LCA Relo brackets affecting steering wheel?

A while back, I had a set of BMR LCA relocation brackets on my car. After I put them on, I noticed my steering wheel was rotated a few degrees when the wheels were straight. The car still tracked fine, I didn't have any issues aside from the steering wheel being visibly off-kilter.

Fast forward a couple months, AbdullaGT and I traded rear ends and I left the relo brackets attached. The same exact problem happened to him, and my wheel was back to normal. He put the LCA's back to the stock holes tonight and, viola, his steering wheel was perfect again. WTfuck? Any ideas? Could the brackets have been bent or something that could have affected the steering geometry?

Nobody?

It sounds to me like one of them is probably bent or maybe just manufactured a little out of tolerance. Set the car on jack stands with the stands under the rear end so that the suspension stays loaded. Measure from the lower hole of the lca relo. bracket to the lca mounting hole on the frame. Do the same on the other side they should measure the same. There are a lot of different ways to check this. If the bracket is bent a little then your rearend was not tracking true and that is why the SW was off center. By the way do you have adjustable lcas? if so you should be able to adjust it out if it is only a little off. But you don't want your lcas to be must different is lengths because it will cause rear steer under hard accel. such as launches, etc.

The lca are not adjustable. It's obvious the relocation brackets are the issue, I suspected them and that is why I removed them to see if that would fix the off-center steering, which it did. The question is how do the lcas effect the steering wheel position?

It simply sets the rearend out of alignment with the frame, which causes the front to have to be steered just a little to keep the car going straight. Probably not enough for you to feel it but enough to set your steering off. It only takes a little on the solid axle rear end to cause rear steer.

Mine is the same way. I wonder if this is the reason the car moves to the right when I launch at the track? It feels as if the rear shoots right and front jumps left.

Probably, your rear alignment is just as important as your front. More so for drag racers. Any amount that your rear is out of alignment at a static position will become exagerated under acceleration. especially if your car is squatting on the right side. Rear steer is very undesirable in drag racing. Circle track cars dial it in to make the car turn easier.

Besides alignment also check that the lca mounting holes in the bracket are the same distance below the rear end. If one bolt hole is higher than the other this will cause the lcas to be at different angles, also promoting rear steer under accel.

sounds like the car is dog tracking slightly

Mach2burnout said:

Probably, your rear alignment is just as important as your front. More so for drag racers. Any amount that your rear is out of alignment at a static position will become exagerated under acceleration. especially if your car is squatting on the right side. Rear steer is very undesirable in drag racing. Circle track cars dial it in to make the car turn easier.

Besides alignment also check that the lca mounting holes in the bracket are the same distance below the rear end. If one bolt hole is higher than the other this will cause the lcas to be at different angles, also promoting rear steer under accel.

Click to expand...

Exactly.....right on the money

Also, do you have an adjustable PHB?

GT.350-R said:

I wonder if this is the reason the car moves to the right when I launch at the track? It feels as if the rear shoots right and front jumps left.

Click to expand...

You're getting what the circle track guys would call "loose axle steer" from the roll, and if your launch is like the picture in your sig I am guessing that you're using relo brackets (possibly in the lower holes). That fixes the squat from acceleration but does nothing for the right side squat and left side lift from chassis roll (engine torque reaction).

A drag racing rear antiroll bar ought to quiet it down (by reducing the amount of roll, the amount of roll steer that you're correcting for at the steering wheel is also lessened). I'm guessing you'd rather not back off on the relo bracket settings, which would reduce the amount of roll steer for any given amount of roll and is at least another option.

I don't know enough to say whether the front jumping left is because it really is moving left on its own or because the rear moving right points the whole car and your eyes toward the left and then tries to drive it there. I suspect it's the second, because it's hard to tell when your view of what's happening is from inside the thing it's happening to.


Norm

Yah, thats an old pic. The car starting doing it ,or made it more noticable when I added the anti-rollbar.

GT.350-R said:

Yah, thats an old pic. The car starting doing it ,or made it more noticable when I added the anti-rollbar.

Click to expand...

I am not really a drag racer, except the street racing I did years, and years and years ago. But, I do know quite a bit about promoting traction with the 3 link suspension. (circle track guy) Just from what your saying and what the other guys are saying, you have the right stuff, you just need to dial it in.
From my experience, if you lower the car, you have to correct the angle of the lca and the uca. If you change the angle of the lca, you have to correct the length of the lca and/or the uca to keep your axle in the same location, forward to rear and to keep your pinion angle correct.

The best advice I have ever been given from a fellow racer was "Make one adustment/change at a time and learn what that change did. Document that!!!Then move on to the next adjustment/change. Otherwise you have no idea which change actully made you faster or ended your night early".

Someone else directed me to this thread. I have BMR brackets with the same problem, except I verified it by measuring my wheels. My driver side wheel was pulled .5" more towards the front than my passenger side wheel. Took the brackets off and I'm tracking straight again. I have NON-adjustable LCA's. I noticed my steering wheel was off center while driving down my street immediately after putting the brackets on.

What controls the angle of the bracket are the two holes on the side. The damper and the main bolts. I'm certain mine are not correct as I had a horrible time getting the panhard bolt through. You can read my thread here.

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=71347

BMR got back with me. I'll mailing the brackets back and they're going to check them out. We agreed there is possibly something up with the either the dampener or main bolt hole. Other issue could be that perhaps Ford moved the dampener hole on my axle? Improbable, but not impossible.

OP, can you measure the tire to the fenders on each side?

Were the brackets welded in, when they were received (new)? Or were they used before getting welded?

I am looking into Bmr4life's issue, as it has been a very uncommon occurrence to this point.

GT.350-R said:

Mine is the same way. I wonder if this is the reason the car moves to the right when I launch at the track? It feels as if the rear shoots right and front jumps left.

Click to expand...

Give me a call when you get a chance, I am sure we can get that sorted out!

BMR Tech said:

Give me a call when you get a chance, I am sure we can get that sorted out!

Click to expand...

I got mine fixed when we put the new carrier in. I think it was the diff making it kick out. One side pulling harder than the other. Works great and straight now.
I'll be calling you in a few weeks or so for more parts. K member and A arms.

See if you can find me some info on Strange coil overs for the front.
Thanks.

Well, I think I'm back to square one with this. The LCA brackets were gone a long time ago, given to Abdulla. Currently, I'm running BBR billet LCA's and FRPP K's, my steering wheel is still out of alignment. I got an alignment and replaced the tie rod ends a few weeks ago, no luck.

Chiron said:

Well, I think I'm back to square one with this. The LCA brackets were gone a long time ago, given to Abdulla. Currently, I'm running BBR billet LCA's and FRPP K's, my steering wheel is still out of alignment. I got an alignment and replaced the tie rod ends a few weeks ago, no luck.

Click to expand...

How low is the car? Is the panhard bar adjusted properly?

Measure the ride height of the car on level pavement....at all four corners. That is generally a quick way to start diagnosing, if it is a suspension related issues.