Miata Mailing List: September 1995, Message #15
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   From: Tom Manson 
Subject: Re: Alignment problem
   Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 10:04:11 -0400



On Fri, 1 Sep 1995, Gary J. Fischman wrote:

> > However, when I took the car on the road two days ago, I noticed that the
> > steering wheel is no longer at center position when I'm driving in a
> > straight line.  The car holds a straight path (i.e., no pull to one 
> > side), but the steering wheel is cocked about 5 to 10 degrees to the left.
> > Might they have done the alignment without making sure the steering wheel
> > was straight?  Are there any consequences of this, other than having to
> > drive with my hands crooked on the wheel?
> > 
> 
> INCOMPETENT MECHANIC ALERT! Do not patronize this moron again! They
> have completely f--ked up your alignment and you should take your
> car to an alignment specialist immediately before you   A) ruin
> your new tires or B) get into an accident due the lousy handling.
> 
> Seriously, this guy sounds like a complete idiot. Go to a pro and
> warn your friends by telling them who not to patronize.
> 

Before you take the car to another unknown entity.  I would examine and 
mark all alignment devices on the car (A-arm fasteners, tie rod ends, 
etc.)  There is a chance that it may be properly aligned and the tires 
alone are causing the steering wheel offset.  

I posted this same situation that I had a couple of years ago and nobody 
responded (I assume that it got out).  I had a steering wheel offset 
of about the same amount described with this condition and by just 
having the tires changed (Bridge RE92s taken off, and Yoko AVS-Is put 
on) the steering wheel corrected itself from the 5-10 degree offset.  I 
never did positively resolve the cause of the change, but no part of the 
suspension was ever touched in the process, I concluded it must have had 
to do with the flexibility of the tires and the resultant effective 
rolling radius.

I know that Gary's gonna think I'm nuts (I thought I was too for awhile 
after I discovered it) but it really happened that way.  I measured the 
static tire diameters to ensure that they were indeed the same size, 
checked the inflation pressure to ensure that they were equal, and even 
weighed them to assure that additional mass wasn't causing a pull to one 
direction or the other.  Everything was equal (within an acceptable 
tolerance).  The only thing I couldn't measure was belt deflection while 
rolling.  I concluded that this factor must be causing the effective 
rolling radius to represent a smaller tire diameter to the vehicle.

I wish I still had all the data to discuss since there may be renewed 
interest now that someone else has seen it, but it's long gone.
Later,

Tom Manson, Frederick, MD		
Product Assurance Manager, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Greenbelt, MD 20770
President, Chesapeake Area Miata	301-220-5670 (O)  301-694-6721 (H)
Manson@fred.net				301-873-4004 (M)  301-414-9441 (P)
http://www.fred.net/manson/home.html
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