[DeTomaso] Some tech analysis of Classic LeMans 08

Tomas Gunnarsson guson at home.se
Sun May 31 11:44:45 EDT 2009


The shims look kind of like a gasket for a two bolt tube flange, one large hole with two small holes on the sides in an overall elliptic shim. In Charlie's car one shim was "different" and slightly off in size. This doesn't affect function unless the mismatch is gross. Shims this thin could also easily be hand made using scissors.

Tomas
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Pike" <erpike at ymail.com>
To: "Charles McCall" <charlesmccall at gmail.com>; "Thomas Tornblom" <Thomas.Tornblom at hax.se>
Cc: <JDeRyke at aol.com>; <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 8:58 PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Some tech analysis of Classic LeMans 08


> Charles:
> 
> Did you run into any issues when you and Tomas adjusted the steering rack with shimms? One of the first things I wanted to do when I frist geto my car was to rebuild the steering rack. One of the vendor led me to believe that opening up the rack and trying to take the slop out of the wheel was like opening a can of worms and the the thing would never go back together. I settled for just replacing the bushing, but the rack is a little sloppy. Where the shimms anything specail?
> 
> Ed....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com>
> To: Thomas Tornblom <Thomas.Tornblom at hax.se>
> Cc: JDeRyke at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 5:21:40 AM
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Some tech analysis of Classic LeMans 08
> 
> Thomas - how tight is your steering rack?
> 
> I, too, installed the offset bushings and the improvement was rather slight.
> But I had always had a certain amount of slop in my steering rack.
> 
> Last summer Tomas helped me adjust it by installing and removing the shims,
> and we got 99% of the slop out. THAT transformed the ride. It was enough of
> a difference that amaya noticed it from the passenger seat. It turns out
> that a significant amount of the darting about was caused by the loose
> steering rack, allowing the wheels to turn a little to the left, then right,
> and back to the left. The ride is SIGNIFICANTLY different with a tight
> steering rack.
> 
> It still isn't as effort-free as an early car, but it is much, much better
> and has largely eliminated the "white knuckle" effect you describe.
> 
> On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 9:19 AM, Thomas Tornblom <Thomas.Tornblom at hax.se>wrote:
> 
>> JDeRyke at aol.com skrev:
>>
>> > Second, Patrick had some handling issues, which were resolved by
>> installing
>> > a set of Pat Michaels' front A-arms, and immediately dropped 20 seconds
>> per
>> > lap! With 7-minute lap times, this is enormous! Pat Michael's custom
>> a-arms
>> > build in a much larger amount of caster than is possible with stock
>> parts.
>> > I have been harping for years on the addition of at least SOME extra
>> caster
>> > in your street Panteras, especially if you run very wide front wheels and
>> > tires. You don't need to run 190 mph on twisty roads to feel the
>> benefits!
>>
>> Over the winter I installed Pantera Easts offset PU A-arm bushings,
>> which gives some more caster.
>>
>> I've heard a lot of good things about these, but I can't say I notice
>> any significant improvement. It is still a white knuckle ride, even
>> after checking the wheel alignment.
>>
>> I now have about 3° (3°03' left, 3°13' right) of caster. Unfortunately
>> the machine they used when I had it checked in 2000 was not
>> sophisticated enough to be able to check caster with the alignment
>> equipment hooked up on the front wheels.
>>
>> Checking the owners manual I see the nominal caster is 3°30' - 4°, so
>> even with these bushings I'm unable to get it to even the nominal spec.
>>
>> Offset A-arms might be a better choice.
>>
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