bump steer Q's

[ratnasty]

can someone help me on bump steer? 502-643-6900 Tadd call if you can give me a hand with much needed info on setting my bump steer!!!thanks!!

[Mike Beck]

You need to remove the front springs to check bump steer. Get your car up on jackstands and make sure it's level front to back and side to side. Remove the front wheels and clamp a long piece of angle iron to each rotor. You need something solid that you can put alongside the wheel so you can measure from the angle iron out to it. (I'll call it a fixture). Can be something simple like a few concrete cinder blocks. Has to be heavy so it won't be flopping around when you try to measure from the car out to it.
What you'll be doing is moving the lower control arm from the normal ride height up and down to simulate you launching off the line (the wheels drop and extend the front strut) and then compress it (coming down from a wheel stand or hitting the brakes after a pass). You want the toe to change as little as possible! You'll see this when you measure from the angle iron out to your fixture. There are many ways to change it, the most basic one being to put spacers between the outer tie rod ends and the steering knuckle. Another way is to raise or lower the rack, or change the length of the a-arms. etc.... Most people wind-up replacing the outer tie rod ends with ends that have heim joints and use a large bolt to attach them to the steering knuckle. Make sure you use a grade 8 5/8" bolt, there is a lot of load there! If it breaks, you won't be too happy! Now you'll be able to put spacers in there and get the bumpsteer correct. I did this on my 3rd-Gen F Body and it is perfect! Took a LONG time to get it right though. So much for bolt-on crap, nothing ever bolts onto these cars!
There is a good chassis book for door slammers that will show you all of this, and more. Certainly worth buying and reading! Dave Morgan is the author.