’s. Other than that you have to go through the whole bump steer alignment process which for me is reserved for track cars.
 
Photo May 24 2023, 6 10 17 PM.jpg


Was meaning to add this but got distracted
 
If anything, I think you need to raise the tie rod end. Do you know your caster numbers? Stock or more caster than stock? Most caster will lift the tie rod end mount, requiring a bigger bumpsteer spacer stack. How many inches lower than stock would you guess you are?

The imaginary line you want to try to focus on is from the a-arm bushing on the k-member out to the pivot point on the balljoint. That’s the movement arc you want to try to get as parallel to in order to eyeball.

Keep in mind, this is all guessing using generalizations. Short of directly measuring that’s all you can do.

For example, this is measured out using the kit (total PITA to actually do) and you can see it’s completely different from yours, BUT my settings are different than yours most likely so not suggesting this is what you should set it to. My point is the generalized bumpsteer settings really need to be tailored more than some of the simplified directions I’ve seen.

3794B922-B8D4-43EB-8653-D130B229688F.jpeg
 
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I'd say it needs to go up too. It's supposed to be at a straight line with the lower control arm. If you have 96 to 98 spindles ( without MM k member ) the adjustment will want to be all the way up inside the tie rod knuckle. My car is lowered on coil overs with 98 spindles and the bump steer kit is all the way up. Car drives well but geometry could be better with 94- 95 spindles.