Amazon: suspension angles/geometry

[ciderman]

hi
what suspension angles do you recommend-? I have an estate car so light to drive that over 50mph is dangerous, you can steer with one finger and I'm on 195/65 -15 tyres at 24 psi at front 28 rear. it is supposed to be in spec but the angles are tiny compared to modern cars- I have asked the vehicle inspectors at the annual MOT test to find any play in bushes- they can find none.
help
steve- I have had car 22 years by the way. and I have had this trouble for about 5 years.

[swedishandgerman]

I'm surprised to hear there is no play in any of the bushes, but there are a few that I would most definitely recommend changing prior to making any adjustments. I make this recommendation not because of wear, but they go brittle and don't do their job properly!

Firstly and most importantly, the upper control arm bushes (upper wishbone). From inside the bonnet, you can look down to them and where they are located, particularly the ones next to the hot exhaust manifold - means they turn to brittle old nothingness in very little time. Their purpose is to control the camber of the front wheels and when bad, the front wheel camber changes too easily giving a vague feeling and quite sensitive to going off straight ahead with undulations in the road. If the camber is wrong, you will be able to set the toe correctly in the straight ahead position, but it's likely to be wrong once you turn the steering wheel! If you can be bothered, looked up the Ackerman angle.

Doing a bit of advertising for our man Dai on this forum, these are the best out there as they are the same hardness as the standard rubber ones, but being polyurethane last well:

http://www.classicswede.co.uk/Top_Wi..._11087428.aspx

Once you've done that I recommend camber at 0 degrees, but some prefer 0.5 degrees negative. You should sort your camber out prior to doing the toe which should be 0 - 2mm toe in. Mine is at 0.

At the back, the estate rubber bricks as I call them last OK, but not indefinitely and neither do any of the little trailing arm bushes or control arm bushes. The trailing arm bushes, if worn, can give some affect on straight ahead vagueness, but not a lot. The control arms are more to do with rotational stability of the axle, so if bad they just make it noisy back there. However, the Panhord Rod bushes do not last and they wear oval shaped. Once oval, they allow are certain amount of side to side movement of the whole back axle. They're cheap and I'd just change them.

You can't adjust the toe on the back axle or any other angles.

[arcturus]

On this subject, just how good are gauges like these.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...gauge&_sacat=0

[davidw6092]

To be of any use the car needs to be on a level patch of ground.In my old workshop (which was by no means level)I would mark where the car was sat,remove the car,and then check the level of floor with a long steel beam and a spirit level.I usually levelled it up by using old Perspex number plates to shim the floor level,and the roll the car back onto them.Took some time but at least I knew where I was starting from!