Help with Allora suspension

Hi
Is there someone out there who can offer me some advice.
After some time re fettling my old Allora I ended up with nice new wheels / tyres and then attempted to bit by bit sort out the huge vertical gap between the top of the wheel and the bodywork above and also the fact that the wheel was buried into the wheel arch.
I'm grateful for a great deal of help with these issues from David Jowsey.
Now I'm getting somewhere, but after fitting some wheel spacers I now find, just the passenger side, the tyre makes contact with the front clam at the bottom edge on full lock. The drivers side is clear - yes the Allora chassis and body alignment was poor.
However in a rush to find a quick solution I am wondering if the caster angle could be out - ie too much off vertical. I then noticed in the "Allora build manual" a caster angle of 9 degrees is specified which may be too high ?
From my limited knowledge it seems that reducing the camber angle would effectively move the wheel rearward slightly so may solve the problem - but create another of course.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this as my only other option is to take the spacers back off for now.
Thanks

Pete, I remember the castor on mine always seemed extreme - when you put full lock on one side was jacked up and the other lowered! I can't say what the figure was from memory, but if you're altering yours then remember it'll also affect camber and tracking, so you'd be better getting it in at a proper suspension setup place or it'll end up all over the place....both figuratively and literally as you drive down the road :)

Hi Norm,
Yes thats the problem - one thing has a knock on effect with other things. I really need to get it sorted as due to a bit of a measurement / suspension travel the top wishbone has grazed the inner wheel rim as its just too close.
There is a very good suspension place here in Northampton but whether I'll get a slot with them before the end of next week is doubtful and I really want to come to the Lakes run in the Allora and not the Volvo.

Peter, do try and come in it, you can always avoid full lock for now, or give it a quick blip on the throttle and get the tail out when a tight turn is required!!!!!

Peter

I have just measured my Caster angle using an ADA Camber, Caster Gauge, my Caster angle measures 3.75 degrees.

As a quick fix to allow you to go on the run can you simply fit some lock restrictors.
These can take the form of some aluminium washers which are split at some point on their diameter and have an id of just larger than the diameter of the rack bar.
You pull the rack gaiter back, twist the washer open, slide it over the rack bar and then close it back up.
Fit them at the outer end of the rack bar behind the tie rod end and use as many as required.
They should solve your issues in the short term at the expense of a little less steering lock

I?ve now finally managed to fiddle about with the front tie rod which has by lengthening has pushed back the bottom hub ball joint taking the wheel rearward just enough to get clearance. The knock on is now the other tyre is somewhat close to the inner arch !
I am also realising that a lot of my issues are because I have 140mm from top of tyre to underside of clam arch - which is another issue to sort - so the whole front wheel arch space is too high. That?s not so easy to fix but I have my trusty engineer brother in law on the case armed with info from David Jowsey - thanks David.
Incidentally I?ve ended up with 8 deg caster, 3 degrees camber which I?ll sort tomorrow and the tracking will have to wait until Monday.
I?ll have a look at lock restriction as well - thanks Craig.

Thats great Peter, so we are definitely on to see you both in the Strato’s !!!!! It will be a great weekend, a bundle of wall to wall fun, and excellent driving experiences. There is still time to join us if you are inclined.

After a bit of a wrestling match with the lower suspension arm rose joints I managed to get the wheel camber corrected so just the tracking to do which I’ll get done by a friend who runs a HiQ tyre depot.
I’m going to have to live with the cavernous space over the front wheel for now, but I have a sneaky suspicion that lowering the front by altering the lower arm mounting will almost certainly mess all the angles and clearances up so it will all need doing again.
So all being well the Allora, Julie and me will make the lakes run.
But there is one issue left - how Julie will get all of her shoes, clothes and bags full of goodness knows what into the boot.
Thanks to everyone for the help.
It’s been a long road getting the Allora up and running again after it had stood for so so long. I couldn’t have done it without the help from so many in the club but I can’t miss the chance to thank big Norm for talking me out of selling it - or setting fire to it when I had reached despair point and to David Jowsey for his endless box of spares and technical assistance and to Craig and Lydia for theirs as well.
There’s still loads to do to improve the Allora but I’m happy now I can at least drive it without wheels getting damaged - I just need to get aircon, and a V6 and I’ll be happy.

Peter, Carol does not travel light, as Phil will vouch for, and I’m sure if she can get everything she wants for 5 days in the boot, I am confident that Julie will manage with ease, fear not.

See you both and that Allora at the weekend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Longtimefan

Peter, Carol does not travel light, as Phil will vouch for, and I’m sure if she can get everything she wants for 5 days in the boot, I am confident that Julie will manage with ease, fear not.

See you both and that Allora at the weekend.

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Certainly can.... my chiropractor say's I should be ok by the weekend !!!..... Oh no.. not another weekend away being Carol's butler !

I had one last hurdle - the tracking. After contacting my favourite HiQ and also a suspension specialist here in Northampton neither of which could fit me in I decided to do it myself. After a couple of hours with string lines I managed to do it to a near enough for now accuracy so I’m good to go. Julie also surprisingly said she didn’t realise the boot was so big and all her stuff will all go in there ! We’ll see tomorrow.

Thumbs up, but the best i can do is to get one by the title, I think!!!!