Tie rod angle

[gbenfield]

I've got a 1948 Chevy COE on a 1978 C30 chassis, it's lowered quite a bit with air suspension. My tie rods are angled up a lot, steering doesn't feel exactly like it should, will it be a problem, is there a fix for this, can the spindle be modified to bolt tie rod from bottom.

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[Radiohead]

Welcome Gregory. That's cool af! Do you have a picture from below? In my estimation, tie rod ends should be relatively level. What does it steer like, or what is it doing weird?

 

[Ricko1966]

Tie rods should be angled slightly down at rest, and level at mid travel , at full suspension travel angled up. It's a compromise to minimize toe in toe out changes on bumps. My favorite is as much lowering as you can do,do with spindles,that keeps your steering geometry closest to how it was engineered.

 

[DoubleDingo]

We do need pics. Not just of the suspension, but of the rest of the truck

 

[Craig Nedrow]

A guy was a Bonneville a few years ago that did that but to a regular cab, cool as heck! That is a gem, plenty of room for the pups! Lov it.

 

[RustyPile]

The tie rod should be the same length and parallel to the lower control arm shaft to ball joint.

 

[bucket]

The tie rod should be the same length and parallel to the lower control arm shaft to ball joint.

Or close to it anyway. Since the upper arms are shorter, the camber can change slightly over bumps which can effect the tow-in. There's probably math to figure out the best angle to make everything jive and eliminate bump steer, but that's above my level of competence.

 

[RustyPile]

Or close to it anyway. Since the upper arms are shorter, the camber can change slightly over bumps which can effect the tow-in. There's probably math to figure out the best angle to make everything jive and eliminate bump steer, but that's above my level of competence.

The front bolt of the two bolts that mount the upper control is slightly higher than the rear bolt. As the upper arm arcs up, a slight amount of caster is added.. This cancels out the effects of the camber/toe change because the tie rod moves it's parallelism with the lower control arm. All this geometry goes out the window when the springs are shortened to accomplish lowering the vehicle or excessive positive caster is added,..

 

[bucket]

The front bolt of the two bolts that mount the upper control is slightly higher than the rear bolt. As the upper arm arcs up, a slight amount of caster is added.. This cancels out the effects of the camber/toe change because the tie rod moves it's parallelism with the lower control arm. All this geometry goes out the window when the springs are shortened to accomplish lowering the vehicle or excessive positive caster is added,..

Right, and that last part is why there could be a benefit to a slightly different tie rod angle. But like I said, figuring out the best angle to improve the situation is over my head, and will vary by application as well. I just know that the autocross crowd often mess with the tie rod angles on their lowered vehicles to improve or eliminate bump steer.

 

[Ricko1966]

I've talked about tie rod angle, bump steer and geometry changes on lowered vehicles on here. I got treated like I was a Witch so I shut up.

 

[SquareRoot]

I've talked about tie rod angle, bump steer and geometry changes on lowered vehicles on here. I got treated like I was a Witch so I shut up.

I can see that. lol

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