What's wrong with the steering? Wheel clocking or other?

Other..... *Hint* the problem is sitting aft of the wheel.:slingshot:

#welp

:tv_happy:

Thanks Lenie! I'll be doing lots of NorCal stuff and hopefully you can come on down :thumbsup:

Yep Vin, that's what I was calling you about. It's a combo-cluster of steering stops, tie rod adjustment and PS resi to cooler height. I'll get it fixed!

Yep OBWK, it's that wing nut behind the wheel :D

C5 spindles....make an adjustable steering stop. easy, unless your steering arms are hitting, then not so easy.

Front steer so if your wheel is left 1/8" and steers straight...mark your tie rod sleeve with white out....make the left 1/2 turn longer, make the right side 1/2 turn shorter. Fine tune it but do not change the difference in relation to each other. You are going straight. Easy, if you take your time and remember what you do.

Cooler is on the return right? Are you getting aeration? Ideally, the reservoir should be the highest point to trap and release air. Are you certain the hoses are on correctly. Matt can attest to that.

I don't see what the problem is Ron, steer by rear, steer by rear :slingshot:

Is this thing on the road? :headscratch:

Bro that looks great!!!!

Back at BOS, somebody sneezed on it at the car show.

Doesn't that require a propeller? :tiptoe:

Thx man :thumbsup:

^ Brothers from another mother :ohsnap:

Found this on FB

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1ea4f9bc.jpg

Why would you need tools???

Lucky my cars not over there or it would FLY BY YOU. :Tomcat:

Thats a great FB pic Ron. Probly Fontana? Good Times :thumbsup:

I hear they make a pretty nifty air pressure gauge :D

Just like a Mazda? Zoom Zoom? :lol:

Thanks Gae! Where's the track vid from last weekend? :cheers:

Facebook - man you must be a close friend. How do I become facebook friends ?

Keep your dinner commitments? :headscratch: :D

It's the little things.

Ouch, but I didn't make it either and I'm FB friends with Ron :headspin: :poke:

But Marty did give us over 900 pictures of the power tour!! :thumbsup:

Not hard to do when you're dealing with "Pro Neutral" over here.... :headspin:

Uh, that would require a driveline. :sieg:

Um... from the pics posted recently Ron should certainly have a driveline. :sieg: :sieg:

Feel better now Dave? :sieg: :D

I wish I would have taken more I missed the GM Monte Carlo which was bad ass. You should have seen that thing cruising down the road - Wow it's as impressive as the new z28

I go on a little road trip..... And miss so much!! When did Dave get a driveline? And why so early in the build??




Is DP still running? It's been a week or so? I did see Dick at the roadster show but forgot to ask him. LOL

Awesome pics Marty!

Nope. Still in the jackstand class. :underchair:

Yep, still running. Almost time for a teardown and rebuild though :lol:

So I was yapping with Matt on the phone Saturday night and he asked if I wanted to join him at Fontana for the Hotchkis NMCA AutoX. There's so much to do on the car before I start running on the track I turned him down and hung up a few minutes later.

I thought about that for about two minutes and dialed him back and said I'll seeya there! What could go wrong? :lol:

We met up at about 8:am and set up. The PS steering assist was still very erratic, along with being notchy and slow to respond so we jacked up the car, unbolted the cooler and pulled a bunch of parts out of the way to get it to lay sideways and zip tied it to the core support and sub. We then yanked out 5 degrees of steering stops and called it good.

Sidebar - Fontana was rocking today. Exotic cars in one section, sports cars running the big track, karts on another and drag racing plus our AutoX. Pure awesome. The NMCA racer crowd is loaded with very cool people and the Hotchkis hosts couldn't be more accommodating.

Anyway, we finished wrenching about the time the drivers meeting started. Then they launched the run groups. Matt was a co-driver for a few sessions in a different run group and we tried to tune as we went.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps98c2330f.jpg

The course was pretty technical for the first 3/4 with a slalom and chicago box right before the finish line. I found the car to be very touchy on the throttle and real tight. I had spoken to Ron Sutton the night before and he gave me a few tips and a shock tuning guide. Then right after lunch Ron gave me a call for some refinement tips. Thanks Ron, you're the man!

As far as results, I learned a bunch today. First, AutoX is a tough sport, Second, I suck at it (four DNFs?). Third, Matt is very good! Matt's third run in both my and his car put him in third place for most if not the whole day (two diff classes). Matt sacrificed his track improvement runs to help with my car. If I didn't say it enough, thanks again Matt! :cheers: Also, the car and driver have a long way to go but it'll get there. I ended up taking about four seconds off my time during the day and about two seconds behind Matt (35.8 vs, 37.6), which is a mile in AutoX. Oh, and I see the merits of a quicker rack and 15" steering wheel.



All in all a great day. Probably the second most fun thing you can do in your car! :D

Cool Beans Ron :gitrdun:

Ron,

Not exactly the kill story we've been led to believe would be forthcoming, but all in all it was a good first test 'for us'.


:ohsnap:


...the Rontourage got a little too 'involved'.


:tiptoe:

And another conehead is born!!

Be careful Ron, it is addicting... Glad to see you made it out and are driving the car like it was built to be driven.

That's awesome Ron. Just remember, all the wrenching now is making it better, not making it a car! :)

Good decision Ron :thumbsup:

Answer the question.... did the zip ties help with the notchy steering issue...



Did you find the car pushing or oversteering? And were you able to dial it differently?


Matt changes or rebuilds his motors after every autoX - will you get more than one weekend out of yours?

Thx JD!

It is an addiction. So fun Lance! :thumbsup:

I know Chad! The car part lasted 300 miles. Now it's zip ties and car parts in my travel bag (the tool box was full, lol).

Thx Scotty. I couldn't resist! :D

Cool!

I'm glad you were able to get it out and run it through it's paces a bit!

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...ehead_PVZA.jpg

Sort of. Notchy did not go away. It made the steering more PS assisted, but it still would fluctuate which is very frustrating, and on a big track not safe.

The way I'd describe it is you'd go into a turn, it was heavy than light or vice-versa. Then the car would be slow to turn, all the while moving forward/more tuning notes below, then it would react and sometimes SNAP and then I was left over correcting. It was very frustrating, but it's fresh and needs major sorting.

Plowed like a MF'r. Snap over steer above and springs were too light in the rear so it squatted with little throttle input and lifted front wheel weight bias. Early in the day it just skating all over the place. We made three shock adjustments before lunch (maybe went the wrong way once) and disconnected the rear bar. One adjustment after which made the car steer better; by that I mean we dialed out traction in the rear so the front could do its job. Then the problem was it plowed to the point that the tire was rolling over on itself and really not steering. There was no trail braking on this course or with this set up.

Honestly, we could armchair quarterback the day for hours but really the car (and then my driving) needs sorting. Most new builds do.


Well, at least the motor survived. That was the strongest thing going yesterday. :D


Quick story: there were lots of SCCA people there yesterday. One gal was named Rita. Rita has a C5, maroon paint and factory chrome wheels. She looks like your great aunt that's 15 years past retirement. She asked me to adjust her tire pressure between runs. I check her pressure and they're spot on for where she wanted them to be and she goes and busts out a 33.9. Next she has me take out 5lbs fr and 4 lbs rr. She pulls off a 33.4. Turns out she's been running SCCA for 40 years! (I could be wrong on the years, someone mentioned it)

I remember when BBalls was fresh and Mary drove it @ RTTC. It had a major push and they disconnected the rear bar, only to have mediocre results for the day.

Matt's been AutoX'ing his car for almost five years and gets almost as much seat time as anyone (almost). You look at all the top dogs and they're what, 10, 20 or 40 (Rita) years into it. That's a lot of seat and car set up time.

:drive:

#1 question.

Did you have fun? Who gives a sh!t about the rest of it. You learn - you try - sometimes you cry... at the end of the day if you can't remember what you did except that it was a blast... PERFECTION.


I've been saying for a very long time - but nobody listens to me..... Have one of the top drivers run your car thru 3 times.... That time is what you strive for if you do absolutely NOTHING to the car.... just fix the driver. When you get near their time -- now you start to tweak the car with some pro input.

Obviously this is a big picture look/statement. But if the car doesn't change and a good driver rips off 5 or 6 seconds faster than you're running... then there is 5 or 6 seconds in your driving that needs "work" if you do nothing to the car. The car might be a total piece of crap -- doesn't matter -- driving IT properly for the way it's set up is worth 5 or 6 seconds.

Of course getting it somewhere driving decently will also help you learn to be better.... so I'm not discounting the car set up. It's just interesting "bar" to set with a good driver at the wheel to see where you are at versus what's possible doing nothing at all. And they might get out of the car and tell you to do X. Just remember that X is for their driving style and not the guy parked two rows over that is just as fast but likes his car set up differently. Mike likes loose - Brian loves tight... I'd like to be able to drive anywhere within 10 seconds of either one. LOL

The power steering issue I'd be looking at -- belt slippage.... or air entrapment...

mmmmmm..... "Entrapment".....

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iulVRvThLD...s-butt-ass.jpg

That sounds like a full day Ron. :thumbsup:

Nice you have a job you can go back to and get some rest.


:D