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Viggen alignment issues, toe went out of spec in 300 miles (long) Posted by SPG Jr [Email] (#1830) [Profile/Gallery] (more from SPG Jr) on Wed, 21 Jun 2017 14:00:07 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Board’s a little slow, so hoping you’ll all bear with me on a long post, especially Viggen drivers with modified suspensions. I have to note that my indy is no fan of modifications so its been difficult to get an analysis of anything that could be tied to modifications, so I'm including a lot of details for the collective TSN analysis.
’00 Viggen with suspension mods, 127k
After DIY replacing both tie rod assemblies with Genuine SAAB inners, outers and rods, circumstances dictated that I take the Viggen to a local foreign/domestic shop, instead of my indy, for alignment. Alignment report showed ‘before’ toe out of spec on both sides:
Before: Left: -0.27, right +1.20
After: Left +0.05, right +0.07
The car pulled right prior to the tie rod job and continued to do so after the tie rod job and first alignment.
Chalked it up to quirky Viggen requiring more diligence than this shop was able to provide. So three weeks and 300 miles later I got it to my regular SAAB indy for another alignment. Car continues to pull right after alignment #2, little, if any, change.
In the 3 weeks/300 miles between alignments, the front toe readings changed almost a degree on each side. Comparing the first post-alignment readings noted above to the second pre-alignment readings:
Front left toe changed from +0.05 to +0.99 (out of spec), a change of +0.94.
Front right toe changed from +0.07 to -0.66 (out of spec), a change of -0.73.
I assume that is more variance than could be attributed to machine calibration differences between shops? And the car pulled right before and after two alignments. (sigh)
Given the brand new tie rods, any thoughts on what else could cause the toe to change so quickly? No other work was done in that time, other than DIY reinstall of the 6 pt brace. I’ve read loads of posts on alignment and related, but if anyone’s running a Viggen modified suspension and wheel setup similar to below…thoughts on causes of the car pulling to the right? Steering wheel has to be turned and held to left in order to compensate for pull. With no hands on wheel, steering wheel and car will turn right.
Previous owner records (and TSN posts from the PO that mod'd the car) do not indicate any ongoing alignment issues. So while its possible that the geometry has been changed too much I also believe this car was fine not that long ago.
All installed by a previous owner about 10 years ago +/-.
- Viggen Rescue Kit
- Steering rack brace (not sure if that was part of VRK)
- GS Upper strut brace
- GS 6pt brace
- Koni adjustable struts (no record of upper mounts having been replaced since install)
- Eibach springs
- 17 x 8 Ronal LVs with Pirelli P7 Cinturatos 225/45/17 w/ about 10k on them (replaced horribly noisy P Zero Neros, but I think the Neros may have tracked better?)
- 5mm spacers on front only with separate centering rings
- 320mm rotors with big Brembo calipers (Brakes noted to explain why the car has 17 x 8s with spacers. Would like to get rid of spacers but would need to replace brakes and possibly wheels.)
Work I’ve done over last year:
- Control arm, stanchion arm bushings replaced with poly (This did not cure the pops and knocks as I hoped, lesson learned. But noise aside, the bushings are ‘new.’)
- New sway bar links w/ poly bushings
- Replaced GS poly motor and trans mounts with OE. But the OE motor mount bolt SHEERED OFF so I reinstalled the old GS mount
- Recently resolved the classic shaky steering wheel by pre tightening the wheel bolts with an impact driver while the car was on jack stands, before lowering and tightening to spec. Wasn't trying to fix that, but it worked.
If you made it this far...thanks!
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