Originally posted by sean
ok here we go talking about the link adjustment again. now lets think about this for a moment-there is a problem here. take your link car,set it down in front of you and really look at the pivot system. try to envision the implications of unequal lenght links.can you see? now the chassis,pod plate and football are all milled or machined-there are no imperfections there-so what could ther be to adjust? ah ha! the cheesey molded links! now take another good look and think about what this does-REAR WHEEL STEERING. if you have flaws in the molding process and links dont quite match each other,the only way to fix it is adjust the CAR around the LINKS.
wtf? please forgive me , maybe i am uptight but i spend my days repairing and rebuilding sterndrives(mercruiser and volvo/penta) there is no tolerance for "imperfections" in gear shimming procedures-so i expect everything to be like that
yah - but how much does it really matter? They are small enough plastic parts that if (big if) they come out of a different mold cavity, they will probably only be off by 0.0005 - 0.001" or so. Not enough to notice and well within the tolerances of all the other parts (machined parts too! They will also have error!) and the assembly error. All you really need to do is adjust the toe of the front to compensate. Besides, there is more variation in the front end, tire durometer and axle alignment, runout, and concentricity then in "rear steer".
Probably also more variation in driving ability too - but that's another topic.
If you really want to get involved in statistics and variation, I'd be happy to. I'm a master level mechanical engineer and an industrial statistitian. But let's not clutter up this thread.