ibyf@ihlpa.UUCP (Scott) (02/19/86)
Ok you net.auto fans, here's one for you. I have only driven two front wheel drive cars,but noticed in both of them that they tend to drift to the right side of the road. This is especially noticeable when accelerating. Is this a phenomenom common to front wheel drive cars, or did I just get lucky to have two that were out of alignment in the same way? Thanks in advance. Addison ihnp4!ihlpa!ibyf My brother? I always thought of him as mom and dad's science project.
4373jml@homxb.UUCP (J.LISS) (02/20/86)
You don't mention whether its a transverse mounted or in-line engine.
msm@teddy.UUCP (02/20/86)
> Ok you net.auto fans, here's one for you. I have only driven two > front wheel drive cars,but noticed in both of them that they tend to > drift to the right side of the road. This is especially noticeable > when accelerating. Is this a phenomenom common to front wheel drive > cars, or did I just get lucky to have two that were out of alignment > in the same way? Thanks in advance. > > Addison > ihnp4!ihlpa!ibyf > Sound's like you are describing 'Torque-Steer' to me. This arises because one wheel is closer to the engine than the other. The further wheel has a longer shaft to get it's power from, and therefor develos more torque. This force imbalance will pull the car to one side when you boot it. The solution is to put "half-shafts" into the drive train so that there is an equal length of drive shaft leading to each side. My Dodge Daytona has this and even when I punch it (~150 hp) there is no pull whatsoever. The early Shelby Chargers, however, did not have this and were supposed to be real beasts to control. MSM
dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) (02/21/86)
In article <1127@ihlpa.UUCP> ibyf@ihlpa.UUCP (Scott) writes: >Ok you net.auto fans, here's one for you. I have only driven two >front wheel drive cars,but noticed in both of them that they tend to >drift to the right side of the road.... My new Toyota Tercel does it, and I just had my Behemoth Electra aligned, and it does the same. I had always attributed it to the fact that highways are made to slant slightly away from the middle line so that water won't collect; thus, if I am driving on the right side, my car will lean to the right. I tested this theory on a 4-lane by driving in the left lane and letting go of the steering wheel (carefully, of course!); sure enough, there is much less tendency to pull to the right. On the far left, there is actually a tendency to pull to the left. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Kirby ( ...!ihnp4!akgua!cylixd!dave)
tohaapanen@watrose.UUCP (Tom Haapanen) (02/22/86)
In article <1127@ihlpa.UUCP> ibyf@ihlpa.UUCP (Scott) writes: > >Ok you net.auto fans, here's one for you. I have only driven two >front wheel drive cars,but noticed in both of them that they tend to >drift to the right side of the road. This is especially noticeable >when accelerating. Is this a phenomenom common to front wheel drive >cars, or did I just get lucky to have two that were out of alignment >in the same way? Thanks in advance. (in a later article he mentions that the two cars are Skylark and Skyhawk) This is a phenomenon known as 'torque steer' and it results from unequal amounts of torque being transmitted to the two driving front wheels. The problem increases with engine horsepower; it's unnoticeable with 50 hp, but with 200 hp you will have problems keeping he car on the road under full acceleration. The issue can be avoided in the design phase by making the driveshafts equal length (as they are in a RWD car), but with a transverse engine it is less expensive not to do so, so the problem is often ignored. Witness the J-car and X-car that you have driven. Apparently the problem has been corrected on the Turbo J-cars (necessary!) by making the shorter driveshaft thicker at the mid-point and thus giving the two shafts equal angular momentum. The problem was never as serious with the Rabbit/Jetta/Scirocco, and the new Golf/Jetta have practically equal-lenght driveshafts. \tom haapanen watmath!watrose!haapanen I'm all lost in the Supermarket I can no longer shop happily I came in here for that special offer Guaranteed personality (c) The Clash, 1979
junk@ur-tut.UUCP (Jan Vandenbrande) (02/22/86)
In article <2134@teddy.UUCP> msm@teddy.UUCP writes: >> Ok you net.auto fans, here's one for you. I have only driven two >> front wheel drive cars,but noticed in both of them that they tend to >> drift to the right side of the road. This is especially noticeable >> when accelerating. > >Sound's like you are describing 'Torque-Steer' to me. This arises because >one wheel is closer to the engine than the other. The further wheel has a >longer shaft to get it's power from, and therefor develos more torque. This >force imbalance will pull the car to one side when you boot it. The solution >is to put "half-shafts" into the drive train so that there is an equal length >of drive shaft leading to each side. I thought that another solution to this problem of torque steer was to give the two shafts the same (or close) inertial properties. I believe that VW tries to achieve this by having the shorter shaft solid, and the longer shaft hollow. I haven't yet experienced the phenomenon described above with my VW toy. Jan.