I built up a hot rod two years ago. Model A boxed frame, 28 Ford PU body, 302 V8 with C4 trans, speedway tubular front end 8" ford rear, 76 mustang disc's on front with drum brakes, traverse spring front and rear, pete and jakes front shocks and standard shocks on the rear.
My question is about the car tending to jump in to turns. It is very sensitive to jumping quickly into turns especially to the right. The left turn is reasonable, but it quickly jumps into right turns to the point that if you did not know the car, you might well over correct and get in trouble at higher speeds.
It is much worse at zero toe so I run almost 1/8" toe on it to get stability. I have 20K miles on the car now. If I run very stiff front shocks, it handles much better, but rides like a bicycle on a dirt road. The pete and Jakes shocks allow much more movement of the front end in response to bumps in the road. I have a rear panhard bar and don't really notice body tilt in the situations described above.
One thing I know that is not right is the Ackerman line. My line from king pin through steering arm ends up a foot off the center of the rear end. I know that the proper ackerman line should be to the center of the rear axle. Since the ackerman line sets up the steering so that the inside wheel in a turn will turn sharper, probably makes sense that it might cause issues in turns if not correct.
Should I correct the steering arm connection point to provide the correct ackerman line? My steering linkage is behind the axle in a standard configuration with cross steer using a vega box.
I know the car well and how it handles, but do not feel comfortable letting others drive it because of the cornering issues. Low speeds are fine, but high speed cornering is an issue.
Comments welcome
My question is about the car tending to jump in to turns. It is very sensitive to jumping quickly into turns especially to the right. The left turn is reasonable, but it quickly jumps into right turns to the point that if you did not know the car, you might well over correct and get in trouble at higher speeds.
It is much worse at zero toe so I run almost 1/8" toe on it to get stability. I have 20K miles on the car now. If I run very stiff front shocks, it handles much better, but rides like a bicycle on a dirt road. The pete and Jakes shocks allow much more movement of the front end in response to bumps in the road. I have a rear panhard bar and don't really notice body tilt in the situations described above.
One thing I know that is not right is the Ackerman line. My line from king pin through steering arm ends up a foot off the center of the rear end. I know that the proper ackerman line should be to the center of the rear axle. Since the ackerman line sets up the steering so that the inside wheel in a turn will turn sharper, probably makes sense that it might cause issues in turns if not correct.
Should I correct the steering arm connection point to provide the correct ackerman line? My steering linkage is behind the axle in a standard configuration with cross steer using a vega box.
I know the car well and how it handles, but do not feel comfortable letting others drive it because of the cornering issues. Low speeds are fine, but high speed cornering is an issue.
Comments welcome
