Question about Steering pulling

[outnumbered]

I didn't know that that word was banned.In the future I will use kitty-cat or kitten instead of ***** cat. Bruce

Meow!
There is a place nearby called Phoenix. I know they are a professional race shop that does alignments and set up race cars. I know they do Corvettes. I can't see why they couldn't do a Viper. But I will call.

Thanks.

 

[Racer Robbie]

My 04 does it bad. I have become used to it. I have learned if you don't hold the steering wheel tightly it is better.

I wonder if it is more to do with the factory alignment or the tread pattern of the pilots.

We have found great differences between different vipers as far as alignment is concerned. For the price that these tires cost I would have a good alignment shop set your car to spec even if it is new.

And yes a light touch on the steering wheel is the way to go as you can feel the feedback from the road better than if you have a death grip that cramps up your hands.

Do you recall what part of the alignment that is typically off? I was told before that the alignment is quite aggressive from the factory. Does an aggressive alignment cause this?

Even at high speeds on relatively smooth pavement, the car is quite twitchy.

Thanks,

Dan

Dan, The answer is in the toe in/toe out and the camber settings. We have not found caster to be an issue. We always set the rear tires before the front tires and use a rear wheel thrust attachment on the rack. It is a must with the wide rear tires.

 

[Flash1034]

What toe settings have you found to work best on an SRT Viper. I believe the factory recopmmendation is 0 degrees toe.

Flash

 

[Racer Robbie]

stock toe on a 2003 is as follows:

FULL FUEL LOAD

front .01 to .06 set at .02
rear .06 to .11 set at .08


below is what we found Yelloh's viper to be in new stock form the factory


front .01 to .06 was set at .01, left and -.04 right
rear .06 to .11 was set at .10 left and .12 right

As you can see the factory setting are not even from left to right and not in spec. Assuming the alignment was correct when it left the factory one does not know what happened to the car before the new owner is handed the keys, there for it is a wise investment to have the car realigned. I have skip whites alignment which he spend a lot of time developing. I will email it to you Flash as an attachment so you can put it up here in picture form as I have had not luck doing so.

Robbie

 

[zorroespanol]

from the "TOP GEAR" article, thread....

"Those big, thin-profile tyres (the rears are 345/30s) also mean the Viper crashes over every irregularity, and skips its tail each time the driveline is seized in the grip of that monumental torque."

Yes, I was right of course. Thank you very much.

 

[viperjim]

Here is an update to the original question. I checked my tire pressure- I had foolishly assumed it was right since the car went through Maryland state inspection, and spent a month at the dealer working out some issues under warrantee. Don't ask me why I made the assumption. It had 26.5 psi in both front tires and 43 psi in both rears. I changed the pressures to 30 psi cold and noticed an improvement in the steering although the issue is still there. Strangely enough, I was also expecting an improvement in traction but did not see it.
As a side question, when youall run DR radial, what wheels do you use? Do they sell stamped steel or do you buy another pair of stock wheels? If that is the case, how much are they?

Thanks, Jim