From my experience, the older manual steering boxes take more turns from lock to lock, so the correction you see him doing is actually quite minuscule. Also, the roads suck here.Originally Posted by nota
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From my experience, the older manual steering boxes take more turns from lock to lock, so the correction you see him doing is actually quite minuscule. Also, the roads suck here.
"We went to Wnedy's. I had chicken nuggest." ~ Quiggs
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You can see how poor the road surface is
That, even in a recirculating bearing steering system, is a huge amount of input. Atleast in my experience.
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Well I've owned six Oz-built Chrysler Valiants from the 1960s which belong to this particular US body generation. Lets see .. three sedans, a wagon, and the two hardtop 2-doors that visually are pretty much identical to this Dart.From my experience, the older manual steering boxes take more turns from lock to lock, so the correction you see him doing is actually quite minuscule. Also, the roads suck here.
Consisting of three Hemi Pacers with IIRC the ahem 'quick ratio' four turns lock-to-lock, and the other (either non sporty Hemi & Slant-six models) having the regular five. And let me tell you that all but one of them steered and tracked exactly like a normal car. In other words the required wheel-work consisted of basically 'set & forget' even at high speeds. Either one inch or one & a half inches of play at the rim, max.
The sole exception being a Slant-six hardtop which was a totally rooted high-milage ex-'cut & shut' mobile wreckage that also literally had a full 1/4 turn of freeplay in the steering box & front-end, that I bought from a dealer for all of $32. In steering dynamics this Dart appears desperately similar to that car. So if this Dodge represents US-style motoring excitement then, err .. please .. count me out!
Btw our Hemi-powered Mopars were good enough to be endorsed by a 'certain motoring identity'
Last edited by nota; 01-03-2009 at 09:03 PM.
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That ad is awesome. I love the huge hemi drawing in the beginning.
I guess I've driven some worn out old junk then.
"We went to Wnedy's. I had chicken nuggest." ~ Quiggs
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If net-bored then maybe you might also like these ones
YouTube - Hey Charger TV ads
YouTube - Valiant E49 Charger Six Pack
YouTube - RT E49 auction bennets adelaide
Possibly.. but I can't imagine that wonky tyres would affect it sooo badly, as you describe .. are we talking radials, or cacky crossplies?I guess I've driven some worn out old junk then.
Honestly I don't remember Valiants being altogether too bad in the steering dept. Not millimetre perfect R&P but still modestly precise, unlike early Falcons with their 'keep twirling' Six Turns lock-to-lock which meant that any attempt at rapid maneuvering made you feel like the proverbial caged mouse inside the exercise wheel, frantically trying to 'keep up'
I'd be looking more at the traditional Mopar front-end bugaboos. You know all the regular stuff like tired ball joints (esp lower) and tie-rod ends, pitman & idler arm, radius rod rubbers, A-arm bushes, steering box adjustment. There's not much else to a torsion bar front-end!
I love the look of those early 'Exner' A-bodies although the wagon is definitely 'out there' with all the odd angles. We never saw the Q in Oz or the wagon, only sedans in R & S-series which were a real cult car here. I once owned a green '63 S-series manual just like this
http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au...t_S_Series.pdf
The 6cyl Valiants here were all 225cid (until 1970-debut Hemi) and ran on 14" wheels instead of 13". Btw I see the steering box on your L/H/D A-bodies is mounted directly on the K-member, as it should. But in R/H/D ours were bolted onto the (pressed metal) chassis rail inner which is not the most ideal setup. Because when the shockies get tired on our rough roads this of course leads to continual bottoming-out. And this (over)load ends up at the steering box and typically causes the welded seam to split on the side of the rail where the box mounts onto, causing alarming metal flex and twist (including the now only semi-attached steering box!) and even worse steering vagueness to what you mention. If left ignored it really can get to diabolical levels.
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In that video it looks like it has Goodyear Eagle Frontrunners( Goodyear Race Tires || Eagle® Dragway Special® ), which are supposed to be race only, so that might explain a little.
That's interesting that they mounted the boxes on the side rail. Why wouldn't they just develop another k member?
"We went to Wnedy's. I had chicken nuggest." ~ Quiggs
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