PLYRS 3

what are the various ways to decrease steering ratio on the S2000.

i have an '04 and miss the noticeably "quicker" rack of my '00.

other than changing out the rack (if at all possible), what else can one do?

what if one increases the "track" of the front wheels??

over the weekend, i had a set of SPOON brakes installed. installation of which required 16MM spacers on the front (with stock '04 wheels). we also put in 5 or 6MM spacers on the rear wheels just to balance out the frontal impact a little (though none were required as the rear brakes are still stock).

well, what i find is that my steering response has now increased dramatically. it also feels like i've gotten some of the "quickness" back.

am i dreaming or what??

(i don't think i am)

steven975

the ratio is determined by the pitch and size of the teeth in the rack and pinion.

sorry, you are dreaming

PLYRS 3

but, can you not "effectively" change it by doing something else??

for example, if you change the diameter of your steering wheel, you are "effectively" changing your steering ratio.

maybe i'm not explaining myself correctly....

apex2k

Actually you are just changing the distance your hands move, the same degree rotation of the wheel is going to get you the same degee rotation at the tire, so the ratio stays the same. You are just doing less work to get there, if this is what you meant by "effectively", I suppose you are correct. Steven's statement is accurate, other than changing out the rack I don't see any other options. If you were to do that, you might run into clearance problems at turn-lock, especially with your spacers.

PLYRS 3

thanks.

actually i'm implying that the spacers in-and-of-themselves have "effectively" changed the ratio.

kind of like putting bigger or smaller wheels to "effectively" change the gearing ratio on a car.

Elistan

Like stated above, there's really nothing you can do short of swapping out for an '03 steering rack. (And that might not even be possible without some custom fabrication.) There's a couple addition things you can do to make the car react differently, however. 1) You can play with the car's turn-in characteristics with the alignment. 2) You can also modify front-end grip by using different tire compounds/sizes.

(For what it's worth, putting on larger/smaller diamter tires on absolutely changes the car's overall gearing. Changing the front track might change how the car feels to you, but it does entire nothing for the steering ratio.)

xviper

I think I know what you're talking about. For an incremental movement of the steering wheel, you get "x" movement of the front "steered" wheels. You'd like for "x" to be more.
Putting spacers on the front should not affect change your "real world" ratio. I can think of a few things that will, however, the actual difference on some may be insignificant.
a. You can decrease the front wheel/tire overall diameter. Take a look at motorcycles. Ever wonder why front wheel diameters don't seem to get any bigger as the rear ones do? A smaller diameter makes for quicker turning. You see this primarily on sport bikes.
b. And yes, you can go to a smaller steering wheel. This DOES affect the "overall" steering ratio because for the same movement of your hand on the wheel, the front tires will move more (more "x").
c. You could also move your front alignment "caster" such that the contact patch moves slight rearward. This is not recommended as it will change the other alignment specs and most likely will ruin the cars other handling characteristics.
d. Change out the rack. This is no different than changing the final drive gears as many people have done.

PLYRS 3

thanks guys....i'll continue to live this dream

btw, d. is not possible (according to ganley)...something to do with some sort of sensor (i'd like to say TPC, but i'm not sure if throttle has anything to do with steering)....joe gave me the name of the sensor, but i forget.

Fongu

Although, the ratio hasn't changed, maybe you are feeling less understeer because of the increased front track width. Don't know if the change from the spacer is enough to be significant. Here is a link, if you want to read about weight transfer.

http://autozine.kyul.net/technical_school/..._handling_3.htm

But the key is this formula.
Weight transfer = ( Lateral acceleration x Weight x Height of CG ) / Track width

More front track, less front weight transfer, more front tire grip, more responsive steering. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

PLYRS 3

just found out from the shop....front spacers are actually 18MM per corner.

so, the track changed by 36MM.....

is that considered to be substantial?