Excessive Front Tyre Wear on Hunters and Toe Out Turns

When you turn a corner in your car the inner front wheel (left wheel on left turns and the right wheel on right turns) has to turn to a sharper angle than the outer wheel.  This is because when  the car travels around a bend the inner wheel travels through a tighter curve than the outer one.  The means to facilitate this, is built into the steering geometry and is called toe-out on turns.  When designing the Hunter, for reasons unknown to me, they got it wrong.  Hunters have insufficient toe-out on turns and consequently wear the front tyres excessively.  Here’s a simple fix I devised.  I have modified two cars now and while not perfect, it is a big improvement.

To begin, jack up the front of the car and place on chassis stands, remove the front wheels and remove the tie-rod ends from the steering arms.  To do this, loosen the tie-rod end retaining nut and screw it level with the end of the thread.  Then apply a few sharp hits with a hammer to the end of the steering arm (as shown in diagram) until the tie-rod end drops free from the arm.  Undo the two bolts securing the steering arm and remove it from the vehicle.  As shown in the diagram, make a mark 6mm from point B, this is point C, scribe a line from point C to point A and remove all metal above this line.

Without machine tools it will be difficult to make the new surfaces perfectly flat, so to ensure good seating, grind the surfaces slightly concave.   Re-attach the steering arm to the strut and refit the tie-rod end to the arm.  Do the same on the other steering arm.  The front wheels will now have excessive toe-in.  To correct this loosen the two lock nuts on each tie-rod, turn back one and a half turns, then turn the tie-rod into the tie-rod ends until lock nuts come back into contact with the tie-rod ends, then re-tighten lock nuts.  Refit the wheels, remove car from stands and you are ready to go.

Keep a close watch on front tyre wear, small readjustment to toe-in may be necessary.   Do not attempt to heat or bend any steering or suspension component as this may cause hairline cracking leading to failure.   It is also illegal.