[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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