Wheel spacers and lowering

[brussels]

Hi,

I love my 15x7's that Shrew refurbed for me but i would like to lower my sprint and alleviate the heavy steering.

If i put my 14x6's back on with wheel spacers and used my lowering springs would that also cause heavy steering? any idea what thickness spacer to use? just want to get it close to how it looks with the 15x7's.

Thanks

Graham

[brussels]

The 15x7's are ET35

[Spacenut]

I suspect that the heavy steering is due to the wheel offset, which is necessary to clear the suspension strut with wider wheels and tyres. This moves the centre of the tyre further away from the steering axis (the "virtual king pin"), increasing scrub radius and making for heavier steering. As the Alfasud and Sprint came from the factory with masses of negative camber and only a tiny amount of castor there isn't much more you can do to the geometry to help. You could try retro-fitting a hydraulic power rack out of a 33, or better yet one of the newer electric assist steering columns. Secondhand ones are getting pretty cheap now, and programmable ECUs are available as well.

Back in the 70s some American cars actually used negative caster from the factory, in other words any position either side of straight ahead would pull the steering to full lock in that direction. The opposite of self-centring. It sounds a bit dangerous to me so I wouldn't recommend it, even if you could reproduce the geometry

[sudboy1490]

Slotting the bolt holes at the bottom of the struts allows you to bring the camber back to where it should be after lowering a sud. Dropping the height kicks out the front wheels quite a bit, which can cause heavy steering

[Johnboy]

Or just man up and go to the gym

[brussels]

Have you seen the talent down my gym, no motivation there!

[PETROLHEAD]

The 15x7's are ET35

For an exact comparison we'd need the offset of the 14 x 6 wheels too bud?


Ps - i got a private message notification but no message, do you want to give it another go mate, or email me directly?

[brussels]

Regular speed lines, Et 39. I sent another straight after so should have received?

[PETROLHEAD]

For the 14x6 wheels to reach out to a similar width to the 7j 15's, you'll need in the region of 17mm spacing.

Still nothing mate, ghost in the machine?

Email me directly bud, Petrolheadshrew@gmail.com

That should get to me no problem, i hope!

[brussels]

I spoke to a parts guy about installing a 33 power steering rack but my sprint engine doesn’t have the necessary fitments for the hydraulics.

I read somewhere that corsa electric steering can fitted, is this an easy fit? Want to avoid the EZ steering route as that is 1000+

Anyone gone down this route?

[KevJTD]

I spoke to a parts guy about installing a 33 power steering rack but my sprint engine doesn’t have the necessary fitments for the hydraulics.

I read somewhere that corsa electric steering can fitted, is this an easy fit? Want to avoid the EZ steering route as that is 1000+

Anyone gone down this route?

Ade (rsfruitbat on here) has done an EPS conversion to his 33 rally car, I'm sure he'd happily discus the process in more detail with you.

Some fabrication needed but overall they are a great feature, cheap units can be bought from many a scarp car as they are everywhere now (corsa, clio, ounto etc) so not overly expensive....

[brussels]

Sounds promising, I couldn’t do the fabrication but I’m sure getting a garage to do would still be cheaper than a EZ system.