4WS idea?

[lord flashheart]

havent put much thought into weather or not this would work, but i was driving an older prelude, the ones with the mechanical 4 wheel steering, and got to thinking... what would it take to put that on a legacy? i figured it would be easier to do the mechanical than the electric 4WS but i might be wrong.
anyone have thoughts on this?

[jey]

The Legacy already has passive 4 wheel steering. The geometry of the links causes the toe to change as the suspension compresses due to a turn.

[lord flashheart]

yeah, but im interested in putting a full mechanical 4WS system on a legacy. the preludes rear wheels turn up to 4 degrees.

[httrdd]

Do you mean like a 50/50 split?

[lord flashheart]

no.4 degrees would be plenty.

[ouch1011]

You would have to completely redesign the rear suspension because the rear is not designed to change the toe that much.

[lord flashheart]

even just 4 degrees?

[StatGSR]

worst idea ever. there is a reasons most all companies have given up on 4ws systems, its expensive, problematic, and not even particularly useful...

[lord flashheart]

from what ive seen and the research i have done, that is true on the electric 4ws system. they dont use mechanical 4ws because of yaw problem at high freeway speeds. the electric 4ws are controlled by computers and actuators, so they fail over time and were unpredictable during panic turns. however, the mechanical has a nearly immaculate reliability record. the reason i think it would be cool is cuz it significantly improves cornering stability. in 1988, when the prelude had mechanical 4ws, road and track said it out performed every car that year on the slalom (including every Ferrari, lambo, Porsche, and corvette etc.) and its practical for backing up trailers (which i do on occasion). one of the biggest reasons companys dont offer 4ws is not because of being.problematic. but because of poor sales numbers.
however BMW and infinaty both currently offer 4ws cars.
for example GM stopped producing the quadrasteer denali is because they only sold 16,500 of them. so they discontinued them.

[ouch1011]

even just 4 degrees?

Yes. There are no pivot points on the steering axis on the rear suspension. It is all solid mounted.

I would never contest that a properly implemented 4WS system would be beneficial for handling. My contest would be that the benefits would no even come close to outweighing the cost and effort required to make such a system work on a Legacy.