Selene is about to get some new shoes – I have finally found some 185/55r14 tires that are decent enough by Accelera. They get horrid wet-weather reviews, so we’ll see, however they should provide the fitment I’ve been chasing for years. But first! We must tame this beast.
She’s a sassy. Difficult to control. I know that she should be way more well behaved than she is, so I’m diving deep in to suspension geometry to figure it out.
Despite her sassiness, the Stance coilover setup is actually handling quite well once it loads up and digs in. I can tell that once we tame the sassiness – she might just have the perfect, functional stance.
I’m contemplating this new tool I found – Gyralign – we’ll see what the shop has to say when i get the new tires installed. If they can’t get it dialed, I’ll give this tool a shot.
The condition is that the car fights you to start steering, but once she starts steering, she curves into the direction she’s going and you have to fight to return to center. The road pulls her all over the place, and she’s very unpredictable and unstable.
So far, this looks like it has to do with toe as well as the caster. If the alignment numbers check out – then I need to verify all steering pieces and bushings have no wear or damage.
My thinking is the toe is too far out right now, so I’m fighting the road to get into the corner. Once I’m get into the corner, the toe is all the way into the corner and then it just wants to keep going that way, having to fight to get it back to center. So I think it needs less toe. We’ll see what the alignment numbers say
Problems and factors I’m dealing with
1. Steering wheel play. Check:
- Fitting conditions of the rear center link ball joints
- Fitting condition of the center link ball joints
- looseness of the idle arm bushes
- looseness of the wheel bearing
- Backlash between the sector shaft and ball nut
2. Steering way too stiff.
- Align Toe-in
- Loosening steering gear adjuster
- Lubricate steering gear (replace caps with breathers if this fixes it, OR loop the lines)
3. Steering pulls side to side, wanders around the road.
- Check steering ball joints
- Double check wheel bearings
- Toe-in
4. Hard to start a turn, then it DIVES in and its hard to counter-steer
- check linkages and joints for damage
- preload of steering gear
- Toe-in
5. Steering wheel does not return to center.
Toe
I think the toe is too far out. I’m fighting to get the car to start turning, and then once it turns, I’m fighting to get it to return to center.
- Too much toe-out results in steering wheel not returning to center
- Car feels unstable or twitchy, especially at speed
Caster
- Loose or wandering steering; the car may not track straight and require constant correction.
- Difficulty returning to center after a turn.
- Reduced stability at higher speeds.
Factory Service manual – 10A-3 alignment specs
Steering wheel free play: 5 ~ 20 mm (0.2 ~0.8 in)
Maximum steering:
- inside:
- 39° 40’ ∓ 2°
- outside:
- 32° 14’ ∓ 2°
Wheel alignment:
- Toe-in:
- 3 ∓ 3mm (0.12 ∓ 0.12 in)
- Camber angle:
- 1° 00 ∓ 30’
- 0° 35’ ∓ 30’
- Caster angle
- Right-hand side: 4° 10’ ∓ 30’
- Left-hand side: 3° 40’ ∓ 30’
- King-pin inclined angle
- 10° 44’
- 11° 20’
- Trail 20 mm (0.79 in)
First update
7/22/2025
I backed off the steering box adjuster, and it drives infinitely better. I had it way over tightened. However, there’s still more play than I would like in the steering box, so I’d like to figure out a way to seek out a newer steering box. They are no longer available, so this could be an impossible quest.
I checked the wheel bearings for play by grabbing the wheels on the top and bottom and trying to rock it torquely. There’s a little bit of play on both sides, so I definitely need to tighten that up.
Now I’m looking at my tie rod ends, and I think that replacing those bushings is going to be the next best course of action. Failing that, if I need to replace the control arms entirely, I have several options, but none of them are cheap, including Techno Toy Tuning as well as Atkins Rotary Adjustable Control Arms.
