[DeTomaso] Has anyone used Marino's Offset Front Bushings toIncrease Cast

JDeRyke at aol.com JDeRyke at aol.com
Wed Mar 10 14:41:04 EST 2010


In a message dated 3/10/10 9:11:52 AM, teampantera at yahoo.com writes:

> I keep hearing about 'increased steering effort' but at 5.5 degrees I 
> don't see much increased in traffic or parking difference over 2+. 
> 
In vehicle steering systems, when the car is turned you actually lift the 
whole front of the car a few thousandths of an inch. If you have more caster, 
the height you must lift the weight is more. This weight aids the 
self-centering effect and is valuable at high speeds. Most drivers nowadays are used 
to one-finger power steering and thus the extra weight in a Pantera with 
extra caster is noticable. Whether this bothers a driver depends on whether 
they -A- have corrected the bad scrub radius of the stock 7" front wheels, and 
-B- are not very strong. Going above 'some speed', the amount lifted is more 
gradual for a given turn thus less apparent. 
Worst example of caster is a road grader: they run about 15 degrees caster 
and when those things turn 90 degrees, the tires lay over almost onto their 
sidewalls. To compensate, the steering ratio is VERY slow so the weight 
lifted with the steering wheel is not overpowering. Chopper motorcycles with 
raked-out forks are another; some extreme bikes will lay over the tire so far 
they scuff the rim edge in a sharp turn.

Generally, the wider the front tires, the more caster a car needs to 
prevent tram-lining and 'hunting'. The stock Pantera's 2.5 or so degrees worked 
fine when the cars had 185-70 x 15 front tires. FWIW- J DeRyke



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