handling problems

[paul burney]

Hi all

I have a K ref nova and it handles like a bag of spanners it's on coilovers all round and inhabe fitted and anti roll bar but it's still aweful. I have a a lot of camber on the front to fit the wheels under the arch could this be it or am I missing something somewhere

Thanks
Paul

[Stuart]

How hard is the damping set? What are the spring rates? What tyres are you running?

what specifically is bad about the handling? Understeer? Scrubbing(same thing really), oversteer? Unsettled? Low/medium/high speed cornering feeling a bit strange?

[Andy]

Iirc you run a c20let dont you?

[paul burney]

It's at any speed really just feels sloppy runing spax at the front and gaz at the back don't the weights will find out. Running toyos all round and mainly under steer. You running c20let but this isn't when you boosting just normal driving its all over the place

[jimbob-mcgrew]

check all the bushes front and back. ( suspension arms, tie bars, top mounts, anti-roll bars, ball joints )

you might have some worn parts, causing it to wibble-wobble its way round corners.

if everything is spot on, it might just be the engine. the c20let is quite weighty on the front end, which upsets the 50/50 balance further, and promotes under steer

[jimbob-mcgrew]

i wonder what its like to drive a 3.3 turbo porsche, with all the weight at the back.

i heard somewhere they lined the front bumper with led to try and help the handling lol

[paul burney]

Cheers guys al have a look was thinking of putting a polybush kit anyone tryed this is it worth doing

[nova_stee]

Novas just dont handle like a decent new car

[Benn]

Correct/better spring rates will help alot.
Polly bushing i found makes everything feel tighter.
Not being to low helps, unless you start to correct things related to that.

[craig green]

runing spax at the front and gaz at the back


Thats the problem. Mis-matched suspension.

Once upon a time I had KONIs up fr & Avo on the rear, the car felt so dangerous above 50mph I literally didnt have the bottle to take normal A-road bends at anything like the speeds a Nova should do with ease. I was convinced it was something major & not my choice of suspension, however a full set of GAZ's corrected the issues entirely.

[Stuart]

the bump and rebound might not be matched, but its not vastly different to having them set differently front to rear on the same brand. Its probalby more that the spax arent that good in general, but its possible to make it do roughly the right thing even if its not perfect.

New bushes, be they poly or rubber will help.
As a short term test, take the ARB off (I know someone claims its dangerous but its not lol ) to see if more front roll is what you need to get the tyres to dig in.
Also make sure the camber and toe is good.

[marc69]

I had to do a lot of work on my xe due to the extra front wieght, it handled appaulingly compared to my 1.4, loads of understeer. You will need uprated front springs between 300-350 lb, you need to sort the ride hieght and damper settings. Low and stiff rear springs are best too.

If the camber is too severe you will just have heavy steering unless you are on a racetrack.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

i hate nova's

[Benn]

Why?^

Do things right and they are fine.



You can get used to understeer and just correct it when driving if you want to be technical about it. Same with over steer.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

Why?

there fun cars, dont get me wrong, but practically everything needs changing on them, if you want them to be good :

the brakes are cack - money
the suspensions cack - money
exhaust system is cack - money
most of the engines are cack (transplant required) - money
most dont have roll bars, so gotta buy extra parts - money
usually rotten and require welding repairs mot time - money

theres no space inside
there uncomfortable
aerodynamics are pants
many constant squeaks and rattles
tiny boot
crap for sound system/music
can be a pain getting hold of rare parts, and costly
there noisy on the motorway (300 mile journey = hearing damage)
the steering wheel isnt even in the right place

i can go on.... but ill leave it there

the only good things theyve got going for them :

there a piece of piss to fix
good power to weight ratio
and good mpg

by the time youve spent 2 or 3 grand, and many hours of work every year, resolving all there problems, you could have just bought a 3 litre e46 or something alike, for half the price, and it would trump it in practically everything, bar the fuel economy.

hope i havent just crushed anyone. lol
i dont wanna sound like a hater. im not. im just coming to the conclusion more and more every year that the whole design is past its best.
pretty good in 1983, but its been 31 years since then, and theres so many better options available nowadays, and i feel like im wasting my time everytime i buy one.

dont let anything sway you guys tho, if you like them.
im all for something different on the roads.
theres too much of the same thing driving around (mini's etc), all the same same.
the old cars need to be kept on the road, to keep the spirit alive.

i went off on one there, haha, it must be that time of the month lol

[Stuart]

you dont need antiroll bars... its an option :p

[mowgli]

/\ agreed, my first one never had them fitted... but when I got one with them, I have always used them since..

re novas being crap....

old novas can be, but when they were new, they were great & way better than pretty much everything else in their size bracket... the mk1 fiesta was also fun, but had worse engines.....

all surviving novas need restoring.. end of argument

[jimbob-mcgrew]

yeah, i suppose, regardless of what people say, they do need to be kept around, as theres not many left. i was being overly harsh i think, been grumpy recently lol

ive had a mk1 fiesta too, similar short wheelbase, and lightweight, which was fun also, and like you say, with a horrible ohv engine.

ive had a mk4 escort too, with the same awful ford ohv engine in, and that was possibly the slowest car ive ever owned !
in a heavy downpour, it was restricted to 15 mph round a particular roundabout. that car handled like it had a hangover lol
ill never buy one of those escorts again lol ... it was somehow awsome offroad tho, i actually jumped it once, going a bit too fast down a gravel track lane, that had fallen trees etc in the road from a storm the night before. it happened to land sideways off the jump, and amazingly it drifted back into place. i was shocked, i didnt think such a crap car could do that sort of thing.

[paul james]

The only real downside to the Nova design as far as I'm concerned is that they wern't galvanised. Everything else is fine really (obviously the base spec models wern't overly refined, but then they were priced that way and the SR, GTE, GSi existed for that purpose), sure if you want more comfort and modern tricks then get something else too, but you've got to take on everything else that comes with that. Having recently gone through several more modern daily driver cars in a short space of time, I can really appreciate the simple design of the Nova even more than before. I'm happy to take on any repair job with a nova, and pretty much rebuilt mine completely. Doing the same jobs on other cars has been an utter pain in the bum in comparison, and has had me wishing these cars were designed more like a Nova instead. Don't quite get the lack of space comment either, can fit a lot of stuff in a Nova, and its not a big car at all.

[Mieran]

Start with with changing these bits:

- New track rods
- New track rod ends
- New bottom ball joints
- New top mounts (preferably solids)
- Full polybush kit

[Benn]

there fun cars, dont get me wrong, but practically everything needs changing on them, if you want them to be good :

the brakes are cack - money
the suspensions cack - money
exhaust system is cack - money
most of the engines are cack (transplant required) - money
most dont have roll bars, so gotta buy extra parts - money
usually rotten and require welding repairs mot time - money

theres no space inside
there uncomfortable
aerodynamics are pants
many constant squeaks and rattles
tiny boot
crap for sound system/music
can be a pain getting hold of rare parts, and costly
there noisy on the motorway (300 mile journey = hearing damage)
the steering wheel isnt even in the right place

i can go on.... but ill leave it there

the only good things theyve got going for them :

there a piece of piss to fix
good power to weight ratio
and good mpg

by the time youve spent 2 or 3 grand, and many hours of work every year, resolving all there problems, you could have just bought a 3 litre e46 or something alike, for half the price, and it would trump it in practically everything, bar the fuel economy.

hope i havent just crushed anyone. lol
i dont wanna sound like a hater. im not. im just coming to the conclusion more and more every year that the whole design is past its best.
pretty good in 1983, but its been 31 years since then, and theres so many better options available nowadays, and i feel like im wasting my time everytime i buy one.

dont let anything sway you guys tho, if you like them.
im all for something different on the roads.
theres too much of the same thing driving around (mini's etc), all the same same.
the old cars need to be kept on the road, to keep the spirit alive.

i went off on one there, haha, it must be that time of the month lol

Like most old cars.
More so if they weren't built to be full "hot hatches"


all surviving novas need restoring.. end of argument

To true.

[BRoadGhost]

Check for body rust / rot - fix

Stitch weld every seam you can

Replace every single rubber bush with at least polyurethane

Ensure everything is done up tight including things like engine mounts

Don't run more than 2.5 degrees negative camber

Get the wheels laser aligned

~ Don't even touch the existing shocks / springs; I promise you all the above come way before.