Mark II steering/tie rod adjustment

[MarkIIRx12]

Hi

I have change the outer tie rods on my mark II, but now i cant get the steering normal again.

i have measured the distance between the front wheels, on the back and front of the rims, and adjusted the tie rod ends so the distance between the front and rear of the rim is exactly the same. I guess the distance between front and read of the rim probably shouldnt be exactly the same, since the car now is a real bitch to drive, its ok when drive straight forward, but its over sensitive on the sterringwheel when turning even a tiny bit, and it shoots to the side when touching the steeringwheel.

does anyone have any thoughts about this, or know what the distance should be?

i have checked all the other ball joints and tie rods, and thats all fine.

Thanks for all ur help

[clancey]

Hi,

Generally when I've replaced tie rod ends I've marked the thread on the tie rod rather than measure the distances between the wheels. As you've described is extremely had to align the wheels together with the central steering wheel position without the proper equipment (Not that this really helps you now).

I've always had a wheel alignment done straight after replacement anyway, keeping the tie rod ends in approximately the same position just makes it easier to get to the shop.

Cheers

Clancey

[MarkIIRx12]

Thanks for ur answer

Yes i use the same method too, measure and mark the tie rod before i take it off, but this time the steering was strange so i started adjusting it, before i found out the other end had to be replaced too, so i messed it up.

the tool i borrowed to measure the distance between the front and rear of each wheel should be good enough to get the steering correct, but since im not sure what is the correct distance between front and rear that really doesnt help much either.

anyone have a shop manual or something where it says the distance on some kinda car? of course the distance on a mark II would be best, but something is better than nothing

[clancey]

I believe the factory settings is to have between 1-3mm of toe in, they don't specify exact measurements between the wheels for obvious reasons.

Cheers

Clancey

[MarkIIRx12]

thanks, i will give that a try.

toe in? my english isnt so good so im not sure what that means, what end of the rim should have the smallest distance?

[Dale]

You mark the thread on the tie rod with some white out before screwing the tie rod end off, that way the new ones are pretty damn close still needs an alignment after none the less

[andurils_sheath]

The distance between the front of the rims should be 1-3mm smaller than the distance between the back of the rims. If youre running wide tyres id say 3 is better than 1.

ie in front
.....__x-3 _
..../ /......\ \
../_/__x _\_\

to rear of car

my drawing is crap but maybe you get the idea.

thanks, i will give that a try.

toe in? my english isnt so good so im not sure what that means, what end of the rim should have the smallest distance?

[MarkIIRx12]

thanks again

I adjusted it with approx 2mm shorter distance on front, and it got pretty good to drive now. of some reason the car still wanna go a little to the left, so i guess i will do an wheel alignment soon to get it perfect.

thanks for all ur help

[clancey]

Nicely done andurils_sheath, I couldn't have put it better myself.

A bit of rep is always a nice way to say thanks

[NoRecall]

You will have trouble getting it to be perfect.
Both mk2's i have owned have allways had a slight stear-to-the-left sindrome. As far as i knew it was designed like that so if you fell asleep at the wheel there was less of a chance of you vearing into oncoming traffic.... but i could be wrong. However a tyre place i took it to still couldnt get the slight left steer out of it with a eletronic aligner.