What a fun Saturday morning Brandon and I had! It started out being ok, but quickly made a turn for the worse. We set-up the bumpsteer gauge and began to take measurements based on the toe change over the range of motion of the front suspension. The initial shim stack was causing too much toe out as the suspension moved, so I went looking for the shorter shims. After 20 minutes of digging thru boxes, I realized that the shims were sitting at home in my garage. Oh well, we can try to get close using the shims we currently have. Next we added more shims, which we borrowed from another component, and ran the suspension thru its motion. The suspension was now toeing in under bump, which is bad. Time to take everything apart again and retry with less shims and see what that does to the measurements. Using the smallest amount of shims we had with us yielded too much toe change. Ok, we know that not enough shims is bad and too many shims is also bad. Checking the time, we realize that it is time to meet my wife for breakfast. Brandon and I quickly leave the shop to meet up with Sara, Jen, and our friends Todd and Jackie. By the time we were done eating and left the restaurant, it was past noon, which is past the time I can work on the car. Hours of working on bumpsteer basically yielded nothing more than too many or not enough shims is bad. Great, we are now behind schedule and still unsure of how many shims it will take to get us zero toe change for 2” of droop and 2” of bump. If any of you have measured bumpsteer, you realize that is one of the most frustrating things you can do to your car. If you get it wrong, the car could spin under braking because the wheels are turning as the front suspension compresses. This has to be perfect.
Next time we work on the Mustang, Brandon and I will be trying to finish setting the bumpsteer for both sides of the car, adjust the exhaust so it will clear the tires, torque 240 fasteners, install the roll bar padding, and clean it. That is a lot of work to do in just a few hours. Did I mention this what we do for fun?