Hello all,

I found instructions from Elephant Racing on how to install rack bump steer kit but even they do not mention whether to put the front wheels on ramps or use jack stands and let the wheels drop and hang.

So far, I have the front wheels on ramps; I loosened the steering shaft u-joint and was able to get one collar in place and the bolt threaded on the passenger side but cannot get the bolt threaded on the drivers side.

Any other tips or suggestions? This is turning out to be much more difficult than I anticipated!

Thanks!

Also; What are the control arm and tie rod supposed to look like for good geometry... for the least amount of bump steer? For example; is the tie rod supposed to be angled upward, level or downward for least amount of bump steer. I guess I am trying to decide whether I even need the kit installed.

Have you lowered the car significantly?
Have you raised the spindles?
Are the tie rods no longer level?
Do you feel bump steer now?
Are you adding rack spacers?

I do need to measure it. Std is around 25 inches from fender lip to ground intersecting center of the wheel?

I have not raised the spindles.

That is what I am asking... should the tie rods be level? How does one check this?

I feel the wheel 'jerk' when I go over bumps... straight or in corners.

I am trying to add rack spacers but do not really know if they are needed.

An update... I was able to get the drivers side spacer in place. Now I neglected to say the spacers are aluminum pieces that I obtained from a new shock kit for my other vehicle that were not needed. They are around 11/16 inch thick and other than the thickness, fit perfectly in the area between the rack and cross member. I am aware that the Weltmeister kit uses thinner spacers (around 0.375 inch).

Once I put it all together; I took it for a short drive and immediately noticed two things... the steering was much tighter; no more bump steer; but it was also a bit too tight, as in binding. I am not sure if it is because the alignment is off now and needs adjusting or if it is because the spacers are too thick. I did take a look underneath the car at the tie rods and they looked pretty darn level/parallel to the ground.

Is 11/16 inch too thick?

That is a pretty thick spacer. I would check to make sure that none of the steering shaft or joints are dragging on anything. If I recall when I put spacers under my rack, some of the linkage was really close to rubbing. It's also possible that the joints are binding if you didn't loosen them and reposition them on the steering shafts.

Check the steering shaft is not rubbing anywhere and also loosen the universal joints in the column to let them readjust so there's no binding. Just be sure to retighten them again!

I will recheck but I did not see anything hitting or rubbing when I was under there last.

When I loosened the steering U-joint; I only loosened the side connecting the rack shaft and not the side connecting to the steering column (steering wheel) side. I also pried apart the u-joint to allow the shaft to move more easily. Should I have loosened both ends?

Here's all you wanted to know about bump steer and more:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=113405

How much has the car been lowered?

the only way to truly know how much bump steer you have is to use a bump steer gauge, which is probably not necessary unless you are racing or tracking the car. But you don't want massive bump steer

Hard to tell how much the car is lowered since it has a Chalon kit installed with big and low bumper. I have to measure it.

I did find where it was binding though... Right at the steering column u-joint. I initially only loosened the u-joint on the rack shaft side so the binding occurred because the shaft had shifted in towards the center of the u-joint and was hitting the joint/coupler on the steering wheel shaft side. Tonight I also loosened the bolt on the u-joint on the steering wheel side and the whole u-joint shifted up toward the steering wheel shaft and when this happened, it completely bound up the steering. I believe the spacers I installed are just too thick. I am hoping that when I install the correct thickness spacers, everything will go back in place and my bump steer will be gone or at least minimized.

the more the car is lowered the more bump steer correction it will need. thicker spacers would probably correct better than thinner, but then you get the binding that you've experienced. best way to do it is with one of these kits:
https://www.elephantracing.com/porsche/914/...bump-steer-kit/


when I was 17 I drove a 73 VW bug lowered 4" in the front. It had massive bump steer, although at the time I had no idea what it was

On my 70 I had a bump steer kit installed (car was lowered for AXing). I had Brad Mayeur shop do it while it was there for other work. I seem to remember him saying that these are a PITA because of the need to trim a little off the shaft so they don't bind. Now I could be wrong about that since this was over 10yrs ago. Maybe different size washers may help?

Update... I replaced the super thick spacers with spacers of around 3/8 inch thickness. Much better with no binding and most of the bump steer also went away.

I took the car over to our local Les Schwab Tire store on Saturday and had them do an alignment on the car. After explaining all of the 'nuances' of working with a V8 914 including discussion of bump steer and asking that perhaps the front ride height could be adjusted a bit to allow even less bump steer; I had him go at.

It took him almost an hour to finish and I asked him how it went. As he explained things; I automatically wondered if he even adjusted the camber or caster. I asked him if he opened the front hood (I forgot to explain to him where the release was located); he said he did not open the hood at all! I said well... how do you adjust the camber or caster without getting to the top of the strut? After a while of discussing this with him; I started thinking this tech had no idea how to adjust the caster/camber on my car. He adjusted the front toe... all for 'only' $80.00.

Check out the read out sheet. Should I go back or go else where?

Click to view attachment

if it was me personally, I'd leave it as is. The toe is the most critical to tire wear and yours is within spec. The camber is a bit more negative than spec but that's probably from lowering the car. Unless you have adjustable front camber plates you may not be able to get the F camber in spec.

R camber you can fix with shims. But it's still not too bad