Originally Posted by
tajar66
Thanks for the reply jdeadman. I will see what I figure out and check with others on the next race day.
Do the suggested above and also check for a bent hinge pin or a damaged arm mount. These happen (especially on the TC3) and can go unnoticed as the car still runs but may no longer run true.
Another thing I see often is people over tighten the upper shock mounts crushing them to the point the shock binds up when compressed. I found this recently when I put another racer's car on my tweak station and could not balance the car. When you compressed the suspension only one side would fully return to ride height while the other side stayed compressed by 1/8". The shock cap was binding up on the upper shock mount and not allowing the spring to fully extend the suspension arm back out.
This will cause a car to keep turning even after returning your steering back to center. Easy check just grab the top of the shock and try to rotate the shock (pivot) on the shock mount bushing. If you can't wiggle it back and forth a little then slightly loosen the shock mount nut and try again.
Not sure on the TC4 but on the TC3 the shocks often are not square (perpendicular) to the arms. Meaning the upper shock mount is not directly above the lower shock mount causing the shock to lean towards the shock Towers. This can cause the shocks and mounts to bind under compression. The fix for this is to space the upper mount out away from the tower until the shocks are directly over the lower mounts. This might require longer shock mount screws to be used.
Finally it may also depend on how your shocks are built, rebound, no rebound, negative rebound, bladders, vented shock caps etc. I have even seen different numbered shock pistons from the left to right shocks which will cause handling problems. The shocks must be built the same left to right for the car to run true.
One thing I have learned about on road racing is you can't just be a good driver to go fast, you must first be a good mechanic!
The second thing is you get out of on road racing what you put into it, meaning you spend way more time tuning and maintaining your car than driving it if you want to consistently be fast.
