Turning Radius?

SpectralSamurai · Mar 4, 2004

Something I've been meaning to look into for some time now is the turning radius of my car. Put bluntly, it sucks, my dad's bronco with 33" off road tires turns tighter than my car. What gives here? Its a "sports" car that turns like our oldsmobile station wagon. What's up with that? Can it be fixed? It keeps causing problems, especially in parking, alot of times I'll have to jockey the thing back and forth to get it straight because of the way they make most parking lots around here. Then I see other cars that turn into tight parking spots without any issues and look like they could turn tighter than that. Ranting aside, how do I fix this problem? Does anyone else have this problem?

Pro-Hawk · Mar 4, 2004

Are you using stock tires and wheels? I noticed I lost a little turn radious on my 93 when I went to the pony wheels. As for improveing the radious; Buy a jeep and drive it up under your car Now how many tracks or Road races etc have you seen where you would need more turn radious to compete on? Heck don't they put a computer control on new sports cars to keep them from making sharp turns at high speeds anyways ? As for the parking lots, have you ever played chess before? You never make a move without knowing a few more to follow it. Think of the lots as a chess board and try to stay a move ahead of who is parked next to you and what could park next to you if its empty when you get there. Also keep and eye out on which way you will need to go inoder to leave the lot when the time comes.

ZeroCulture · Mar 4, 2004

the more you drive your car the easier it will get ... it becomes habit .. i don't even think about it anymore. and heck ... sharp turn coming .. let the back end slide out a little .. hehe

jman_b13 · Mar 4, 2004

you relize that cars that are bigger like SUV's and broncos can turn much tighter because there is a lot more room under the wheel wells. if you put a lift on your mustang you could turn just as tight as those cars. there is no fix, because its NOT a problem, just deal with it and get used to it. or buy a bronco

ZeroCulture · Mar 4, 2004

lol .. and get use to making a lot of 3 point turns... hah

Pro-Hawk · Mar 4, 2004

Buy a bronco are you nuts if a person can't drive a Mustang, they don't need a 4X4 Bronco? Just let me put the SVO in the gauage before he takes off

SpectralSamurai · Mar 4, 2004

jman_b13 said:
you relize that cars that are bigger like SUV's and broncos can turn much tighter because there is a lot more room under the wheel wells. if you put a lift on your mustang you could turn just as tight as those cars. there is no fix, because its NOT a problem, just deal with it and get used to it. or buy a bronco

This is true, there is considerbly more room under the wheel wells of the bronco than there are in the Mustang, for obvious reasons. It could be that the only factor limiting the turning radius of the car is the height and wheel well space difference. Nonetheless, the mustang has distinct problems doing tight cornering at low speeds that other cars of similar profile I have driven simply do not have. It feels as though something is limiting the car's ability to turn, as if there is something that does not allow the car to turn the wheels as far as they, from nearly every other car I've driven, feel they ought to be going. My original question, thinly veiled mockery of my skills as a driver aside, was about any potential problems that may exist in my system.

Pro-Hawk · Mar 5, 2004

SpectralSamurai said:
This is true, there is considerbly more room under the wheel wells of the bronco than there are in the Mustang, for obvious reasons. It could be that the only factor limiting the turning radius of the car is the height and wheel well space difference. Nonetheless, the mustang has distinct problems doing tight cornering at low speeds that other cars of similar profile I have driven simply do not have. It feels as though something is limiting the car's ability to turn, as if there is something that does not allow the car to turn the wheels as far as they, from nearly every other car I've driven, feel they ought to be going. My original question, thinly veiled mockery of my skills as a driver aside, was about any potential problems that may exist in my system.

Usualy the A-arms keep the car from turning to fair, if you want just take them off and drive it without them No but really you never mentioned what tires/wheels you have on the car. Did anyone one ever have pony wheels on it before and put limiters on the rack ? It maybe your just use to ricer cars who knows.

I really think you should Just sell the car and you will be so much happyer Then use the money to buy something you really would like, but test drive it first. Now if the car was free be quite about it because thats the best car you got there

Tru_Blue_104 · Mar 5, 2004

ZeroCulture said:
the more you drive your car the easier it will get ... it becomes habit .. i don't even think about it anymore. and heck ... sharp turn coming .. let the back end slide out a little .. hehe

I'm with him

I dont think that the main question here was completely thought out, you see, I dont think Ive seen a thread with this much sarcasim!

SpectralSamurai · Mar 5, 2004

Tru_Blue_104 said:
I'm with him

I dont think that the main question here was completely thought out, you see, I dont think Ive seen a thread with this much sarcasim!

Neither have I, I guess everyone had it kind of built up and needed to vent on some n00b. Lucky me. I really don't know much about the previous owner (besides that he's a liar and sold me a lemon car, and I didn't know enough then to call his bluff). Originally he had the GT rims on it. Right now I'm running 195/75/R14. If its off, I apologize, but from memory that's what it is. Its the stock LX rims with that fake plastic/polymer "stuff" on them. Too used to ricer cars? Maybe, this area is full of them. Almost none of them can drive, and all of them think their cars are the wickedest thing to hit the face of planet earth. Nothing like a rusted out, completely stock Honda driving down the road, broken trunk bobbing with the hills, with big "Super Street" stickers on it. Keeping this away from an anti-rice thread, that's my current tire size. Where would I check to see if there's any kind of limiters on them? And just for grins, is there a rack and pinion steering available for the later model fox mustang?

Asha'man · Mar 5, 2004

We have rack and pinion already on our cars. My turning radius sucks, too....and yes, in a U-turn I usually try to kick the ass end out a little to help with the turn.

Ash

Tru_Blue_104 · Mar 5, 2004

SpectralSamurai said:
Neither have I, I guess everyone had it kind of built up and needed to vent on some n00b. Lucky me. I really don't know much about the previous owner (besides that he's a liar and sold me a lemon car, and I didn't know enough then to call his bluff). Originally he had the GT rims on it. Right now I'm running 195/75/R14. If its off, I apologize, but from memory that's what it is. Its the stock LX rims with that fake plastic/polymer "stuff" on them. Too used to ricer cars? Maybe, this area is full of them. Almost none of them can drive, and all of them think their cars are the wickedest thing to hit the face of planet earth. Nothing like a rusted out, completely stock Honda driving down the road, broken trunk bobbing with the hills, with big "Super Street" stickers on it. Keeping this away from an anti-rice thread, that's my current tire size. Where would I check to see if there's any kind of limiters on them? And just for grins, is there a rack and pinion steering available for the later model fox mustang?

Hey, about the wheels, if you wanna stay at a 14" then I got the thing,
http://www.uniquewheel.com/images/products/96.jpg
I'm gonna put these on my car next week and honestly, I like them better than the pony rims. plus, if you go to tires.com, you can get them for $37! Great price. just a thought though, sorry if i got off topic!

SpectralSamurai · Mar 5, 2004

Asha'man said:
We have rack and pinion already on our cars. My turning radius sucks, too....and yes, in a U-turn I usually try to kick the ass end out a little to help with the turn.

Ash

Maybe you do, but mine is power steering, unless its a power rack and pinion?

Pro-Hawk · Mar 5, 2004

It probly does have Rack and Pinion already on it but I can't say for sure. If you know what it looks like just stick your head under the front of the car and see if it does. It looks like a long tube cyl with tie rods coming from it going to the front wheels. If the GT wheels the previous owner used was the 16" then maybe he put some liniters on it. I haven't put them on my car yet but they look like plastic C-Clamps and mount near the rack where a rubber boot is clamped on. I would make sure what boot clamps your car uses before you remove them since some was a break away kind and has to be replaced after the work/check is done.

Asha'man · Mar 5, 2004

SpectralSamurai said:
Maybe you do, but mine is power steering, unless its a power rack and pinion?

Same thing, it's a power rack and pinion.

Ash

Pro-Hawk · Mar 5, 2004

Asha'man said:
Same thing, it's a power rack and pinion.

Ash

Aww so different name but same type of device?

Mustang5L5 · Mar 6, 2004

Pro-Hawk said:
Aww so different name but same type of device?

Power steering is power steering. There are different methods to getting it down.

Mustangs use Rack and Pinion. It's just a method where the steering wheel is connected to a small gear (the pinion) that spins and slides a grooved slider (the rack) to turn the wheels. Both manual and power steering racks on Mustangs are rack and pinion. Most passenger cars use this as well. It's the trucks and such which get into other types of steering methods.

Ohm the short turning radius is a Mustang trademark. Nothing you can do about it. In 91, when ford went with 16" wheels, they actually put rack limiters on to make it even worse. I just learned to deal with it and learned to plan my turns ahead of time. Of course i drive large trucks at work, so planning my turns before i get to them is nothing new to me

Pro-Hawk · Mar 6, 2004

Mustang5L5 said:
I just learned to deal with it and learned to plan my turns ahead of time.

This is key

SpectralSamurai · Mar 7, 2004

Mustang5L5 said:
Power steering is power steering. There are different methods to getting it down.

Mustangs use Rack and Pinion. It's just a method where the steering wheel is connected to a small gear (the pinion) that spins and slides a grooved slider (the rack) to turn the wheels. Both manual and power steering racks on Mustangs are rack and pinion. Most passenger cars use this as well. It's the trucks and such which get into other types of steering methods.

Ohm the short turning radius is a Mustang trademark. Nothing you can do about it. In 91, when ford went with 16" wheels, they actually put rack limiters on to make it even worse. I just learned to deal with it and learned to plan my turns ahead of time. Of course i drive large trucks at work, so planning my turns before i get to them is nothing new to me

Yeah, I know. I have gotten used to it by now and its no longer a problem, I just wondered if there was any way to improve it. Furthermore, just because its a Mustang "trademark" doesn't mean it can't be changed. The issue though becomes how much would it cost and is it worth it?

Dailydrifter · Apr 7, 2005

SpectralSamurai said:
Yeah, I know. I have gotten used to it by now and its no longer a problem, I just wondered if there was any way to improve it. Furthermore, just because its a Mustang "trademark" doesn't mean it can't be changed. The issue though becomes how much would it cost and is it worth it?

Thanks for posting this. This saved me tons of time searching for the same answer. Time for some custom work. I'll keep you posted on IF and how we fix this.

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