On Jan 18, 2011 Robert McElwee wrote: > The tie rods (at least from the start of the threads to where it flares out) > are the same length @ ~6.5". I have no looked under the boots but might go > in there in the morning. Might grab some video as well so you guys can see > what I am seeing.
It sounds like the tie rods are different lengths, so that the wheel and rack aren't centered in the same place. Obviously one way to do this is to have the tie rod ends adjusted by widely different amounts, but it doesn't sound like that's the case on yours. Looking at the Mazdaspeed parts diagrams, I don't see any adjustment mechanism on the inner side, underneath the boot, so I don't think that's it either. On the other hand, I do notice that there are three different part numbers for the manual and power rack tie rods -- the manual uses the same rod on both ends, while the power rack has different rods for the two sides. Yours is a manual, right? I dunno if the rods are the same length or not, but if one were slightly longer than the others, then perhaps someone repaired a bent tie rod by installing the wrong part, then realigned the wheel & tie rod ends to make it drive straight? I recently discovered that mine is off in a similar fashion but not to the same degree -- I went to put some 15x9 6ULs on it, and they hit the a-arm at full lock turning right, but not turning left. Wheel turns about 20-30 degrees more to the right than to the left. Only the 6ULs hit, my other wheels (15x7s) are fine. In my case, I'm pretty sure it's my fault. I had the rack off like 9 years ago when I dropped the subframe to repair the oil pan that I screwed up when drilling for the turbo install, and I probably didn't quite line it up right when I put it back. The car got immediately aligned after going back together, and it's close enough that I suspect nobody noticed it was off. --Ian _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
