Normal Bumpsteer for 10 inch travel beams.

[JBraxton]

Hello all. My daily driver Baja was hit recently, crushing the driver side fender, bending the BJ beam at a 45% angle, and tweaking the pan and head. Driver had no insurance, lucky me. Like any rational human, I refused to let the arguably poor condition body die, holding onto fond trips, and elected to do a body swap onto another pan. This pan has 3x3 irs rear arms, and a 6 inch over size front link pin, with mystery to me trailing arms. Every single part on that chassis was so Mickey Mouse, I wish I had photos of the rear shocks before I fixed them. They were about 2 feet of steel flat stock with the original top mounts snot welded into place facing the wrong way for compliance, with empi coil over helper shocks. So bad its funny, and apparently the owners before me drove it like that. Bet she handled like a shopping cart. I smacked the welds with a deadblow and they came off. Anyway, I mounted the new HD rack and pinion that came with it, and mounted it before I fully understood bump steer. First non sotck rack. I just mounted it where the tie rods were mostly horizontal at ride height, with no outrageous angles. Not correct. Experiencing some odd driving dynamics, and wondering what amounts of bump steer other people are getting? Want to know what is normal for before I make my car undrivable again. I would eyeball im getting 5ish degrees of tow out, on both compression and droop. Thanks!

[CentralWAbaja]

what's 5 degrees in inches? Measure the change in toe in inches.

My suspension cycles a very clean 15" stays at zero bumpster until the last inch or so up and toes out 1/8 at bump and is clean till the last 2 inches down and toe sout about 1/4 at droop. This took DAYS of cycling and moving the rack and rotating it to get right. The Hibbards book has a section on setting the rack and explains it pretty well. My car car is a dream to drive freeway speeds in rough stuff.

[JBraxton]

what's 5 degrees in inches? Measure the change in toe in inches.

My suspension cycles a very clean 15" stays at zero bumpster until the last inch or so up and toes out 1/8 at bump and is clean till the last 2 inches down and toe sout about 1/4 at droop. This took DAYS of cycling and moving the rack and rotating it to get right. The Hibbards book has a section on setting the rack and explains it pretty well. My car car is a dream to drive freeway speeds in rough stuff.

Thanks for the response, I have some work to do then. I would guess I have at least 3/8-1/2 inch of tow changes, and they come pretty quick. Its not awful to drive, but its a huge downgrade from a stock box honestly. Just not ideal. Any tips for how you did rough mockups? I have brackets welded to my frame head rather then the beam, I'm fairly hesitant to grind and weld 100 times. Thanks!

[CentralWAbaja]

Lets have a bit more info:
Are you still on a VW pan?
If so, you are going to be way off without modifying the frame head as your rack will be too high.
back 10+ years ago Chirco had a great how to on a baja that they were building in house. I don't see it on their site anymore. Maybe email Joe@chirco and see if they have it somewhere still


If you are on tube chassis front, then hose clamps and tacks are your friend

stf 92.jpg

if your rack is not in this general position on the top tube, you are way off and on a stock VW frame head the tie rods will not clear.

[JBraxton]

Lets have a bit more info:
Are you still on a VW pan?
If so, you are going to be way off without modifying the frame head as your rack will be too high.
if your rack is not in this general position on the top tube, you are way off and on a stock VW frame head the tie rods will not clear.

Still on a VW pan. Here is a photo taken while doing the body swap. I got it pretty much as low as one can without cutting the frame. The whole reason i didn't attatch to the beam was to get the height issue solved, but in doing so i may have moved it to far back.

PXL_20250726_005335164~2.jpg

My gut reaction is to attempt to move it forward, how does that look to you? I know it likely cannot be perfect without some serious modification, but just hoping to get it better then slap a steering dampener on it to band-aid the issue. Thanks

[CentralWAbaja]

A dampener will only band aid what you feel at the wheel and do nothing for the stability of the car, since the tires are not pointing where you want to go. Its hard to tell from your photos but the inner tie rods should be near that upper beam tube. if you look at a stock VW setup they are pretty close to that. Yes two different lengths, but they pivot from the correct spot for the travel of the