Thread: Live axle steering wobble, they say it's tyres

Regardless of toe in or toe out, a pair of wheels on a steering axle will tend to assume a parrallel attitude when rolling ,but toe out is usually the norm on vehicles with long trackrods behind the axle, in order to place the rod in tension. Standard spindly trackrods could bow if placed in compression. aftermarket ones with a cowbelly shape for clearance may be flexible enough in both compression and tension to cause shimmy. For Australian roads I believe it is desirable to have a little more castor on the left hand wheel.
I think the alignment shop is a bit suss, chaining and bending the axle to adjust god knows what!
Bill.

Originally Posted by newhue

I had the caster corrected by a guy who has done all the armies defenders.

Mate, I've got this bridge down in sydney I'd like to talk about selling to you, I'll even throw in a set of hiclones....

Originally Posted by newhue

Toe in can be set by spinning a ball joint instead of spinning the tie rod.

This results in a very coarse adjustment for toe in/out. You are limited to the thread pitch for a minimum adjustment, your actual toe change will be roughly twice the thread pitch. Possibly 3-4mm steps.

How have the wheels been balanced?
The best way to do any wheel balance is with flange plates.
What is the weights outer to inner on the rims if there is a big diff then they should spin the tyre on the rim to mate it less or at least the same..
In saying that all so see if the tyres are out of round and when you store the two tyres at home what psi are they at........

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

Mate, I've got this bridge down in sydney I'd like to talk about selling to you, I'll even throw in a set of hiclones....

yeh I know Dave, tall stories. He runs the caster correction workshops on the back road out of the base. You know of him?
I come across him because a mate had his Defender done there, and that mate's father had busses done there. Seems to have worked though.

Originally Posted by Dougal

This results in a very coarse adjustment for toe in/out. You are limited to the thread pitch for a minimum adjustment, your actual toe change will be roughly twice the thread pitch. Possibly 3-4mm steps.

Yes I suspected this. I have spoken to Keith from RovingTracks about the above. It was his advice about turning the ball joint. Said it moves them 1/16 which is within LR tolerances. Not sure if this is correct or just lip service, but tow in can not be 0 with the current arrangement.
As the tie rod has one position, it almost needs I recon, some threaded shank with locking nuts on each side positioned somewhere along it to allow for fine adjustment. I have been pondering if I get it modified and who would do it. Or chuck it and go back to standard.
Trouble is the wobble has always been there so it's probably not the new tie rod.

Ever bumped a kerb?,you might have a bent rim. Pat

so, has anyone checked the swivel preloads or is this not applicable to this model?
dave?

i had a look at roving tracks website picture of the tie rod, it is obvoius that it can only be set one full turn,
so you can halve that adjustment with one turn of the ball joint, so that should bring the alignment into an acceptable area..
i think you said this truck has always had the problem, so it was there before you fitted this tie rod, so that is out of the way.

crap damper from new possibly, you can come down one day and swap mine (bilsteen) onto it if you like and go for a drive.