Oddjob

How are you measuring toe? 0.4 deg or 0.04 toe out per side? I am not sure 0.4 deg is even possible. Amount of negative camber will limit the amount of toe-in that can be adjusted, but never have seen anything close to 0.4 deg toe-out, even with max'd out neg camber.

Volhv_944

Here's a couple of alignment sheets.

Oddjob

I am amazed by 1.4 deg toe. In your initial picture, with the tailing arm bolt near the middle of the adjustment slot on the spring plate, what was the toe angle at that point?

Since those printouts are apparently from two different alignment racks, its probably not a rack calibration problem or head install error. So either the adjustments are being made in the wrong direction, or there is something put together wrong in the rear end. Has the rear suspension been dropped before?

The car must be unstable driving even in a straight line; it must be nearly dangerous when braking.

Volhv_944

Yeah, different machines. As I said, it's pretty messed.
When I had the 1.39, it was maxed out in the toe out position. Now maxing it out in the toe in position it's 0.4. And as for the other side, I tried making it even.

It drives OK now, believe it or not... if it's super wet, the rear end will hydroplane, but it sticks well in the dry. It was pretty twitchy before.

Not sure if the suspension was dropped.... but something most definitely got messed. Looked at the torsion bar carrier/tube, and all looks straight. The ears that the control arms bolt to, aren't bent, and I don't see anything wrong with the control arms either.

I guess we'll see what happens when I lower the rear ride height. Hopefully I can do it all from the eccentric bolt, and not have to mess with the torsion bar reindexing.

Van

With a die grinder and a bur tool, you could elongate the slots to the front of the car and get a little bit more movement. But, I have a hunch, if you lower the car some you'll get more tow-in.

Volhv_944

I hope it won't come to that, but I will do it I'd needed. My concern is that longer slots will be pointless, because the spring plate might bottom out on the trailing arm. But as it was suggested before, I can try smaller bolts first.

944Ross

These are from the FSM, with respect to rear height

t3rra

A bent rear arm could be your cause. Don't have to be by much mite not even see it. Raise the car and let it dropped. Then eye the rear damper pin angle to the other side.

Be interested in if making more adjustment would keep with the tracking

Volhv_944

I'll take another look, but i doubt they are bent.
The cast aluminum would crack before bending.
I did take a few measurements to establish symmetry, and they seem fine, but I can give them a more in depth inspection.
Unfortunately my driveway is gravel/dirt, so it's a bit hard to get a flat even surface... i need to get creative with concrete blocks.

Volhv_944

Not sure how I missed it, I guess I was more focused on the trailing arm.
The mounting era on the torsion bar carrier is bent allowing the trailing arm attachment to sit more fwd than it should, causing my excessive toe out.


I guess the PO must bave impacted a wheel. The car did not come with original wheels... it had 16" phonedials on a NA.

Anyone ever bend these ears back in place with success?

Sysgen

I was having toe out issues also and my mechanic resorted to elongate those holes to give me more toe adjustment, still not perfect though. His theory is that overtime my trailing arms have bent somehow.

Yours might be the same.

Van

I've seen bent mounting ears like the pic when a car has a hard impact with something, like a guard rail.

Volhv_944

Elongating the holes on the ears would do the trick, as would elongating the holes in the spring plate. Will try and bend that ear back first. I think it should hold, as it's steel, and if anything, it will just work harden a bit. (unless it cracks, but that's doubtful)

As for the trailing arms bending, I don't believe that. They are cast aluminum and hollow... cracking is the only thing they could do. Now, if they were early steel arms, yes, bending is very likely.

The best solution would be an entire torsion bar carrier swap, but that's a lot more involved, than I wish to do right now. putting some new spring plate bushings in, would be a bonus though. As it's a street car, any opinions on the elephant rubber bushings?

Volhv_944

UPDATE

The torsion bar carrier was bowed. Probably due to an impact to the right rear wheel. That probably broke the trailing arm and wheel. They must have been replaced, but nothing was done about the torsion bar carrier.

I put a used good one in, and replaced the spring plate bushings. Got an alignment, and all is good now.

The ride height was set to a the way high on the original spring plates.... maybe an attempt to align it during its previous posession...

Looking forward to my stock ride height and even tire wear.

Tiger03447

Glad that you found and corrected the problem...no more worries now. Keep us posted on further developments! Liked the pics! thanks