Sterring wheel goes to left

[Chriss55]

Hi guys just wondering if that could be the camber angle. When let go My steering wheel it puls slightly to left and car goes left ive got to keep it straight to go in straight line. Does anyone know anyone doing full wheel geometry around Lancashire as ats euromaster and other tyre places can only adjust wheel alligment. Just wondering if its the camber angle

 

[Blobcat]

Swop the front wheels over, see if that makes a difference first - cheap fix if it corrects it

 

[Chriss55]

Done it mate not helping also ive changed the tyres now had some issues with other ones as car was shaking because of defective tyre

 

[mattkh]

Hi guys just wondering if that could be the camber angle. When let go My steering wheel it puls slightly to left and car goes left ive got to keep it straight to go in straight line.Does anyone know anyone doing full wheel geometry around Lancashire as ats euromaster and other tyre places can only adjust wheel alligment. Just wondering if its the camber angle

What road have you tested it on, and which lane..?
Has it always done it..?
Any idea of how much it pulls to the left, I guess the best answer should be in degrees or clock time.

 

[WDB124066]

All else being proper, at the front,

Increase: Castor angle on the left and the amount of -ve camber angle on the left.
Decrease: Castor angle on the right and the amount of -ve camber angle on the right.

Camber differential max 1 degree, caster differential max 1.5 degrees. Come back on here if it takes more than that.

Michelins like to be perpendicular, they are not fans of excess -ve camber AT ALL, so be careful not to dial up too much -ve camber on the left - rather go for a near perpendicular -ve camber angle on the right, something way less than 1 degree - even as low as 1/2 a degree if you have to - no problem.

If you run out of adjustment range; Daimler do bits that increase the adjustment range - get them, fit them and try again.

If anybody disagrees - leave them to themselves. Most people have no idea what it takes - I had to teach myself, and I am ever so pleased I did. Not many will share their knowledge and that pi88es me off terribly.

 

[daveenty]

Hi guys just wondering if that could be the camber angle. When let go My steering wheel it puls slightly to left and car goes left ive got to keep it straight to go in straight line. Does anyone know anyone doing full wheel geometry around Lancashire as ats euromaster and other tyre places can only adjust wheel alligment. Just wondering if its the camber angle

Nigel Lang's Garage in Bolton are the go-to specialists for most round here on all things steering related. As you infer, several places have the alignment tools but there are not too many who know how to use them. Lang's have a Hunter machine and a really good tech guy. He spent a good hour and a half on my 190E and it came out perfect.

 

[mattkh]

Michelins like to be perpendicular, they are not fans of excess -ve camber AT ALL,

Thank you , I have a learnt a lot from this.
Do you know if the tyre manufacturers give this piece of information..? Is it a case of trial and error.

 

[WDB124066]

You are welcome. Call them in the UK. I am in NZL and have spoken with the Michelin rep here. He said what I said, and told me to go look at a LMP 1 car @ Le Mans... I did, and I set my car up this way. Talk with your tyre rep, but a real one, not some salesman, but the tech. rep. in your country. You will learn a heck of a lot - hopefully.

 

[Chriss55]

Am booked with ball joint centre in Liverpool for full wheel geometry dont really know if my car got camber adjusment bolts. Apparently they are very good with all the geometry and stuff

 

[mattkh]

How far away from you..?

 

[LostKiwi]

When I was racing in NZ we set up our minis line that. Near zero camber and 9 degrees castor.
Standard car was +1 positive and three degrees castor. Most other competition minis were set -1° camber and 3 degrees castor. We found increased castor made a huge difference in cornering speed on minis.

As above castor change will sort it.
MBs are factory set for driving on the right hand side of the road so are set to pull slightly left to counter the road camber. Of course for driving on the left they always want to pull left.

The best place to get this sorted is Wheels in Motion in Buckinghamshire. Not cheap but they really know what they are doing and have camber bolts in stock so you won't have to go away and come back.

 

[ThinkPad]

Every used MB I have bought...first thing I do is to take it to WIM in Chesham...they sort it out and make it right. Including that characteristic pull to the left. A few years ago, they were highly recommended on this forum. I am sure they still are, but have not been following a lot of threads recently.

A long drive for you, but it will be worth it. They keep necessary bolts in stock.

 

[WDB124066]

How good are Minis? This is an invites only meet. That is the Amco Mini, he was not invited back the following year so good was he that he pi88ed a lot of important rich people off with twice the number of cylinders from all over the planet!!!
Never ever discount a Mini - ever!

Look closely in the pits, what do you see in pit 1, 2 & 3. Ooooph!! It was a serious good fun meeting, with seriously fast cars.

 

[WDB124066]

Not a whole lot of -ve camber there is there matey...

amco mini - Google Search

www.google.com

Just keep an eye on that bloke Tony from WIM, I offered to fly him to NZL and back Business if he would have aligned my car here, he refused and refused to tell me how to do it too. Note all his posts on the net that I have read do not tell you much either they are largely an advertisement baffling people with info - not the key pieces of info they need to crack it either. That is disingenuous IMO. My alignment issue was partly caused by what I have described and partly caused by the toe out on turns not being correct, if you get stuck and you have a draglink type of steering on a Merc don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll do my best to guide you through what needs doing to correct it.

For the left pull, start with the castor split and only if this does not work try the camber split in addition, but do not set the camber split to work against the castor split. Be careful with camber split it takes little to produce quite some change in driving experience.

 

[00slk]

How good are Minis? This is an invites only meet. That is the Amco Mini, he was not invited back the following year so good was he that he pi88ed a lot of important rich people off with twice the number of cylinders from all over the planet!!!
Never ever discount a Mini - ever!

Look closely in the pits, what do you see in pit 1, 2 & 3. Ooooph!! It was a serious good fun meeting, with seriously fast cars.

View attachment 65813

Nice line up on the grid, Is it Hampton Downs?

 

[LostKiwi]

Not a whole lot of -ve camber there is there matey...

amco mini - Google Search

www.google.com

Just keep an eye on that bloke Tony from WIM, I offered to fly him to NZL and back Business if he would have aligned my car here, he refused and refused to tell me how to do it too. Note all his posts on the net that I have read do not tell you much either they are largely an advertisement baffling people with info - not the key pieces of info they need to crack it either. That is disingenuous IMO. My alignment issue was partly caused by what I have described and partly caused by the toe out on turns not being correct, if you get stuck and you have a draglink type of steering on a Merc don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll do my best to guide you through what needs doing to correct it.

For the left pull, start with the castor split and only if this does not work try the camber split in addition, but do not set the camber split to work against the castor split. Be careful with camber split it takes little to produce quite some change in driving experience.

I used to do loads with Dave Strong when he ran Mini Sevens. He also did the B&H series in a 'standard production' 1275GT clubman I built for him. That must be 1983 or so.
He was also into rallying and I did service crew for him when he ran factory supported Daihatsu Charades. This in amongst my own racing (mainly hillclimbs, sprints and rallies - again late 70s and early 80s).
Had loads of fun and used to spend most nights in the workshop building and repairing cars.
Happy days...

@00slk used to do a fair bit of Motorsport in NZ too - around the same period or slightly earlier than me.

 

[WDB124066]

I'm not on here with Dean Labrum am I...?

I haven't heard the name Dave Strong in a long time!

 

[WDB124066]

Nice line up on the grid, Is it Hampton Downs?

Yes it is! But before the extensions when Tony owned it.

Found a clip, covering several of their races over the weekend....

And here is a bonus clip for what came next, driven by the track owner at the time. Notice how he never gets out of third - and how fast the thing is on the straight before the start finish line. I have a still shot of the sister car coming at the camera [not across the camera] on a bright sunny moment that shows it as a blurr, you just can't get them any other way - in fact here it is here. Stunning machinery, so fast you just have to duck because you know if anything goes wrong you are not going to be saved by the fence. You can yell as loud as you like, nobody can hear you.

 

[LostKiwi]

I'm not on here with Dean Labrum am I...?

I haven't heard the name Dave Strong in a long time!

No not Dean.
Another name you may know is Dale Crossley. He was my best mate for a good many years but with distance band one thing and another we've drifted. Dale's parents and my stepmum live in the same retirement home.
Dale used to be Dave Strong's co- driver for the national series and Jeff Grove used to do internationals.
One more name from the past is Mike Bish from Hamilton. Serviced for him in one of the internationals - the last time a Mini won WRC points.

 

[WDB124066]

Mike Bish rings a bell and you have just reminded me if you would like to rescue the Heatway Rally winning minis I knew where they were about 20 years ago, and I think they still may be there in rural Taranaki NZL in a barn. Your call.... Last time I saw them they still had their stop clocks on the dash, both of them, TAGs, they were beautiful things, big needles and so on.... I'll pop in but the bloke who had them was a loner type radio ham dude, with some seriously high voltage calibration equipment that we used to calibrate our Pipeline holiday tester. Not sure if he'd still be 100% if you know what I mean, and I mean it nicely.

heatway rally 1972 - Google Search

www.google.com

Final results Heatway Int. Motor Rally 1972

eWRC results rally WRC rallye

www.ewrc-results.com

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...HzjgGHbstBPsQgIoDKAB6BAgCEAc&biw=1920&bih=969

Looks like one of them got sold...and restored. I'm getting curious now I know the one I sat in was the winner so I think I might go back and see the dude with the electrics one day when back in Te Naki.

Classic rally car restored

It has been a labour of love restoring a 41-year-old Mini with a big history.

www.odt.co.nz