Lamborghini almost ready to launch

[megatron640 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close megatron640]

My car rides super stiff. My rack and pinon needs to be replaced. I cant convert car to power steering, im not mechanically inclined. So hopefully when i replace my rack and pinon it will run like it is straight off the fiero lot.

https://youtu.be/Y9ZAjRYV5j4

[76mx Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 76mx]

Megatron,
When you widen the front track with wheel spacers, you destroy an important piece of front end geometry called the Scrub Radius, which is critical to turning ability. If this is the case, replacing the rack and pinion does nothing to fix the geometry and will be a waste of time and money.

[megatron640 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close megatron640]

Megatron,
When you widen the front track with wheel spacers, you destroy an important piece of front end geometry called the Scrub Radius, which is critical to turning ability. If this is the case, replacing the rack and pinion does nothing to fix the geometry and will be a waste of time and money.

Yes there are huge wheel spacers in front and back. What do you suggest to get the car to turn smoothly. Without wheel spacers, my wheels wont stick out abd it wont be parallel with car

[Don Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Don]

Suggest looking for widening suspension control arms if you can them. Front and back. Westshore fabricating now owns Held Motorsports suspension business but, unfortunately, I heard they are looking to sell the business now as well.

If you go to Pennock's Fiero forum and search for Bloozberry, he has a thread over there showing how to do a great widened suspension setup. A lot of work though.

Lengthening the control arms is another way but the final geometry ends up a bit off. Way better than spacers mind you but still not perfect.

Good luck with sorting the front end

Cheers
Don

[red328gtb Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close red328gtb]

This is exactly why I hope Westshore Fabricating is able to sell off their business to an operation that can pick up the ball and run with it.

-Van

[cutlass442 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close cutlass442]

Instead of hydraulic rack and pinion you can simply get an electric steering column from a Saturn

[megatron640 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close megatron640]

Instead of hydraulic rack and pinion you can simply get an electric steering column from a Saturn

What about the wheel spacers. I talked to murci me and he is saying that the wheel spacers is causing the hard steer

[Bloozberry Active Users Find all posts View Profile Close Bloozberry]

What about the wheel spacers. I talked to murci me and he is saying that the wheel spacers is causing the hard steer

That is correct. When you turn the steering wheel, the tire doesn't pivot about the center of the tire patch, it pivots about a point on the ground that is found by extending a line through the top and bottom ball joints. On a stock '88 Fiero, that point is 40 mm inboard of the center of the tire patch, so when you turn the wheel, you're actually forcing the tire to walk around a point that isn't at the tire's center. The problem is even worse on '84-'87 cars because the point about which the tires pivot is even further inboard from the center of the tire patch.

When you add either wider rims with the same or less offset than stock, you make the problem worse. When you add wheel spacers, it gets worse. Imagine on a stock '88 rim if you put 3" wide spacers. You effectively move the center of the tire outboard by 3", which now means that the center of the tire patch is 3" + 1.6" (40 mm) = 4.6" away from the pivot point. With a stock 205 tire (which is 8" wide), the pivot point isn't even under the tire anymore. It's 0.6" inboard of the tire's edge. So when you turn the steering wheel, your tire actually follows an arc rather than pivoting on itself. The tire physically walks forward and backward in the wheel well, scrubbing the pavement as it does this. That takes a lot of effort to do, and is why your steering becomes heavier when you use the wrong offset rims and/or wheel spacers on the front.

What year is your frame, and just how wide are your wheel spacers in front and what is the width and offset on your wheels, and the width of your front tires?