Turbo tie rod and alignment Options

[emerygt350]

Sooo... I figured a fun morning job would be turbo tie rods. The rubber was shot and the outer tie rod was so shot that together they gave me about a half inch of lateral wobble on the wheels.



All good now. Brought it in for an alignment. That was hilarious. Only place that could get it on their setup was the Ford dealership (they had open appointments and I have a very low and long front airdam). I warned the very excited technician about the dog leg but he did not understand. I scooted off to the lounge to watch. Eventually I saw 5 techs all standing around igiving advice to the poor 20 something. Finally they brought a guy in his sixties over to drive it up on the ramps. He did teach the kid and they all really enjoyed driving it. One of the techs came in to ask if it had a turbo (it does sound a little like a blow off valve when you release the throttle). Anyway, it made their morning. They worked on it quite a while and tested it between mods. Just the tie rods as far as adjustments went. They ended up at .10. I do have big 40mm spacers and big staggered Fuchs (225/50/16) so the cars footprint is very different from a stock 914 (14 inches wider).

The car is tight now and very predictable but I feel like it's less alive under the fingers (perhaps I was just used to the sudden random changes in direction?) and it doesn't 'self straighten' as much as it used to. They told me to drive it and see what I thought and they would be happy to modify it. Anyone know what I am trying to describe and whether I should do anything about it? It feels great in the Twisties, but requires a little more attention on the highway. The new tie rods were very stiff so perhaps they just need to be worked in a little as well.

[Dave_Darling]

Your document doesn't say if it is toe in or toe out. The behavior makes it sound like toe out. (You should double check that with them!!)

Front toe out will make the car feel nimble and darty. Like the nose really wants to turn--in part, because it actually is just starting to turn all the time. It is good for initial turn-in, but at the cost of wanting to wander if you take your attention away from it.

Toe-in is more stable, but feels less agile. You can take your hands off the wheel without the car trying to turn one way or the other.

We generally recommend a very very small amount of toe-out in front for track-oriented cars, and a small amount of toe-in for street cars.

--DD