Defender wheel tracking

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Allyipod

Allyipod

Active Member
Posts
887
Location
NE of Glasgow 15 miles
Hi
So the landy is back on the road sort of. Took it to get tracked and got the following results. So wondered if some of you could look over these and give me some opptions as to what might be wrong..:confused:

It has a new chassis from Richards and all new bushes a frame ball joint etc.

landrover41.jpg


landrover4.jpg


landrover42.jpg


landrover43.jpg
 
Im no expert on tracking but with these figires the faults must be visible with the naked eye.

Was the chasis square to start with or were you sold a duff ?
 
You would be surprised just how out chassis can be from.the factory try cutting a range rover classic in half and shorten it lots out.
 
jai_landrover said:
You would be surprised just how out chassis can be from.the factory try cutting a range rover classic in half and shorten it lots out.
Click to expand...

Done a fair bit of welding on older cars that have been in a smash innerwinge etc and after they were checked most they were ever out was a couple of mm at most and that was doing it with a tape measure.

I never checked the new chassis just took it that it would have been made on a jig..
 
Front/Rear axle offset can be adjusted by means of the front panhard rod.
The rear axle lateral position is set by the A frame and not adjustable so all alignment is made by adjusting the front axle.

Front/rear axle set back (squareness to chassis) is determined by length of front hockey sticks and rear trailing arms and assuming they are straight can only be due to the welded brackets on the chassis being mis-aligned or the axle mounting tabs being wrong which is unlikely. It should be relatively easy to check the alignment of the brackets on the chassis with a set square and string across the chassis or even a large framing square. 9mm front and 23mm rear difference in the brackets should be clearly visible to the naked eye. The only way to fix that is to cut and re-weld. You could use spacers but should not have to and I would not be happy with the structural integrity of such important suspension components. Alternatively the chassis could be out of square but I would have expected to see the same amount of offset to both axles if that was the case.

The axle track width difference of 9mm is not enough to worry about and has nothing to do with the chassis. No two axles are ever exactly alike. Sometimes just cleaning the back face of the road wheels and the hub faces will bring you a few more milimetres into alignment.
 
Chassis might be ok< have you checked the front radius arms are straight ? and the rear trailling arms ? how are the bushes ?? How are the brackets on the axles are they square

could be something as simple as that, things bend worth a try
 
Shifty1962 said:
Front/Rear axle offset can be adjusted by means of the front panhard rod.
The rear axle lateral position is set by the A frame and not adjustable so all alignment is made by adjusting the front axle.

Front/rear axle set back (squareness to chassis) is determined by length of front hockey sticks and rear trailing arms and assuming they are straight can only be due to the welded brackets on the chassis being mis-aligned or the axle mounting tabs being wrong which is unlikely. It should be relatively easy to check the alignment of the brackets on the chassis with a set square and string across the chassis or even a large framing square. 9mm front and 23mm rear difference in the brackets should be clearly visible to the naked eye. The only way to fix that is to cut and re-weld. You could use spacers but should not have to and I would not be happy with the structural integrity of such important suspension components. Alternatively the chassis could be out of square but I would have expected to see the same amount of offset to both axles if that was the case.

The axle track width difference of 9mm is not enough to worry about and has nothing to do with the chassis. No two axles are ever exactly alike. Sometimes just cleaning the back face of the road wheels and the hub faces will bring you a few more milimetres into alignment.
Click to expand...


Think the first thing to do is get it down to my mates garage and do a few measurements might not be today though. Had a look at the panhard rod and it is not adjustable on mine although i can see adj ones on e-bay. The front/back trailing arms cleaned up nice and could see no bend in them.
All the bushes are new.
 
Allyipod said:
Think the first thing to do is get it down to my mates garage and do a few measurements might not be today though. Had a look at the panhard rod and it is not adjustable on mine although i can see adj ones on e-bay. The front/back trailing arms cleaned up nice and could see no bend in them.
All the bushes are new.
Click to expand...
Mine came with an adjustable panhard rod so I assumed they were all the same but having checked RAVE apparently thats not the case as the standard panhard rod is not adjustable.

So long as the radius and trailing arms are straight are all of the bushes seated properly? Are the arms the same length (dont see why they would not be)? Do the axle mounting brackets look in good order and not bent? It has to be something mechanical causing the offsets and the likely candidate is the chassis mounts.
 
Has it been lifted? If so that will pull the front axle over, this is why people fit adjustable track rods, all lifted discos 'creab' as such but its not usually an issue, mine causes no problems on a 2" lift...

As for the rest, a good ol' tape measure will show you whats what...
 
Jongould said:
Has it been lifted? If so that will pull the front axle over, this is why people fit adjustable track rods, all lifted discos 'creab' as such but its not usually an issue, mine causes no problems on a 2" lift...

As for the rest, a good ol' tape measure will show you whats what...
Click to expand...


Hi Jon
No its not been lifted. Just spoke with my mate so going to get it in the garage tonight and get the tape out.

So far as i can tell the bushes all look to be seated right and no damage to the arms but will post up some more info tonight at some point.
Ally
 
Right been out in the garage with tape in hand and the chassis looks good as far as i can tell.

I have found a problem with the wheels though Diffrent offsets and diffrent makes of wheels on it never notest this before.

The wheels have never been checked for buckels or anything else so before i go any further with this i am going to fit a known good set of wheels and tyres and then look at it again as the guy doing the testing did not rotate the wheels so i might be on to something with this.

I know this will not fix all the problems but it is a start.
 
Allyipod said:
Right been out in the garage with tape in hand and the chassis looks good as far as i can tell.

I have found a problem with the wheels though Diffrent offsets and diffrent makes of wheels on it never notest this before.

The wheels have never been checked for buckels or anything else so before i go any further with this i am going to fit a known good set of wheels and tyres and then look at it again as the guy doing the testing did not rotate the wheels so i might be on to something with this.

I know this will not fix all the problems but it is a start.
Click to expand...
Differing wheel offsets will affect the alignment of the front/back axles to each other but not the squareness of the axle to the chassis. It would explain why your front axle is 31mm out compared to the back one.
 
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