Thread: Mysteries of the swivel

Originally Posted by discowhite

or space the radius arm to chassis bush out 10mm.

did this on the weekend while fitting new poly bushes and oh my god my steering is back to normal!

cheers phil

What did u use as a spacer ?

Originally Posted by discowhite

or space the radius arm to chassis bush out 10mm.

did this on the weekend while fitting new poly bushes and oh my god my steering is back to normal!

cheers phil

I am not entirely sure what you are achieving here. Surely that would just move the entire axle assembly forwards. The castor is governed by the bushes in the front (axle) end of the lower control arms, not by the rear (chassis) mounts.

What did u use as a spacer ?

heavy wall tube for now. having some spacers machined up to fit a bit neater.

I am not entirely sure what you are achieving here. Surely that would just move the entire axle assembly forwards. The castor is governed by the bushes in the front (axle) end of the lower control arms, not by the rear (chassis) mounts.

so moving the axle assy forward wouldnt change the castor angle?? im thinking about it and cant see why it wouldnt work?? i know it dose i can feel it!
anyway if it dont work why is it done for nissans??

cheers phil

so if i look at it this way.
the centerline running through the wheel (castor) is as is in the pic with a std radius arm. now if i pushed the radius arm forward 10mm would the center line of the wheel not move forward also??

hence gaining what i lost in the lift??






cheers phil

This will have almost zero effect on the castor angle - when you lifted it, the angle is changed by the same amount as the change in the angle of the arm relative to the chassis - and effectively lengthening the arm, which is what the spacer does, will not change the angle significantly. It actually will change it - the angle change is proportional to the arm length divided by the lift, and we have changed the arm length, but only by about 1%, so that is the same percentage change in the angle, small enough that I would be very surprised if there was any difference in handling at all.

John

"For those with post 94 discos, with the front hubs that have a rubber center cap, you are supposed to run your swivels on grease - and there are oil seals to keep the diff oil out of the swivel and the hub."


Langy interesting comment, but is that a personal opinion or a landrover based idea?
Mine has the rubber center cap but all the bookwork says to use oil, which I do to refill the leaks.

BTW great photos, i would love to be able to master the art of attaching photos.


john

Originally Posted by JDNSW

This will have almost zero effect on the castor angle - when you lifted it, the angle is changed by the same amount as the change in the angle of the arm relative to the chassis - and effectively lengthening the arm, which is what the spacer does, will not change the angle significantly. It actually will change it - the angle change is proportional to the arm length divided by the lift, and we have changed the arm length, but only by about 1%, so that is the same percentage change in the angle, small enough that I would be very surprised if there was any difference in handling at all.

John

x2

No change to be had, the housing itself is pinned directly to the radius arm with 2 bushes and moving the arm on a horizontal plane won't do diddly

If it was a four link it would work as the arms are 2 on top 2 under fixed by 1 bush each on the diff end so moving the lowers would alter it

But its not a 4 link

Originally Posted by rovercare

x2

No change to be had, the housing itself is pinned directly to the radius arm with 2 bushes and moving the arm on a horizontal plane won't do diddly

If it was a four link it would work as the arms are 2 on top 2 under fixed by 1 bush each on the diff end so moving the lowers would alter it

But its not a 4 link

If the bushes in the front of the radius arms were soft or worn then lengthening the radius arms to push the axle forward would intoduce a flex from the suspension componets which would work to correct the castor angle, maybe? Perhaps? Pure speculation here...