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Rear axle not parallel with front axle

Peter,

The human eyeball Mk-I / Mod. Zero is extremely sensitive to things that are out of alignment with the world around them. If your car looks like it is tracking sideways on a straight road, it probably is. Conversely, if your car looks like it is properly aligned with a straight road, it probably is.

I respectively suggest that you carefully watch the driving behavior of your Tiger from a following vehicle and quit worrying about the fiddly numbers on a report from an alignment shop that almost certainly has no idea how to measure or adjust alignment on a 60 year old car.

JMO, YMMV.
 
Barry said:
Peter,

The human eyeball Mk-I / Mod. Zero is extremely sensitive to things that are out of alignment with the world around them. If your car looks like it is tracking sideways on a straight road, it probably is. Conversely, if your car looks like it is properly aligned with a straight road, it probably is.
Click to expand...
Barry in general agreement with your post...but a sunbeam when following from the rear of you can see down the side of the car at all will always look a little angles because of the perspective and inset rear wheels.
You would need to be driving directly behind it

What might be a good test is to draw 2 chalk lines on the road outside Peter's house... Maybe 10 meters long inline with the front wheels.. and measure the distance to the rear wheel each side to the line . Drive straight along the line and see what the measurement to each rear wheel and the lines are after... if the car is crabbing it will alter the measurements side to side
 
Thanks again both Barry and Michael!
I like your idea Michael with the chalk lines. The car is now more than 8 months with the shop were they have been rectifying a lot of things that the former owner in the Uk has done wrong. I will inform the shop about Michael's idea and ask them to use this chalk line test in order to find out if there is something wrong with the car.
Thanks again!
 
Easy to measure from front edge of each rear tire to opening of it's wheelhousing arch. If the axle has shifted, the left and right should differ. Two or three fingers may tell the tale...
 
Peter,

What matters is how your Tiger drives, not some fiddly numbers on an alignment report. If your Tiger tracks straight, the rear axle is properly aligned.

Have you actually observed an issue with your Tiger tracking sideways?
 
Thanks again guys! Shannon I will test as you have mentioned.
Barry I myself have not noticed anything, but the mecanic of the shop told me that he had the impression that the Tiger was sliding over it's tires.
The only thing that is altered at the car in that respect is a complete overhaul of the differential and now the traction bars are removed because up til now we have not found new rubbers or better polyurethane bushes. So I wondered if the removing of the traction bars have caused this sliding over the tires. I wonder about this possible cause because if the rear axle is not in line it could maybe possible that wile driving the car the rear axle tries to correct itself which maybe causes this sliding over the tires and my theory is that with the traction bars installed the rear axle can't correct itself and even maybe caused damaged to the differential. Or am I seeeing ghosts that are not there?
The mecanic is pretty sure that the damage to the differetial is caused by very bad adjustments earlier made to the differential, among other faults there was a great adjustment difference between left and right. In England a LSD was installed and maybe there they have gone wrong regarding the adjustments.
By the way in order to overhaul the differential the mecanic removed the rear axle from the car because it made it much easier for him to adjust the differential, he had to take out the differential many times in order to find the right shims for adjusting. Could having removed the rear axle from the car caused something that causes the car sliding over it's tires?
Questions, questions and more questions! I am starting lo loose confidence that I am going to enjoy driving this Tiger again and it even crossed my mind to sell the car and forget about it.
 
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pruyter said:
Thanks again guys! Shannon I will test as you have mentioned.
Barry I myself have not noticed anything, but the mecanic of the shop told me that he had the impression that the Tiger was sliding over it's tires.
The only thing that is altered at the car in that respect is a complete overhaul of the differential and now the traction bars are removed because up til now we have not found new rubbers or better polyurethane bushes. So I wondered if the removing of the traction bars have caused this sliding over the tires. I wonder about this possible cause because if the rear axle is not in line it could maybe possible that wile driving the car the rear axle tries to correct itself which maybe causes this sliding over the tires and my theory is that with the traction bars installed the rear axle can't correct itself and even maybe caused damaged to the differential. Or am I seeeing ghosts that are not there?
The mecanic is pretty sure that the damage to the differetial is caused by very bad adjustments earlier made to the differential, among other faults there was a great adjustment difference between left and right. In England a LSD was installed and maybe there they have gone wrong regarding the adjustments.
By the way in order to overhaul the differential the mecanic removed the rear axle from the car because it made it much easier for him to adjust the differential, he had to take out the differential many times in order to find the right shims for adjusting. Could having removed the rear axle from the car caused something that causes the car sliding over it's tires?
Questions, questions and more questions! I am starting lo loose confidence that I am going to enjoy driving this Tiger again and it even crossed my mind to sell the car and forget about it.
Click to expand...
‘something that causes the car sliding over it's tires?’ What the heck is that?
Personally I would put it back together, see how it works and if things are out of spec, have a second, even a third mechanical inspection/opinion.
 
I think that the mecanic means that the car is sliding to a side instead of driving straight on. I will ask him for more precise describing

In the meantime I have asked the mecanic about what he ment and his answer is: while taking a bend the car wants to go straight ahead. So he has to force it into the bend.
 
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pruyter said:
I think that the mecanic means that the car is sliding to a side instead of driving straight on. I will ask him for more precise describing

In the meantime I have asked the mecanic about what he ment and his answer is: while taking a bend the car wants to go straight ahead. So he has to force it into the bend.
Click to expand...
My alpine has a wheel projecting from the dash that I use to force it into bends.;)
 
A locked differential will give the feeling of a car being initially reluctant to turn, and feeling "bound up" - maybe that is what your mechanic is describing?
 
...."The car is now more than 8 months with the shop were they have been rectifying a lot of things that the former owner in the Uk has done wrong."....

8 months is a bit much for mechanical repair.

Pruyter, could you give us a list of what was "fixed" that has to do with the drivetrain/suspention?

DW
 
For instance the following is rectified:
Complete clutch overhaul i.e. Master cylinder, slave cilinder, clutch plate, pressure plate (a new diafragma pressure plate is now installed), thrust bearning, fly wheel, ring gear, pilot bearing, starter motor (new pinion and barrel assembly), new engine rubbers, bringing dynamo in line with other pulleys, new rubber trackrod end, new exhaust rings to front pipe, reparing both speedometer and revolution counter, complete overhaul brake system (servo, mastercylinders, calipers, rear cylinders, brake linings and brake hoses) , complete overhaul LSD differential ( shims, new axle shaft, gears etc, etc.) Wheels are balanced. I am sure I have forgotten some more.

Regarding the steering: nothing special to the steering was done. The rear axle was removed in order to make it easier to overhaul the differential and the traction bars were removed because the rubbers were gone which caused a lot of noise. I am now waiting for new polyurethane bushes.
I have asked the mecanic if he, regarding the understeer, sensed a difference before and after he removed the rear axle plus traction bars and he answered that he was not sure about it. So it is possible that it is still the same as before and I had never noticed any understeer in the past. Perhaps I am used to the way it drives and it never bothered me.

So the question is: is there something altered after the rear axle was removed and placed back again and the traction bars have been removed? I don't know and for finding out I have to drive the car myself. Nothing is altered regarding adjusting wheel alignment.
Coming monday the car will go again to the wheel alignment shop in order to find out if there is something wrong.

One little thing is still puzzling me and it is this: when I slipp the gas pedal and the brakes on the engine I hear some "grumbling" coming from the exhaust. I have had this before many years ago and the solution then was smearing some exhaust past on the rings between the front exhaust pipe and the exhaust manifold. Apperently there was some leaking there. While the engine plus gearbox were taken out in order to repair the clutch new exhaust rings were installed on the front pipe and I guess that the shop has not taken exhaust paste on it, so I have to ask them about even when I had told them in advance to take care of this.
I delivered the car in the workshop the 21th of august 2023, so actually the car is there now for nearly 9 and half a month.
They have a lot of experiences with both Italian and English classic cars but no experience at all with Sunbeams, so a lot is new for them but they are renown and thrustworthy that is something I have no doubt about at all. The shop owner is very pleased with my interferences and said that he likes that a lot more than other owners who leave their car there for a year and never bother to ask them something or even bother to visit them in the meantime. A lot of the comments you have given me I have transferred to the workshop and they are using your advises. So I am gratefull to all your help I have experienced up to now!

Regards,

Peter
 
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