Do Tie Rod Angle Spacers Increase Bump Steer??

[ScrapnSidwayz]

I have read before that tie rod angle spacers can increase bump steer but I cant find where I read that at. So... do they really increase bump steer??

Thanks,
Mike

[Gabes13]

Technically yes, b/c you're changing the original relationship between the inner tie rod and lower control are points.

[ScrapnSidwayz]

I may have to remove mine then and realign my front end to have more neutral toe, because my car suffers from really bad bump steer.

[Gabes13]

I hear ya. The best thing to do (if you wanted to keep the inner spacer) would be to invest in some inner tie rods that have the spacer already machined on. Most retain the original inner pivot location, ergo, no bump steer.

[ScrapnSidwayz]

Where could I find inner tie rods like that?
Also I was thinking about getting SPL's adjustable outer and inner tie rods and keeping my spacers, but that would be pretty damn expensive. But if I could keep my steering angle and kill all the bump steer it might be worth it, do you think that would work?

[Gabes13]

Peak Performance were the tie rods I was talking about.

http://www.peak-performance.net/content/view/163/81/

You can see that the spacer is machined on, so the distance between the rod pivot and the part that touches the rack is the same (no diversion of original inner tie rod pivot point). I think kazama inners are similar, though I haven't seen one next to a stock inner to really see the difference in pivot points. Megans are modeled after the kazamas.

SPL outers are definitely the best outers on the market, especially if you're low. SPL doesn't make inners though, they just sell, tein z33, oem z32, and tein s14 inners.

All will fit on your rack and s14 outers, the difference is their length and whether or not they come with inner spacers.

There's a picture online somewhere showing the difference, i'll try to look for it. Both tein z33 and s14 come with slip on spacers, so I don't think your bump is going to be minimized with those. Both z32 and z33 inners are shorter than s14 inners. If you have stock knuckles, spl would recommend you purchase the Z inners bc the shorter tie rod will compensate for the larger adjuster piece on the SPL outer. This combination should allow you to adjust for 0" of toe.

You could buy the SPL outer and try combining different sized spacers to minimize your toe change, but if your inner and outer pivot points are not the same, I don't think you could achieve zero toe throughout your entire compression and rebound curve.

[ScrapnSidwayz]

I see what you mean by the Peak Performance inners being machined for increased steering angle. I have looked at the Peak Performance outers before but I never checked out the inners, thats pretty cool. I might go with Peak Performance inners and outers, I hope those would be adjustable to zero toe. I need to research those some more

Yeah I know that SPL doesn't actually make their own inner tie rods, thats a shame

Currently I have Tein inner and outer tie rods, I didn't really realize how bump steer affected my handling at the time because I had just got the car running and installed the coilovers. I wish I would of bought adjustable outers from the very start and saved myself money.

lol I think it would be the perfect combo if somebody machined a set of z32 inners for increased angle to work with the SPL outers.

[ScrapnSidwayz]

Man im kind of skeptical about Peak Performance parts because I mainly find bad reviews talking about the parts breaking.

[Gabes13]

Here's a picture of the z33 inners next to the s14 ones. The mounting points look the same. Z on the left, s14 on the right.



I don't have any peak performance parts so I can't critique on their quality control. Personally, I'm going to splurge on SPL :p

[ScrapnSidwayz]

The Z's inner tie rod is definitely a bit shorter. I been thinking about it and I use my car 95% of the time as my dd, I'm probably just going to pick up the SPL outers and some z32 inners so that way I'm confident that nothing will be snapping on me while I'm driving around.
I may contact a machine shop to see if they could machine some spacers into the inner tie rods so I could keep some of my steering angle as well.

EDIT: lol I just noticed that you said your going with SPL too, I think im doing the same.