79 malibu, more steering angle
- Thread starter tommi3520
- Start date
When sliding and drifting, drifting the roundabouts i somtimes spun the car full 180 degrees because the oversteer got to deep for the steering angle to handle. But we all know that problem with old american cars the try do drift a simple dognut but always oversteer and spin out, but more factors are there.
I had a pretty good time playing in my orginal malibu (replaced the steering box tho out of 86 camaro.... 3,5 steering wheel circles with original box went down to 2,5 circles with camaro box).
With this kit
and a rear sway bar and as many new poly bushings as i can i expect much better handling and more horsing around, but more steering angle would also give me more control. that spin out is always a let down, plus you get a deeper and more stylish slide/drift.
I had a pretty good time playing in my orginal malibu (replaced the steering box tho out of 86 camaro.... 3,5 steering wheel circles with original box went down to 2,5 circles with camaro box).
With this kit
and a rear sway bar and as many new poly bushings as i can i expect much better handling and more horsing around, but more steering angle would also give me more control. that spin out is always a let down, plus you get a deeper and more stylish slide/drift.
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I found this text and might have this in mind when i start looking under my car with the idea of more angle.
"to effectively increase the range of steering angle based on the stock thirdgen design, one would want to lengthen the pitman/idler arms while shortening the length of the spindle's tie rod mount (what z28evans has done) as much as clearances will permit.
Here is something I threw together using paint.. It's very rough, and lengths are exaggerated for demonstration purposes. I also apologize for the size; Photobucket resized it to a terribly small size, and at this time I'm willing to settle with this. The view of these diagrams is similar to the picture above; you are looking straight up from the bottom of the car, with the car facing the same way as the one in the picture. Consider camber and caster to be set at 0 degrees in my example.
Red signifies the stock lengths while blue represents post modification.
Given the same angular sweep, a longer pitman arm allows more lateral travel of the centerlink, therefore adding to the steering angle at full lock. Shortening the spindle adds to the steering angle since a mounting point closer to the axis of rotation must revolve about that axis more, given the same lateral travel of the tie rod. In the diagram, the circles signify the axis of rotation, and the other end of the colored lines are the front of the spindle, where the steering linkage connects with the spindle (closest to the front of the car).
Ofcourse, expanding the steering angle at full lock won't do squat if you run into clearance issues with the steering/suspension components or with the tires rubbing. At that point, measures to regain clearance of the components are necessary, and as mentioned above, it would be more desireable to have the wheels pushed outward"
90firebird
"to effectively increase the range of steering angle based on the stock thirdgen design, one would want to lengthen the pitman/idler arms while shortening the length of the spindle's tie rod mount (what z28evans has done) as much as clearances will permit.
Here is something I threw together using paint.. It's very rough, and lengths are exaggerated for demonstration purposes. I also apologize for the size; Photobucket resized it to a terribly small size, and at this time I'm willing to settle with this. The view of these diagrams is similar to the picture above; you are looking straight up from the bottom of the car, with the car facing the same way as the one in the picture. Consider camber and caster to be set at 0 degrees in my example.
Red signifies the stock lengths while blue represents post modification.
Given the same angular sweep, a longer pitman arm allows more lateral travel of the centerlink, therefore adding to the steering angle at full lock. Shortening the spindle adds to the steering angle since a mounting point closer to the axis of rotation must revolve about that axis more, given the same lateral travel of the tie rod. In the diagram, the circles signify the axis of rotation, and the other end of the colored lines are the front of the spindle, where the steering linkage connects with the spindle (closest to the front of the car).
Ofcourse, expanding the steering angle at full lock won't do squat if you run into clearance issues with the steering/suspension components or with the tires rubbing. At that point, measures to regain clearance of the components are necessary, and as mentioned above, it would be more desireable to have the wheels pushed outward"
90firebird
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Be careful what you ask for. Spinning out is often caused by too much steering angle when the driver counter steers during a slide. it allows the car to continue to rotate on it's axis if there's too much throttle being used & around it goes. The car is mostly "steered" by throttle when it's sideways. I realize drift cars need more steering angle to get deeper angles of slide, but I'm just saying improving technique is usually more important than throwing all kinds of chassis changes at the car.
Tommy
Tommy
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