Sunday, May 3, 2009

Straighten UP and fly Left

One of the recent posts on the Yahoo group is on how well the vehicle coasts when you let off the accelerator pedal.
Hmmm, I am definitely NOT having this experience. It will coast a block on the flat (starting at 25MPH) but certainly not two.
I have been trying to diagnose what is going on:

The whole vehicle heads down the street slightly 'crabwise.'
Noticeable but not high pressure on the wheel toward the right is required to get it to go straight. (ie: it wants to wander toward the left all the time.)
The Steering wheel is not straight. Completely straightening the wheel produces a mild left turn. The opposite from what you would expect from the above.
A fairly steeply crowned road (right slope) can get it to go straight.
The front wheel/tire is not very round. Since the beginning the
whole vehicle does a hobby-horse up and down thing that is
especially noticeable around 12-14 mph. It is not the rear
tires as they have been replaced and the wheels balanced. We
have looked at the rear wheels while going to see if they
run true. I thought it might be flatspotting when parked but
the problem is still there after a 10 mile drive on a warm day.

We have checked the steering wheel vs. wheel direction. Using 6ft. long straightedge the wheel, steering wheel and vehicle center-line appear to match up.
Sean in one of his lighter moments suggested a front end alignment. Pretty funny actually.
Brake drag: There is quite a bit of brake drag (I assume) on the right rear wheel. To the point of having the wheel hub quite warm after an 8 mile drive. Being on the right the drag would cause the vehicle to caster to the right. Instead it tends to go left. If anything the drag problem is helping keep it running straight. Yes we have multiple problems.
The vehicle seems pretty stable at speed and tracks well in high speed corners (40MPH).

The investigation is ongoing.

1 comment:

  1. A new project! Hope it's coexisting well with your others.

    ReplyDelete

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