I have a 1966 S Type and I am chasing steering and handling issues, the car is quite twitchy and nervous on the road.

I have noticed that the left front tire sits about 1" further out that the right tire in relation to the fender lip. The left tire in towards the centre of the car in relation to the center line, and the left tire is about flush with the edge of the fender.

I measured the front track as 49.5", going from the inside edge of the rims ( Dayton 5" rims) and 47" rear. Does that seem about right, or is it possible my suspension has wrong components in it?

Long before I got it, the car had been hit on the left front side and the front subframe bent. I have replaced that with a straight one from my parts car. It is possible that it's just the fender than is pushed in, but it does appear to have the right shape compared to the right side.

Left side: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1461020472

Right side: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...1&d=1461020472

 

Hmm..
Whilst your car looks very nice in the pics, one never knows what previous owners have done or bodged. It could be a wing repair has been done as you say, but the twitching you report indicated suspension bushes and ball joints need inspection, also the rear suspension that has bearings all over the place, plus a couple of radius arms going forward from the bottom wishbone that could be knackered.


Have you inspected the front and rear suspensions yet ? The tracks seem about right, BTW, Both Mark 2 and S-type were "crab-tracked" cars, with narrower track at the rear. The Mark 1 was even more pronounced.

 

I have stripped this car to a bare shell and rebuilt it. Everything has been replaced; or cleaned up, inspected and reused. Ball joints are XJ40 style, and everything rubber has been replaced with OE parts.

Today I spent a fair bit of time under the car with it on a lift and measured the components, and everything seems symmetrical right to left. Nothing is obviously bent or a wrong part. I measured from the raidus arm mounting bolt to the lower ball joint on the opposite side in an X pattern, and the diagonal measurements were within 1/4", so I'm reasonably confident the subrame isn't bent and square to the car. At least to the limits of tape measure accuracy!

 

Have to ask the obvious question _ has it been checked for tow in/out _ camber and caster ?
What's the condition of the threads on the steering tube, have the clamps come loose ?
Have the inner tie rods that thread into the steering tube been started equally (I am not sure if that would matter though).

What about the "dish" on the wire wheels, are they all equal ?
Or would that even matter ?
Maintenance on the wire wheels ??? Possible problems there ?

Just throwing some ideas out here...

And what about the inner tie rods, are they the correct ones ?
I have a set that differs from my Mark 2.

 

Yes, I have all the tools to do wheel alignments, and have set them to a spec that gives more castor than what Jaguar calls for, about 2 degrees negative, rather than 0 +/- 0.5. Toe is 1/16", camber 0.5 deg. setting castor that way made a very noticeable improvement over the 0 deg spec.

Wheels are all the same, new tubeless Daytons that have 2500 miles on them. Same for tires.

Inner tie rods originally were fixed length, those are NLA so have been replaced by tie rod ends on a threaded bar. They are the proper length for equal toe.

 

Now, please, don't take this as an insult, but when you fitted the XJ40-type lower ball joints, did you knock out the bearing rings in the hub carrier before fitting the new-type joints ? If these are still in place the joint won't be in its correct position.

 

Yup, I knew about that!

 

Is it possible to use the XJ40 spindle? Maybe you have One?
Just putting it out there......
Can I send you some measurements?

 

Sure, feel free to send suggestions! PM me for my email address.

 

I think the best thing to do is to have the car fully checked for geometry on a sophisticated rig that measures all the suspension parameters. Reason I say this is because you do report the car as having had a left-front impact. This could have disturbed more than just the front subframe, That tyre sticking out on the left hand side doesn't look right to me.

 

Agreed, the tyre doesn't look right to me either. I sure hope the body isn't bent up.

 

A good body shop with a frame rack can fix it if there is frame damage.

 

Based on the pictures, there is something wrong on the left side. I looked at my car and both sides are equal, the right side in your car looks correct. Based on the Body Measurements page in the factory service manual, Front Track is: 55.25 inches or 1.403 meter. Rear Track is: 54.2 inches or 1.38 meter. I will add pics tonight, showing both sides in my car.

 

Here's how each side looks in my S type

 

Does it say what track is measured to? Is it the center line of the wheel? My service manual seems to have grown legs, I can't find it at the moment

 

something about a "Datum" line. (Chinese to me !!)

I will scan the page and post it here. It has many other measurements which might help.

give me a day or two to get it scanned.

Dumb questions but are the tires the same size on both sides? Are the wheels the same? Has the hub been replaced?

 

on the S type the tire edges do stick out on each side.

 

here's the Measurements Pages

 

Thanks for the measurements. Yes, tires and wheels are the same. I have replaced the hubs, the car was originally steel wheels. I did measure, and the hubs are identical side to side.

 

Looks like the front beams were skewed in the accident.