Hey, can some one tell me a good way to align my front end. ive got the ricky stator ajustable upper a arms and just ordered new tusk tie rods(snapped my ricky stators). im also wondering what i should have the upper arms at since they ae ajustable. and the length the tie rods should be at. later

 

You need to Email Ricky. Those products have a warenty. I bent mine and snaped an end. Emailed him, sent them in, got new ones. Nice people over there.

 

yeah sucks spent 200 bucks and one snapped. i already ordered a tusk pair. i wish i didnt throw away the broke one now[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

There is a specific way to align the front end in the repair manuals. But i never follow them. I like to do trial and error on a paved road, with loose tierods. I work with them untill it steers strait and my tires are not wearing to much. I think the factory way of alignment is by mesuring the distance between the front and rear of the front tires.

 

Honda tells you to mark each tire at one spot in approximately the center of the tread, then measure the distance between the marks in two positions. If you think of the tire as the face of a clock, looking at it from the side, you take one measurement at 3 o'clock position, and record it. Then, rotate both tires until the marks you made are at the 9 o'clock position, then measure again. The difference in the two measurements is the amount of toe-in or out you have. I found the best way to get an accurate measurement is to make a shallow slice in the center of two tread lugs, then stick something in the slices, I think I used a piece of popsicle stick.

Now, here it gets interesting... the manual I have tells me to raise the front of the quad off the ground to take the measurements. Because of where the tie rod ends attach to the steering knuckle and the steering pivot, the amount of toe in you see with the wheels off the ground is NOT what you get with the suspension loaded.

Apparently Honda recommends having the front wheels in a toed-out condition, which is out to lunch as far as I'm concerned. Any vehicle I ever had anything to do with was always set with toe in to provide better stability and a narrower turning circle. My manual is a Clymer manual, and I'm not questioning what they say, which is to set for toe-in.

Having said that, my 400 was.. "twitchy" for lack of a better word when I first got it, eager to go either right or left over less than smooth ground at any speed above dead slow. I checked the alignment, and it was toed-out, as Honda recommends. I set it for what Clymer recommends, which is 16 mm toed IN with wheels raised. No more "twitchiness", it tracks straight at any spped now, and seems to turn tighter as well.

Now, with the suspension loaded, I checked the alignment again, and lo and behold, it is nearly perfectly "zero" , or dead straight ahead. The geometry of the steering gear changes dramatically with the suspension compressed.

After I reset it, it wanted to go slightly right with the bars straight ahead, so I adjusted both tie rod ends to bring it back to center, and still maintained the correct toe in. It doesn't take much to make a big difference, if I remember correctly a quarter turn on both did the trick.

Best thing is to sit down and have a long hard look at the steering setup, think through what you're going to do, and WRITE DOWN what you already have. If you want to go back, it's easy then. Mark everything with a paint marker before you start, so you aren't scratching your head and saying, " Now was that a half turn or a full turn??" Don't ask me how I know... let's just say I've been there before..

 

thanks guys