Oops.. what's the deal with this??

[Jay300ex]

I am putting the front ends together on two 300ex's that I tore down for rebuild/PC. Today I tightened one down, and I went to see how the steering looked and all, it turns all the way in one direction on my quad, but in the other, the bolt on the wheel side of the tie rod hits my a-arm before it hits the stopper for the steering stem. That wheel turns way to much?

Visa versa for the other quad, except it happens on the opposite side, the other wheel. I am trying to think what's the cause of this so I can fix it when I get out of school. I am thinking maybe I put the tie rods in the wrong sides ( the gold ends are facing out like the manual says ) or I some how swapped steering stems and that is causing the mishap. Any ideas or suggestions guys? THis sucks took a chip outta my a-arms bleh.

[TheFontMaster]

Sounds like you got somthing mixed up between the 2 300ex's. I don't know what it migh be but thats just my .02 cents.

[400exdad]

You need to adjust your tie rods. Chances are when the wheels are straight, the stem is not centered in between the stops. :cool:

[muff]

Originally posted by 400exdad
You need to adjust your tie rods. Chances are when the wheels are straight, the stem is not centered in between the stops. :cool:


ditto. straighten the stem and see if the wheels are pointed straight. if the steering on both was fine before you tore them down you could fix the problem by putting the right tie rods on teh right quad....but itd be impossible to find out what ones go where

[Jay300ex]

Well the tie rods were for the right quads. I swapped the tie rods, put them on opposite sides that is, and that eliminated the sieze. I couldn't twist the rods before, but now I can, but I still have the problem with the bolts hitting the a-arms. Only thing left is to do the alignment service, which is a PITA but if that's what has to be done.


I was just thinking that I know that my stem is bent slightly from flipping it on the bars ONCE, but it hardly affects the steering much, just a little. And I noticed on the other quad, that the steering shaft is twisted, because I put the bars strait, and you can see that the clover thing ( where the tie rods bolt to the stem ) is further one way that the other. So I am going to finish putting them together, then do the toe adjustment and see if that helps out with the problem, I just thought it would wack things up even more but maybe not?

[buildinitnow]

The bolt for the 300ex where the tie rod mounts to the spindle(i think thats what it is called) also hits the a-arm on my brothers. I was buzzing through my woods coarse and i clipped a tree with my left tire, not hard but something let loose. I slowed down and kept going. I went two feet and noticed that my left tire was sticking at a 80 degree angle to the front of my quad. I thought to myself( great on my brothers quad). I looked, and the bolt was up and over the a-arm. I thought i could get it off if i took the front shock off, but that didn't help one bit. So i put the shock back on, put the 300ex on its grab bar, got on it, and slammed the front end on the ground. Immediately the tie-rod bolt came up and over on the a-arm and the wheel went back to its normal place. He has never had any problems with it since the tree i hit. The point of the story is that the bolt also hits the a-arm on this ex to, so it might be a 300ex thing??????? ITs just my .02.

[edz250r]

I installed new +2+1 lonestar a-arms and tie rods over the winter and the spindle bolt hits my left a-arm as well. I called lonestar and they told me that this is pretty normal with aftermarket a-arms and stock spindle and frame. Bunch of crap if you ask me, but I know of a lot of people with this same problem and there is nothing you can do.

[Jay300ex]

Originally posted by edz250r
I installed new +2+1 lonestar a-arms and tie rods over the winter and the spindle bolt hits my left a-arm as well. I called lonestar and they told me that this is pretty normal with aftermarket a-arms and stock spindle and frame. Bunch of crap if you ask me, but I know of a lot of people with this same problem and there is nothing you can do.


That's strange, I hate it when you run into something like that and someone says it just happens and can't do anything about it, when it didn't even do that before the fact. So If I find any solutions I will post.

[muff]

sometimes, especially on the older quads (250r) where the steering stem stops on the frame and on the stem can get worn down, causing it to steer farther than it should and the wheels will hit


also on one of my quads when you turn the wheel it will stop before the a-arm, but then if you grab the tire you can push it all the way into the a-arm. this is because the tie rod ends are worn and there is enough play in them to allow the tire to keep turning


....just some things that could all attribute to the problem

[Jay300ex]

Originally posted by muff



....just some things that could all attribute to the problem

Thanks for the input. Those are definatly viable reasons in some cases. I am just in a weird position because my quad is only 2 years old, and the other quad is only 1 year old. You can see it to when you have the wheels off. I turn the bars and you can see one spindle turn faster and more than the other. It is definatly screwy, but I will focus on that problem more when I get everything else done! :)

Jay

[big-guy]

Hold on now, the outside wheel will turn less than the inside for a reason, it's called ackerman effect. Perfectly normal.

[muff]

Originally posted by big-guy
Hold on now, the outside wheel will turn less than the inside for a reason, it's called ackerman effect. Perfectly normal.


:p yeah...but whats it called when the inside wheel turns so far it hits the a-arm? :(

for some reason he has the problem of the inside wheel actually turning to far and it scrapes the a-arm....mine does it as well, but i believe its because the tie rod ends are shot, you can turn the wheel and it'll stop atleast an inch or two away from the a-arm, but then you can grab the tire and push it right up to the a-arm :o

[Jay300ex]

This could be wrong information, but what if I sat on it and had the susp depressed with my weight, and it didn't hit?

Jay

[muff]

Originally posted by Jay300ex
This could be wrong information, but what if I sat on it and had the susp depressed with my weight, and it didn't hit?

Jay

so you're saying that when your just turning the handlebars sitting there that the tires dont hit the a-arms?

this makes a big difference on what the problem could be. try turning the wheel all of the way and then forcing the tire into the a-arm

[Jay300ex]

If I am not on the quad I can turn the wheel into the a-arm, but when I get on it, turn the bars, look down, they wheel doesn't hit. I can't really force the wheel over by myself, but I will have to have somebody help me with that.

[Aallron]

It sounds like the offset of the rims could be different.
Take the wheel tire assembly off and put it on the ground with the inside up. Put a yardstick across the assembly and measure the distance from the yardstick to the wheel mounting and compare it to your other front tire/wheel assemblies both inside and outside, you could have a mismatched offset. Long shot but you never know.

[Jay300ex]

Originally posted by Aallron
It sounds like the offset of the rims could be different.
Take the wheel tire assembly off and put it on the ground with the inside up. Put a yardstick across the assembly and measure the distance from the yardstick to the wheel mounting and compare it to your other front tire/wheel assemblies both inside and outside, you could have a mismatched offset. Long shot but you never know.


Hmm. I will try this. I had 4 sets of wheels, but I thought I kept track of them pretty well. And I know that the hubs and the spindles arn't mixed up, but I dunno about the tires.

My quad pulls to one direction when I hold my bars strait because my stem is tweaked, I might be throwing this option in to you guys as well because if I hold the bars to TRAVEL strait, they are not strait, they are cocked SLIGHTLY to one direction. So wouldn't this mean turninging them in the other direction might turn it to far?

Jay