Hi,

I just got my wheels aligned. The guy that did it said the rears were very
slightly toed out. There is no more adjustment left.

Can anyone tell me how that will effect the overall handling? I guess also I'd
like to know how tat will effect the tire wear. In reviewing other threads, most
keep the toe 0 to slightly toed in.

It's a 1.8 l, so no power, and no sway bars! I think the rest is stock.

Thanks,

Jeff

Not really sure myself. I'd imagine hammering around a turn would make it want to oversteer.

Having toe-out in the rears will make the car want to oversteer. When the rear gets a slip angle, it will keep trying to pull to that side. This is a "positive feedback" situation, and can get out of hand pretty easily. Toe-out will tend to make the tires wear more quickly on their inner edges, at least in conjunction with negative camber.

I would think it would be pretty tough to run out of adjustment room before you get to toe-in, though. Is your tub tweaked, or are the trailing arms beat to hell?

--DD

I don't know!! I am not even sure how bad it is!! I wouldn't be surprised if the tub
is bent, although there does not seem to be any visible damage to the car.

I am learning so much this time around!!! I had a car in the 70's, but never
learned half of what I have learned in the past two months! I'll find out more
tomorrow about the adjustments. I have to talk with the alignment shop anyway.
They lost one of my center caps while changing the tires!

Thanks,

Jeff

I had to modify several control arm pivot pieces to get proper toe in for some of the 914's I have worked on.

All it takes is two tweaked control arms or inner ears that have moved.

You have to round out the three holes in the pivot piece. and remove some material where the pivot piece wants to the hit the mounting area.

I'd show you in pics.. but I have none on this laptop.


B

I did exactly that on my car. Toe out can make it pretty squirrely around 100MPH. and under hard braking.

Slot the holes. and while you are at it. clean up all the gookand rust. put some white grease on the surfaces. Align it your self. Little bit of toe in. with all the wieght sitting on all 4 wheels. Put plastic trash bags under the rear tires so it moves easier. get a ratchet tie-down strap and loop it around the trailing arm pivot and attach hooks to the engine mount bar. crank it till you get what you want. Unless you got a lifetime warrantee have the guy do it again

Joe,

I am afraid I do not understand your procedure! How do you get the engine bar
to remain where you pull it to. Maybe I need to watch the alignment. I may have
learned a lot, but not all yet!

So far, the car feels okay. I doubt if I will ever get anywhere near 100 mph!
Maybe a little more "turn-in" feeling?? I DID lose my old car once, spun in a rotary
and to this day I hve no idea why. Not pushing it at all at the time. Sober too!!
It makes me skittish to this day!

Jeff

As Joe said, toe out in the rear is a bad thing, slightly squirely at high speed but reeeeaaaalllly squirely under very hard braking since the wheels are getting pulled towards the rear of the car due to the tires gripping.

One thing I found contributes to toe-out conditions is the outer trailing arm cup piece.

I modify the ones I have by rewelding the entire part and adding some additional welds. I found that those pieces can and do flex.

Some race cars have additional adjustable braces mounted to the cups to hold the toe setting (ask Brant for pics as I beilieve he said his car has them).

I first noticed this flexure while aligning our track car about 14-15 years ago and noticing that the cups looked goofy. I compared them to some I had laying around and they had "stretched". The cup portion had moved with respect to the three mounting bolt slots.

The trailing arm pivot shaft hole can and does move around given enough force. Rewelding those brackets helps to minimize the motion and adjustable braces can prevent motion at those locations.

I believe that once the inner "ear" is reinforced and braced forward, that this piece becomes the weak point in the rear suspension.


just my $0.02