Shortening strut steering arms

[afterburner]

Has anyone thought about a slight shortening of the steering arms on the front struts? It will give you a little bit more lock and a faster steering. I'm talking about shortening them by 5mm or 10mm, not more, because of the CVs on the half shafts. Any ideas about how much more lock can the CVs safely take so to calculate how much to shorten the arms? It'll be a nice and cheap way to make the car more fun to drive.

[andy10v]

Someone on motorgeek did it, possibly deraccuda or Timmy, it was years ago I read the thread though. IIRC there was talk of using limit stops on the rack.

[Error404]

yeah I thought about it, then I thought that quicker steering isn't needed, steering feel & feedback is what I was are looking for. It is already easy to over input the steering due to lack of feel, quicker steering will only make this worse, so for me "fun to drive" is exactly what it wouldn't be

It would be easy to do though, I think all you'd need really is to mod the rack (with limit stops as Andy said) to prevent the excess steering angle from allowing the wheel to contact the chassis.

[afterburner]

Well isn't quick steering giving more feedback? The shorter arms would transfer more force/feedback from the wheels to the rack and to the steering wheel?

[Error404]

2 x 0 = 0

[afterburner]

Well, yeah, guess the audi has numb steering... neverthe ess, I plan on using it with a welded center diff and no front half shafts in the summer drifting around, and with the half shafts attached in the winter on the snowy mountain roads. I am not driving it on tracks, so I want faster steering and slightly more lock.

I just did some rough trigonometry and concluded that if I shorten the arms with ~12mm I will get around 6 degrees more lock on the wheels in each direction and 2.6 turns from lock to lock (I'm currently with a 3.0 rack and I don't want to change it because it has no play or leaks).

But that's on paper, literally. Tomorrow I will draw it in some CAD software to find the exact values, but I think that 6 degrees in each direction is a safe value and the tires won't rub against anything...

[andy10v]

One of the motorgeek threads, got 43* of steering angle angle now apparently.

http://motorgeek.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27755&start=100

[Error404]

Well, yeah, guess the audi has numb steering... neverthe ess, I plan on using it with a welded center diff and no front half shafts in the summer drifting around, and with the half shafts attached in the winter on the snowy mountain roads. I am not driving it on tracks, so I want faster steering and slightly more lock.

I just did some rough trigonometry and concluded that if I shorten the arms with ~12mm I will get around 6 degrees more lock on the wheels in each direction and 2.6 turns from lock to lock (I'm currently with a 3.0 rack and I don't want to change it because it has no play or leaks).

But that's on paper, literally. Tomorrow I will draw it in some CAD software to find the exact values, but I think that 6 degrees in each direction is a safe value and the tires won't rub against anything...

If you want more lock they it is worth it I guess
Not sure how much more you can have without running skinny tyres, you need to look at clearance to the chassis i think. Do you know there is a factory rack with 2.6 turns?

[Jamo]

I thought the ABY / ADU rack was 2.6 turns standard?

[Error404]

correct, but our Bulgarian friend said he has a 3.0 turn rack

[Jamo]

Ah yes just read he doesn't want to change it, hmm would have thought rack change be the easiest solution in this case.

[afterburner]

Ooops, I somehow missed the new posts here... Well, yes, I have a 3.0 (3.2 actually) rack. I not only want faster steering but also more lock. Getting more lock by shortening the steering arms has a side effect - faster steering, so this is a two rabbits/one bullet deal for me.

I'd love to have a real 2.6 rack someday, but mine is actually in top notch condition and I can't justify changing it (let alone the money needed to source a 2.6 rack in good, working condition, especially here, in Bulgaria, where most of the cars are imported from the rest of the EU after their previous owners had decided that's easier for them to sell the cars for nothing rather then scrapping them...).

Even if I find a 2.6 rack then I'd still want more lock, so shortening the arms is a needed step. And a test, a test to show the limits of my CV joints and the maximum angle I can get before rubber get's in contact with the body (actually the FARB and the FARB links).

I made some measurements and with the original competition wheels (16" + the original tires) I can get around 87 degrees before the wheel touches something and around 66 degrees of stock steering angle.

I made some rough calculations that take the current steering arm length in account and by shortening the arms with 25mm each will give me around 81 degrees of total angle, so that I thing is safe enough, even if my calculations are a little off.

Now there stands another question. Should I mess with the ackerman angle or not? I can reduce it... but should I... I mainly seek sideways performance and control when the car is on snow.

[afterburner]

Hmm, I thought about it and I won't mess with the ackerman angle, at least not for the time being. Will first see what happens with the shorter steering arms.