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Hello!

My car exhibits some peculiar handling behaviors and I wanted to get some opinions about it. First off, here's the setup:

- '98 R/T coupe
- Mopar high rates at full stiff all the way around
- Koni yellows
- Stock rear bar, 24mm front bar
- Quaife LSD
- Urethane bushings
- Stock wheels with 195/60-14 Hankook Ventus RS-2's at 35 psi

I purchased my car with all of its suspension and drivetrain mods in place, so I don't know which one caused this issue, but when I'm driving on the street, my car doesn't want to track straight forward, as if the toe alignment is out. Toss it into a hard corner and it's nice and solid, but at low steer angles it feels unstable enough that I don't like to steer it with one hand. I had the alignment done twice and the toe is within factory specs and camber is at -1 in the front. The only real differences between this car and my old '97 ACR are the bushings, front bar and LSD. My leading theory is that the instability is an effect of the LSD passing torque back and forth between the front wheels at low steer angles (as one wheel spins ever so slightly faster than the other). My other suspicion is that the big front bar is causing some weirdness, but I can't make sense of that theory.

Does anyone have a Quaife and can verify that it's what causes this behavior? Any other ideas?

Thanks,

-Rodney

Is it the same, steering in either direction?

Have the rear wheels been aligned (laser).

Yep, same in both directions, and the rear wheels were aligned to within factory specs.

Tire pressure's do wonders as far as suspension handling..try different pressures..I would never run equel rates on an autocross course..maybe on a road course.

Rodney,
you are correct!
the Quaife will exhibit a "wander", mine is most pronounced at highway speeds, the car will pull left under acceleration, and back straight off throttle.
Big bar and such may contribute to the issue as there is less suspension travel & more shock/spring/bar forcing the tire into the pavement.
I've had great luck with 28psi in the RS-2's
neg 2.0-2.7 camber is ideal for a neon, I run toe (out)at the limit of factory specs.
neg 1 out back.

My factory torsen equipped SCX W-41 wanders badly too!

R.

Yeah, I need to get a tire pyrometer out there next time so I can play with tire pressures. I know I should be running less pressure in the rear, but the tread was being used all the way out to the shoulder. I have no idea what was going on with the inside shoulder or the middle of the tire.

The handling issue I mentioned, however, exists almost regardless of tire pressure.

-r

I run -1.8 on my car. Ive never felt anything over -2 on my fronts..so i cant give input..but it can only mean better turn in and increased grip..or at least all the tire can give.

Good point... I'm only running -1 up front and -0.5 in the rear. I used to run -2.4 up front on my old acr. I should try -2/-1 on this car before the next autocross.

Tess never did any of the stuff that you described with a similar front suspension and quaife. I would check for binding in the suspension. Disconnect the front endlinks and move the bar up and down, it shouldn't be tough to move. If it passes that test, i'd consider disconnecting the ball joints and working the control arms up and down to see if they move freely as well.

Generally, urethane front lower control arm bushings and "move freely" do not belong in the same sentence...

Generally the front's bind. I haven't noticed or felt this yet and I have around 7000km's of track use since install.

However I changed the rear tension arm bushings to urethanes and noticed they do bind up. It makes it very hard to install the rear strut assembly.