[Tigers] FW: Steering Rack Tiger 260

[Gary Winblad]

Hi Dr Mayf,
 We are still here temporarily swamped in rain even though we are in
a historic drought!

I have been waiting for someone to help your friend and his steering
questions..

The first thing he should do is put it back to stock!  Whatever
requires shims between the rack mount and the rack should be fixed..
maybe wrong pullies or motor mounts?

Next, he should be aware that stock steering geometry... isn't ;-)
Cars need what is called Ackerman geometry, whereby the inner wheel
turns tighter than the outside wheel.  Unfortunately when Shelby
threw a steering rack into the prototype he didn't give a $#!+ about
proper geometry.  Rootes engineers were afraid to  second guess the
master so they mostly left it that way.  Stock geometry forces the
outer wheel to turn tighter than the inner wheel, exactly BACKWARDS!
But, it has worked all these
years but could definitely could use work!  Dale Akuszewski and Bob
Hokanson(?)'s son have designed and make(?) entire new front
suspensions that have good geometry.  Only problem is cost ($4k+)
and availability.
Dale also has a cheaper and only slightly improved fix using an MG
steering rack and MGB steering arms.  It helps the geometry but I
don't think by much.  What helps Tiger geometry is to move the
rack back(aft) and move the tie-rod ends forward with longer steering
arms.
Stock does work but does put lots of stress on components if you
put it near full lock (dont' do it).  It does make a perfect brake
though, when I used to push my Tiger out of the garage, I used to
just turn the wheel to stop it from rolling down the drive.. easier
than reaching for the easy to reach parking brake!  Years of driving
with bad geometry causes great stress on the lower fulcrum pins
which have been known to break.
HTH,
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Mayfield <drmayf at mayfco.com>
To: Tiger List <tigers at autox.team.net>
Cc: mhcalzadilla at incoingenieros.com
Sent: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 23:22:16 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Tigers] FW: Steering Rack Tiger 260

Folks, A few days ago I received a plea for assistance from Miguel Hernandez
in the Canary Islands.  His email to me is forwarded below. He has a Tiger
and he has no one there in the Islands to chat with about how to make his
Tiger steer better.  I know that there are many of you who have made mods to
your cars to do just that.  I know he would appreciate hearing from any and
all of you on changes you made and the improvement that those changes
generated. He has pretty fair English, but go easy on him, please.  Just put
yourselves into his shoes when answering.  He did say that he has done a lot
of work on the car and that sometime in the past shims were added to locate
the rack way more forward than I think it should be. He says he has a gap of
about an inch between the crank pulley and the rack which seems excessive to
me.  I out him on cc to this request so he will know that I have asked for
help in his name.



,any thanks in advance and please put me on cc so I can see what I need to
do also, lol



Larry



_________________________
drmayf
Worlds Fastest Sunbeam, period.
204.913 mph flying mile
210.779 mph exit speed







From: Miguel Hdez Calzadilla [mailto:mhcalzadilla at incoingenieros.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2014 12:57 PM
To: drmayf at mayfco.com
Cc: 'Miguel Hernandez Calzadilla'
Subject: Steering Rack Tiger 260



Dear Sir,

Some months ago, I was reading your article about the subject and it seems
to be very acczrate and precize.

I am owner of a Tiger 260 that has been averhauled by me quite recently. The
result is quite encouraging. Nevertheless I think I am suffering of the
typical tiger problem of the Steering rack . In my case I think is worst
since some one ( the previous owner probably) install some spacers on the
brackets of the Rack in order to get more gap with the pulley, so the rack
is even more forward. In my opinisn thje gap is  much more than the
necessary.

Driving on the  roads ( what we call general country roads with bends and
corners) really you do not suffer of any bad effects in the steering but in
the new parkings of supermarkets, where you have to force the steering to
the top you can notice that one front wheel ( outer wheel), is afected (
draging and forcing the front train- cross member) by a unbalance angle
respect the other ( probably higher negrees than the inner , as you said in
your table).

I wonder if you can suggest me what I can do to minimize the problem or if
you can provide a Kit to reduce the drag angle ( new arms or whatever).

Awaiting your replay

Kind regards

Miguel Hernandez

Canary Isles.

Spain
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