wheels-inmotion
Active Member
I would like to give a definitive explanation for the historic "pulling left" complaint.
We've all read, heard, experienced this condition, concluding with an official explanation from MB UK it's a "safety feature". It's not.
My field is the chassis but trust me i'm not God in this field nor do i confess to know everything, but with 30yrs in chassis calibration i can recognise a problem and offer a solution.
To the point
The reason most/ some MB's pull/ drift is the build is to perfect?? WTF most are thinking now, and what am i going on about!!
The MB chassis build is superb, tolerance's are minute allowing little future correction at the chassis in the event angles would change. In truth this is a fantastic statement since most modern cars allow for chassis corrections during the cars lifespan.
The problem
The problem is the perfectly symmetrical MB build and our roads!! As abrupt the reason reads that's it.
Solution
Level all the roads in the UK...... Well we all know that's not realistic so what now?
After year 2000 the MB chassis positions was fixed, this was more a
ease of build issue in my opinion but whatever the positions would need additional help by installing adjuster bolts to move angles.
Solution P2
There's a need to move away from the perfect MB build and off-set the chassis in order to cope with the UK's road crown. In order to do this there's two options
1: Stagger the camber positions
2: Stagger the castor positions
Stagger what's that?
The wheels geometric positions offer energy, and handling, tyre wear and all that stuff, but if the "energy" is staggered it's possible to use this inert force to belay the drift.
Options
1: Staggering camber is a dangerous option since camber controls the vehicles weight at the tyres contact patch. Camber position is a prevalent player but a violent force, not to be messed with until desperate times are required.
2: Castor... This is a difficult angle to explain because it has many duties but the one that concerns us is "directional stability". Castor angle holds a directional force that can be manipulated, stagger the castor you can change the force.
To conclude the historic complaints
As said the MB has a "surgical build" in reply to this the MB permitted tolerance's over the axle is minute 30' in most cases, this permitted disparity will not allow sufficient energy to compensate for the UK road crown. MB dealers cannot violate the registered tolerance's even though they probably know what the reason for the complaint is.
In summary
Staggering the castor within the permitted 30' in the UK won't work, it needs to be between 45' to a degree, this violates the MB tolerance's, so in truth MB Uk cannot help you.
I hope this information makes sense, my grammar construction is poor at the best of times.... Poor education i'm afraid.
We've all read, heard, experienced this condition, concluding with an official explanation from MB UK it's a "safety feature". It's not.
My field is the chassis but trust me i'm not God in this field nor do i confess to know everything, but with 30yrs in chassis calibration i can recognise a problem and offer a solution.
To the point
The reason most/ some MB's pull/ drift is the build is to perfect?? WTF most are thinking now, and what am i going on about!!
The MB chassis build is superb, tolerance's are minute allowing little future correction at the chassis in the event angles would change. In truth this is a fantastic statement since most modern cars allow for chassis corrections during the cars lifespan.
The problem
The problem is the perfectly symmetrical MB build and our roads!! As abrupt the reason reads that's it.
Solution
Level all the roads in the UK...... Well we all know that's not realistic so what now?
After year 2000 the MB chassis positions was fixed, this was more a
ease of build issue in my opinion but whatever the positions would need additional help by installing adjuster bolts to move angles.
Solution P2
There's a need to move away from the perfect MB build and off-set the chassis in order to cope with the UK's road crown. In order to do this there's two options
1: Stagger the camber positions
2: Stagger the castor positions
Stagger what's that?
The wheels geometric positions offer energy, and handling, tyre wear and all that stuff, but if the "energy" is staggered it's possible to use this inert force to belay the drift.
Options
1: Staggering camber is a dangerous option since camber controls the vehicles weight at the tyres contact patch. Camber position is a prevalent player but a violent force, not to be messed with until desperate times are required.
2: Castor... This is a difficult angle to explain because it has many duties but the one that concerns us is "directional stability". Castor angle holds a directional force that can be manipulated, stagger the castor you can change the force.
To conclude the historic complaints
As said the MB has a "surgical build" in reply to this the MB permitted tolerance's over the axle is minute 30' in most cases, this permitted disparity will not allow sufficient energy to compensate for the UK road crown. MB dealers cannot violate the registered tolerance's even though they probably know what the reason for the complaint is.
In summary
Staggering the castor within the permitted 30' in the UK won't work, it needs to be between 45' to a degree, this violates the MB tolerance's, so in truth MB Uk cannot help you.
I hope this information makes sense, my grammar construction is poor at the best of times.... Poor education i'm afraid.
, not saying all dealers are bad but one my was/is. Bear in mind I'm driving a contained animal I told them the alignment was off within the first 5 minutes of driving it (before buying it), cutting a long story short...after much wasted time with MB 
