Wheel Alignment

[Baggy]

Hi All

Can AULRO members in WA recommend a place to take your classis
for a wheel alignment.

Prefer south of River but willing to travel NOR for someone who knows their stuff.


Cheers

Baggy

[Davo]

For a simple toe-in or toe-out adjustment, you just do it yourself. There is a heap of information out there about that. However, if you want to see how straight, (or not), your car is then yes, it's worth getting a pro to do it on all four wheels. But the minute they make one of those stupid comments about it being a Land Rover, just keep looking.

[Baggy]

Thanks Davo ....... When I purchased this classic (92 Vogue SE) the steering pulled badly to the left.

You literally had to keep pulling the steering to the right to keep it straight.

The guy I purchased it from didn't know what the problem was but it was too good to pass up on so I purchased it :)

I was under the vehicle and couldn't for the life of me understand the problem..... all the steering components seemed OK to me.

I was looking at the return to centre steering dampener that was fitted and some scratches and wear marks .....the short story is the collar (held with two Allen key grub screws) was loose and had shifted to the left.

Pulled the collar back to marks tightened and pulling has to the greater extent gone.

Only on hard braking does it pull to the left.

My idea is to take it to someone knowledgeable to check and adjust both as necessary.

Baggy

[87County]

BTW Baggy, the damper is not meant to "return to centre" - its a sort of powerful shock absorber .

As noted above, the only adjustment is toe-out and it is relatively simple to do it yourself.

Have plenty of WD40 on hand in case of corroded locking nuts and adjustments [bigsmile1].

Pulling to one side on braking may be a brake or tyre issue.

If issues remain then a truck align centre can help with other adjustments.

[BigJon]

If issues remain then a truck align centre can help with other adjustments.

There are no other adjustments.

[PLR]

G`day ,

agreed the only adjustment is toe out .

It is possible to get thicker Radius arm to chassis bushes for one side which can put the axle where it will be the same distance front to back wheel but normally will be the bushes are split or crushed .

If it`s pulling to the left under brakes look at the right side would be the normal way to diagnose but if the radius arm to chassis bush is crushing or split it could be steering it that way , not the steering as such but the axle movement on the left side .

[eddy]

I recently had a wheel alignment by Tyrepower,16/16 Salpietro St,Bibra Lake[94342323] using their Hunter Aligner.Mine was only a smidgeon out on the rear,so no help for me in chasing down some rotational noise in my D4.They should be able to help you if yours is way out.They also have a new Hunter machine which can balance/diagnose wheels whilst under load.

[Davo]

Often, if it's pulling to one side like that, it's the swivel pins. One, (or maybe both), is loose or too tight. They are supposed to have some damping effect on the steering. They're usually set up during an axle rebuild with the hubs, brakes, and the CV joint removed and the steering disconnected, but you can do it by just having the wheel and steering removed. You need a spring scale to check the resistance and if it's off then you start adding or removing shims from under the top pin. Unfortunately it's messy and a bit complicated with the brake pipes in the way, and I don't know what resistance you'd be looking at without everything stripped. However, with a bit of experience, you can do it by feel, the point really being to not have the swivels flopping around or, on the other hand, grinding the poor swivel bearings away.

[Baggy]

Hi 87 County - the dampener I have has a large external spring thats wound around dampener.
I believe with large wheels / tyres the large spring assist to bring the steering from turning back to centre.
As the collar had slipped from its set up .. my thoughts was to get someone whos familar with both to take a look.

Davo - You tube has quite a selection of do it yourself checks for wheel alignment ....I check a few out and see which is suitable for
the Rangie and I'll start with that first before going down the path of checking shims.

PLR - When I do my own assesment of current wheel alignment set up I'll also check the bushes for wear though my initial inspection
the steering componentry looked all in good condition .... I'll report back on whether where's too much toe in on either wheel.

Eddie - Thanks mate ..... I'll check my set up and I'll give them a ring once I get my head around the issue.
Getting first hand advice from knowledgable Landrover owners and where to go for such things is a big part of the value of this site.

Bigjon - your input & knowledge is always valued.

One other thing to throw into the mix that I hadent mentioned earlier was the steering wheel seems to point off centre (to the left) ...this causes
the right indicator to naturally turn itself off rather than stay on.

I believe in hindsite its all part of the same issue ..... I originally tried to use a cheap puller to remove steering wheel (to no effect) as I thought the
previous owner had removed it and not replaced it correctly.

I'm away this coming weekend .... I'll see if I can check the allignment during the week ..... [bighmmm]


Thanks for all your thoughts


Cheers

Baggy

[Vern]

Remove the return to centre steering dampner, place it in the bin, then put a normal dampner on.
In theory you should be able to drive no worries without a dampner at all

[87County]

There are no other adjustments.

Obviously you've never needed to have a diff /axle housing adiusted/straightened [bigsmile1]

[Vern]

Obviously you've never needed to have a diff /axle housing adiusted/straightened [bigsmile1]
But theres no adjustment on a diff housing 😉

[BigJon]

Obviously you've never needed to have a diff /axle housing adiusted/straightened [bigsmile1]

Obviously that goes beyond the realm of an adjustment.

[Mercguy]

A couple of things -

1. get rid of the spring-over RTC damper. toss it. It should not be there. Only put a normal damper on - if you feel that you must - it does help prevent excessive wheel jarring in your hands and could save your wrists on a nasty corrugated road.

2. Get a wheel alignment done - it sounds like you have an issue with at least one front wheel.

3. check the drag link (drop arm) and track rod - you know, now would be a really good time to replace the rod ends on the track rod and drop arm. Especially with a wheel alignment. Use quality parts - Lemforder are OE.

4. have the tyres checked as well, on a balancer that can check for horizontal runout as well as eccentricity. a buckled wheel is not always obvious, and it is very hard to diagnose, unless someone sees it on your car and lets you know.

5. swivel preload - if the hubs are a little loose, common practice is to pull a shim out - that's the bushie method, but ideally if the swivels are loose, then it's time to overhaul them, new bearings, seal etc and a good clean up. Good time to decide if you want oil bath CV's and hub bearings or one-shot in the CV's.

6. Radius arms - yes, the bushes can get a wear pattern which sees them elastic in a horizontal plane, despite them looking normal. If you know when they were last done, and it's more than 18 months ago, I'd replace them with new genuine ones.

7. Caster correction - You don't NEED to have a lift to need caster correction on the swivels. up to an extra 3º is a pretty good increase, and caster is a desirable attribute. I'm not suggesting that you rip everything apart and get the swivel holes elongated - BUT - if you find that you do need to rebuild the swivel hub assembly, then I'd get in and do it right off the bat, and to that end, I'd also have the swivels hard chromed, or plasma/teflon/ceramic coated if you do a lot of offroad touring.

8. Lastly, it may be possibe that the diff isn't straight. Usually this manifests itself in a stressed bearing assembly or abnormal CV wear on one side. Sometimes (in worst case) the axle can bind up and wear through internal areas of the housing, causing crack / fractures and eventually failure. This would be the absolute worst case scenario, and the least likely - BUT - it is something to pay attention to if you have ever taken a hit at speed on one side. It doesn't take a hell of a lot to actually bend a housing, but consider that there are a number of opposing static and dynamic loads on and within the housing itself to see it return to it's original shape and it is actually these forces which are the ones which cause the longterm damage.
Eventually when the assembly is overhauled one day, investigating the wear patterns of the halfshaft splines, and bearing journals, CV's and Stubs will alert an intelligent eye to a damage situation. However, it's the least visible problem externally, costs the most to rectify, and is the most time consuming to correctly diagnose.
The fix involves placing the diff in a jig on a callibrated surface, and applying heat/quench / pressure to the axle housing until the swivel hub flanges are parallel in 3 axes, and the centre flange is parallel on the horizontal axis in relation to the parallel centre projection of the swivel flanges. Pretty basic alignment stuff, but you'd be surprised at how much movement there is in a housing.

Anyway, that last one is the least likely scenario. Get rid of the damper first, then check the swivel preload and the radius arm bushes, and the drop-arm/track rod for impacts, replace as required, get a wheel alignment.

[Baggy]

Thanks Vern .... 87 county ...BigJon ....

Mercguy - appreciate the very informative post.

I'm away again this weekend .... bugger ... but will look at replacing the dampener as priority 1 ...then wheel alignment etc when I get back.

Hopefully .... they will solve the issue but will go further into it as needed,


Cheers

Baggy