Nicole

Had the car aligned yesterday at DEVEK's new Hayward facility. The technician took a lot of time to make sure everything is perfect.

Turns out the steering wheel was one tooth off when he centered the rack, and a few settings were not ideal for my kind of driving, or out of spec (which explains the wear on the inner front tires).

I drove away and could not believe how well the steering felt. The car now tracks perfectly straight, and the steering wheel is perfectly straight also.

I'm soo happy!!!

danglerb

Sometimes until its fixed you don't know how nice it will be.

Joe '87 S4

I know what you mean. Every time I pick up my car from Devek, I e-mail Susan the next day and say "So that's how the car is supposed to run.." I've done it 4 or 5 different times now - after, new shocks, motor mounts, tuneup, alignment, etc.

dr bob

Nicole--

Did you do anything with ride height before the alignment?

It would be interesting to see the 'before' and 'after' numbers from the machine printout. Can you post those?

Nicole

We did not change the ride height. The car is slightly too low both in front and back - maybe 10mm each. But since it was corner balanced at some time I did not want to touch the ride height.

Ed Hughes

I know what you mean....it is cause for celebration when you get a good alignment. It defintely makes a huge difference in your enjoyment.

That reminds me......I need to get around to putting new steering rack bushings in.

hacker-pschorr

Well hot damn Nicole, it's about time someone set you straight

Nicole

Yeah, I guess so...

SeanR

I want to get mine done, but no one has been able to suggest a decent place around here to get it done.

I don't think Sears is going to pass the test.

borland

Nicloe,

Hate to spoil the party. Inspite of the expert skills of DEVEK, your car could still be "out of alignment".

There are markings for installing the steering wheel, so it's likely the steering rack was reinstall with the coupler misaligned.

Even with if the steering wheel runs straight, and the car drives a straight line, the wheels could still be out of alignment with the specifications. The DEVEK alignment machine could be out of calibration or improperly calibrated. Your tire wear will be the best indicator of alignment.

Also, they shouldn't be aligning the car with the ride height out of spec.

borland

Ed Hughes

Sean-5th Gear is good. Rick knows what he's doing, I had mine checked there after I got it, and they knew all the special needs about not raising, etc.

Please get rid of that Avatar.

Ed Hughes

Nothing like raining on a parade.

SeanR

I didn't see that Rick had the equipment to do it there. Great if he does, I owe him for the help he gave me in the past. maybe this time he will let me pay him.


What avatar?

Bill Ball

Nicole's car may not be out of spec. The numbers quoted vary depending on where you read in the WSM and tech books. I've quoted them incorrectly recently and no one corrected me. I thought the front was 190-20 (i.e, 170 lowest), which would put almost all 928s I've ever seen out of spec. The spec was updated to:

Front 180 +/- 20, which gives a range of 160 to 200 mm, but there is a comment that an additional 10mm drop is allowed in other than new cars, so 150 is the minimum spec. I think Nicole is over that, if not 160, although at 160+, the front LOOKS real high, with 3-4 fingers between the tires and fender lip with correct tires. 180 would look like an off-roader, I would think. I've seen people make deriding comments about cars pictured here that were probably right on the 180 spec. The rear spec is 173 +/- 10, or 163 to 183, but with the same 10mm drop allowance with age; so, 153 minimum.

These numbers come from a replacement WSM page 44-05 printed in 93. It's unclear to me why 190 - 20 was apparently OK for 15 years or even if it was as the prior page in the manual is from 92.

Nicole

Here is some history on this:

When I got the car, it was probably as low as it could get. Even worse - one corner was lowered by another 20mm (which I did nto realize until Marc Thomas pointed it out to me one day).

So, I had the ride height adjusted to what we considered a good compromise, and the car was corner balanced and aligned properly. It was a difference like day and night. The car tracked straight and handled beautifully.

Then the steering rack went bad - it leaked like crazy. Bill and I put a ZF rack in, that was 1/2 tooth off on the steering wheel. We tried to figure out how to make this all work, and probably left the steering wheel one tooth off.

Then it turned out this ZF rack did not provide the power assist of the 91 and newer models, so we swapped it with a Porsche rebuilt rack. This rack had the right toothing, and between us and the shop that aligned it, we got the steering wheel straight. I never knew it was one tooth off and the rack was far off center. I never noticed anything wrong - until now that it's right.

The technician at DEVEK did center the rack as specified in the WSM, did the alignment, and then moved the steering wheel by that one tooth. It came out absolutely straight, and the car tracks better than in a long time.

It'll be interesting what it does when I replace the fron ttires in a few weeks...