Alignment symptom

[Jfrahm]

Hi all,

1992 Porsche 928 cabrio.
In a parking lot turn when I dial a lot of steering in, the steering wheel wants to spin out of my hands and tighten the turn. It's like it "falls" into turning harder.
Does anyone know what setting might cause this?

Thanks,
-Joel.

[kdjones2000]

Caster would be your adjustment for that.

[Bulldog9]

Originally Posted by Jfrahm

Hi all,

1992 Porsche 928 cabrio.
In a parking lot turn when I dial a lot of steering in, the steering wheel wants to spin out of my hands and tighten the turn. It's like it "falls" into turning harder.
Does anyone know what setting might cause this?

Thanks,
-Joel.

This is usually from too much Caster (positive) the wheels want to fall in the direction turned.

https://www.lesschwab.com/article/alignment/understanding-camber-caster-and-toe.html

[Jfrahm]

Thanks for the responses.

Interesting, I thought maybe I had too little caster. I tried measuring the angle of the strut and thought it was about 3 degrees positive but I just did the camber at +/- 20 degrees steering and that seems to show that I have 0 caster.

Steering is too light and it's a bit squirrely under hard braking.

I am correcting previous alignment issues, too much toe out and (I thought) too much positive caster. I took some positive caster out and took out the toe-out. Now I am a little toed-in but that'll be obliterated with a caster adjustment.
I have some late 968 caster blocks I should install also as I think I am getting some deflection.

[Monkey Wrench]

I dont like hiring mechanics, but that's one job I would hire out, Tires aren't cheap either. The racers know lots about it.. That's a little different.

one thing I always loved about Volvo 240's is the very short turning circle, when wheels are turned to the max, the front wheels seem to have a really weird angle but it somehow just works.. the tires are sort of scrubbing and you can really hear that if you are in one of those parkades with painted surfaces.

I wondered if the Porsche might have a end stop to limit travel? personally I might adjust that but the caster , camber, toe in,, I'd leave to a shop with a proper 4 wheel alignment machine.

Sure, Yes, I will admit it might also be because I don't know enough to do it very confidently by myself.

I did have a similar thing happening recently and found one of my volvo 740 wheel bearings was hooped. two of the ( outer) tapered rollers were , well gone ! and ground to dust so the wheel itself was not tracking right. That surprised me how bad it could get without me knowing it.. I went in looking for a brake squeal issue and found the wheel loose. Inner bearing was ok, outer was completely trashed..

If its off the ground maybe just give your front wheels a good shake and see if anything looks odd..

[Jfrahm]

Good one, I'm glad you mentioned wheel bearings. I didn't think they were loose, figured I would have noticed when I had the wheels on and off for fresh rubber, but the big jack was right there handy so...

I found a small amount of movement in what I determined to be the camber adjustment. The knuckle bolts were tight (real tight!) but not tight enough to clamp completely.
They're tight now by golly.

Not sure if that was enough to cause some of the strangeness but it sure as heck wasn't nothing.

Earlier I installed the late 968 caster blocks and re-set the caster and toe. I added positive caster, shot for the stock amount but have not leveled and settled and checked the angles yet.

[Jfrahm]

I challenged myself to do my own alignment, for a few reasons:
- See if I could
- Not sure if a non-enthusiast could do it properly
- Cost? Reckoned it'd be a few hours
- Lack of trust in shops
- Where are these "shops" anyway?
- I keep doing work that affects the alignment, although I might be done for a while.

Took it for a test drive and it's pretty normal.
- No tire squalling on the shop floor (toe probably OK)
- Excessively light steering is now pretty normal (caster)
- No "falling" into the turn feeling near steering lock (caster)
- Braking straight without steering shake and drama (this was probably the loose camber adjustment)

I'll check for tire wear and maybe fix a slightly crooked steering wheel but overall, lots of progress.

Thanks! -Joel.

[Monkey Wrench]

that good news Joel, glad you found something. Also encouraging that you can complete the alignment. Even if you find it's imperfect at least you can drive and pick your time if you do decide to have a shop look at it. Maybe I need to learn more about it.

I often find the same,Id rather be in control of the work I do and often the result is that the work is just fine , but my time doing such, isn't recorded. If it's ten times what a shop would take I think so what.. I can basically work until I achieve a quality level that suits me, whereas a shop has obvious time restraints.

i think the same with regards to all my home repairs etc. after finding a way through it I now repair all sorts of weird and strange machines and equipment and I contribute a lot of it to my father's encouragement to just try and find a way through it. the result is that now I can be thrown into working on almost any machine and figure my way through problems.

I was never trained as a car mechanic , per se, but I took a lot of stuff apart. I repaired printing equipment and did technical troubleshooting on some fancy equipment that was designed to be remotely analyzed and adjusted. I learned a lot about the tech side but I prefer turning bolts with my hands to being at a desk.
I'm seeing a lot of younger people now that didn't have those valuable learning experiences because so many live in apartments now. no workshop. They often tend to give up rather than just be stubborn enough to just take the bull by the horns and find their way through the problem at hand. we have a lot of access to information now that at one time wasn't so easy to get.

20 years ago with the internet being new , I found I could access all sorts of info and get help from others remotely.. and got heavily into repairing antique radios.. I wasn't; trained in bench electronics either but found a lot of joy in resurrecting old radios, often stuck and confused.. stuff from from the 30's 40's and such.. most of them are just shortwave and AM so they aren't too popular because there is so little on those frequencies. There is no profit in it, most of them aren't worth that much and antique prices dropped. now i have a house full of the bloody things and they dont pay any rent lol.. I think I kind of admire them as art objects, industrial art one may say.. Its mostly a thing to get lost in and enjoy the progress of restoration.

I bought an old house and put most of my efforts for the past 20 years into restoration of a antique house. it turns 10o this year yea ! I did almost all of it solo, even did the roof all by myself.. rewired it, insulated,drywalled, sanded all the floors, etc etc. I couldn't pay for teams of contractors like on the TV shows.

I think it all keeps me busy, I cant' relate to being bored. It certainly hasn't made me rich yet ;-)

I think you challenged yourself with the alignment and won and that is admirable. I can relate, it's not always only about the money.