Touring Car tweak help (Tamiya 417v5)

[cs8sz]

Hi,

Please help!

I have a tamiya 417v5 which for some reason is massively tweaked. If I take all the wheels off and put the chassis on a board it is flat as a pancake. If I then setup the ride height to be 5.5mm on the rear and 5 on the front making sure all the spring collars are identical left to right, and then put it on a tweak station the car is miles off, and requires loads of extra pre load on some of the shocks.

If I don't use the tweak station the car is awful, is there any other way around this does anyone else have this?

I have made sure all the shocks are identical lengths.

Also it really messes up trying to get the correct droop due to the chassis being at different heights.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[shaun m]

Have you tried it on the set up board using 10mm blocks under the chassis ??

Basicly to get the tweek out of the chassis , put the car on the 10mm blocks under the fr - rf block or under where the droop screws are , undo the top deck screws , get someone to hold the car down flat ( pushing on the shock towers ) then re-tighten the top deck screws in a diagonal way..

you should have a totally flat de-tweaked car ..

[cs8sz]

Hi,

No I haven't tried that, although if you put the car on a sheet of glass the chassis is dead flat.

I will certainly give your suggestion a go anything to try and get rid of the tweak!

Thanks Chris

[Matt Butcher]

Yes check your downstop/ droop settings, make sure they are the same left to right.

[cs8sz]

The problem with this much tweak is that if you measure the droop with a gauge, then put the wheels back and and make sure that both rear tyres touch the floor at the same point by lifting the rear end, then it is miles off and I end up adjusting the droop screws to make sure that both tyres leave the floor at the same time.

My car is seriously strange, but then again all the touring cars I have owned have always had similar problems.

Thanks for all the input.

Chris

[Joe_K]

I'm not sure exactly what the problem with your car is but you could look at a couple of things:

1) Make sure that the car is set up the same on both sides (left and right) - make sure the upper arms are the same length, make sure they attach to the same points on the chassis and rear hubs. Make sure that the roll center points (where the lower wishbones/arms attach to the chassis) are of the same type from left to right and that they're the right way round. If you have rear hubs with vertical ball studs (pointing up rather than forwards/backwards) then make sure each side has the same amount of spacers (if any). Do the same for the front.

2) Take the shocks off the car. Put the car on 10mm blocks (or something you know the height of) and measure the droop, make sure that the droop is the same from left to right. Make sure that the amount of thread protruding from the wishbones onto the chassis is the same from left to right, if it's not then the wishbone is bent or moulded out of shape in some way (or the attachment of the hub to the wishbones may be screwed up or something). Make sure that the wishbones roate freely, look at the rotating bits (hinge pins, attahment to chassis, attachment to hubs/steering arms) and make sure that nothing is tight there.

3) Look at the shocks, measure them and make sure that they're the same length. Make sure that they both rebound (the outwards movement of the shock) to the same point and measure again.

Make especially sure that the car is built exactly the same (and correctly) on both sides, I've bought a few cars second-hand and had to totally rebuild them due to them being mangled by the last owner. Worst example was an Mini M05 (Tamiya) most of which wasn't actually Tamiya parts. Spent as much returning it to stock Tamiya state as I would have buying a new M05. Oh well!