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Posted by Keith in Washington [24.41.41.111] on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 15:43:27 :
In Reply to: Re: front axle/turning radius... posted by rick pacholski [98.26.211.168] on Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 12:54:43 :
So as I understand, you have full rotation of the knuckle without the brake backing plate installed. As you tighten things down on the brake backing plate you loose some turning rotation. This is weird. You say you loose some turning rotation of the knuckle with the backing plate and spindle on. How much are you loosing? 1 to 5 degrees or 10 to twenty degrees? You have never said. Are you able to rotate the knuckle so that the stop on the knuckle hits the axle?
Couple of questions:
1) Did you install the spindle on the outer face of the knuckle first then put the backing plate onto the outer mounting face of the spindle?
2) When you mount the spindle on the outer face of the knuckle (with the axle installed) did it sit flush and tight on the knuckle face with out any force? There should be no gap. If it does not fit flush with no gap, then check to see if the axle joint is installed correctly. Also check that the outer axle half is sliding into the bushing that is inside of the spindle.
3) Can you finger tighten all of the bolts that hold the backing plate and the spindle on up to the point when you need to start compressing the lock washer. These bolts should not be used to compress or pull the spindle flush into the knuckle. Are you using the original bolts? If not you may be using some that are too long.
4) Tightening these bolts should not change the knuckle's turning ability. Yes, you have constrained the outer axle's movement with the spindle but it should still have most of its back and forth movement. You may also rotate the axle 45 degrees and rotate the knuckle again. The rotation should be almost the same. There may be a slight difference do the axle's position, but there really should not be any difference.
5) If the spindle and backing plate fit snug with out forcing them to do so with the bolts, Tighten the bolts up to spec torque. Now rotate the knuckle, does the stop on the rear of the knuckle hit its stop on the axle? This is key. No force should be necessary to do this.
6) If the knuckle stop is hitting the axle continue below. If not, look again at what could be stopping it.
7) Install the driver's side knuckle with it's spindle and brake backing plate. It's stop on the knuckle should hit it's axle stop. If so, do the step below.
8) Install the tie rod to both knuckles.
9) Rotate the left knuckle as if you are making a left turn. Check to see if the stop on the left knuckle is hitting the left axle stop. It should with no real force. It should rotate easily until it hits the stop.
10) Rotate the left knuckle as if you are making a right turn. Check to see if the right knuckle stop is hitting the axle. Again rotation should be easy with little force until it hits its stop.
11) If both knuckle stops are hitting their respective stops on the axle, then you have plenty of steering rotation in both knuckles and there is not problems so continue on as this problem is solved. If either the left or right knuckle stop is not hitting it's axle stop then check to see what is stopping it from doing so as both knuckles were hitting their stops in the steps above if you go this far.
The only other thing I can think of is did you install the knuckle upside down. This is easy to check. The knuckle arm that the tie rod mounts to should be at the rear of the knuckle. I do not even know if it is possible to mount incorrectly. I also assume that you did not mix knuckle halves from right to left or mix parts from the right knuckle with parts form the left knuckle.
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