Heres a quick run down on the benifits of doing this modification
• Decreasing ackerman angle gives the biggest adavantage to a drift car. What this does is the less ackerman you run the straighter the front wheels will be in relation to each other. In a normal Knuckle setup the front wheels on full lock are toeing out by massive amounts, by changing the mounting point on the knuckle we decrease the toe out and it brings the mid corner speed, front end grip and rear end drive up a lot.
• Increasing lock is what everyone in the drift world wants to do, the more lock you have the less chance you have of spinning. By shifting the mounting point of the tie rod end to the knuckle out further to decrease ackerman you are instantly increasing lock as the knuckle rotates further around before it hits the lock stop.
• Decreasing bump steer at the same time as decreasing your ackerman is a logical step. On my knuckles I lower the tie rod mounting position on the knuckle 35mm, this brings the tie rod a lot straighter on a lowered car than it would with a factory knuckle meaning bump steer effect will be lessened.
• Quick steering is incorporated into the modified knuckle design, the distance between the tie rod mounting point and the lower ball joint swivel point on your Lower Control Arm is made shorter making for less leverage and more input from the steering wheel. A factory knuckle may measure around 3-3.5 turns lock to lock whereas a modified knuckle like mine gives you around 2 turns lock to lock, this makes it a lot easier to trace the wheel and make minute adjustments to angle mid corner, it makes drifting a lot easier on the driver. Another benefit to this is the decreased rack travel, there's no longer any need to add rack spacers as your rack will never bottom out because of the increased ratio.
• An added bonus is the harder steering feel associated with the shorter distance between the tie rod mounting point and the lower ball joint swivel point, often S series nissans have a very light steering wheel making it hard for the driver to get a good feel on what the front wheels are doing. The less leverage the knuckle now has on the steering rack because of the modified knuckle makes the feeling of the steering a lot more user friendly
• To sum it up, modified Knuckles and drift cars go hand in hand, bang for buck modifactions on drift cars don’t come much better than these.
• Please note: improper welding and preparation may put your life at risk, only trust people who are qualified and carry the proper certification for such jobs.
