I fully endorse the no torque steer in a standard mini comments! but just try a 1500cc 8 port on a rallycross start line! talk about door banging the cars around you on the grid..............................

It should be easy to fix - remove all that castor and camber and set the rear toe.

I weld in a gusset for the track rod/tie-rod mounting ears on the front subframe to address potential distortion and caster mis-match.

Unfortunately the early front subframe I just acquired for the turbo Woodie build is powder coated...so the extra stitch welds and gusset welding will mess that up a little.

This forum helps again!!!

Kudos to the contributors and once again, thanks for having us, Don.

Turbodave-

I believe you are familiar with the former AL Diamanti blue racer-1380cc  SPI with supercharger power-

Talk about torque steer- a real experience to drive-

Well l purchased that mini and am now in the process of sorting it out- It was set up for auto-x-ing, but for street use, driver beware-

BIG AL-

Thanks for the help, the corner weighting was wrong.  Apparently they transposed the numbers and it was off by a bit.  The shock settings were also incorrect, super soft on the right side and stiff on the left.  Anyway, it is straight as an arrow now.  Appreciate the responses,

Ed

as TurboDave and Coopoertune state; not axle lengths, but allignment; or possible tire issues as per Mtgibby. My first Mini had severe "torque steer" until I found that the track rod front mounting ear on one side, was bent back (colision damage), causing caster difference.  After straightening the ear and re setting caster, it was a "new car"

 Check your caster.

Unequal tire pressure can cause torque steer also.  It torques toward the tire that is low.

Not an a mini , but I once had a new car with new tires but one bad tire that caused "torque steer" on accel.  - dealer said could not find anything wrong with alignment, etc. Only when the tire was prematurely   worn could I see that the steel belts were exposed way, way, way too soon on just one side of the left front tire.  Replacing this tire solved the problem instantly . If I had swapped tires left-right I might have made this diagnosis sooner. 

Not a day all round - seems I mis quoted you too LOL.
The  vtec guys who used the "K-series metro / rover 100" front subframe and wheels don't complain anything like the 7x13 on mini-hubs crowd - the metro wheels have a huge inset which puts the "scrub radius" exactly where it should be.  

An engineer friend of mine liked his 7x13, but didn't like the torque-steer in his XE mini, so he made new drive flanges that put the wheel as absolutely close as is humanly possible to the bearings, then made longer wishbones to move the wheel back out to fill the arches. A much easier option would have been to switch to 6x13, but that would have been too easy!

I had a similar problem 20 years ago - Mini would go right on deceleration - the nut was coming off the right front tie-rod and as a result the tie-rod was lengthening (increasing caster) on that side. (Blue Locktite on threads thereafter)

Long and short I agree that your issues are likely related to the geometry up front, the integrity of the subframe and all the related bits affecting alignment, tracking, steering etc.

I had the same problem upon deceleration with an 8.4 disc braked Mini and after looking and checking all the usual suspects and settings i checked the front wheel bearings and they were full of old dried out grease but not noisy or loose. I ended up replacing both fronts and the problem went away, it was weird as there was no problem when accelerating but just to be safe i checked the rears and just cleaned and greased them.

If everything is perfect to include corner weight you may want to talk to the guy who adjusted your diff bearing pre load. Steve (CTR)

so u had the suspension set in an alignment shop i guess? any figures?

Dave,

 I understand and still agree with your clarification. It was the absoluteness of the first post that got my attention, as noted.

Re: VTEC, you mis-quote me. I wrote "addressed" not "solved", but in any event, you are spot-on to note that the wheel configuration is involved. Again, my bad by (mentally) including wheels specific to the 'kit' referenced but not mentioning that.

Not a good day yesterday. Apologies.

Cheers. 

My bad. I should have written "...loosened UP", not "...came loose", which can mean the same as "fell off". As one that picks up on such mis-wordings, I'm embarassed that I didn't review my ramblings more closely.

Otherwise, the same one that:

A) Didn't torque the lugnuts on the the left front wheel before attempting to flat tow to WME in Rockford.

B) The one that jumped on the 230 HP throttle on cold tires in 17 degree weather.

C) Didn't realize that suspension bits held together with nuts and bolts could loosen UP (not fall off) over time? 

That makes me three-for-three, eh?

In case my point was otherwise missed, I stand by my agreement with others that in the case of an A-Series drivetrain, noticable, objectionable torque steer is (likely) caused by something amiss in the front end geometry.

 

I guess I missed the important word "minis" off my comment - I'll try again:

Oh, and it is never due to the driveshaft length difference wrt to A-series Minis... It's always down to geometry.

I will stand by this till the cows come home. The A-series doesn't have enough of an angle in the shafts, nor enough of a difference in length to provide any noticable difference in wind-up for the torque capacity

.Here is a good candidate for a driveshaft that will suffer a noticable wind-up, and why Vauxhall (eventually) implemented this across the board on the powerfull XE-engined variants: //www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281023817330

The interesting things to note though, are that even with the "equal length" setup - they still aren't equal length. Also- despite the quill being a little thicker - you can't argue it will also not "wind up" in any shape or manner.

I'm interested to see exactly how the VTEC guys have "solved" the scrub radius issue, as everyone seems to like their 7x13. Only way possible is to move the wheel closer to the bearings.

 

"...FWIW, my worst experience with torque steer, (we're talking one full lane change to the left faster than I could get off the throttle) was on cold tires, on a 17 degree day, and with a lower suspension arm that had come loose....geometry! (plus 'a nut loose on the steering wheel'!...."

 

YIKES !!!!
Who put that together?
Sounds like my experience with my '59 that was built by "Finger Tight Murphy"
After the tie rod came loose, I went on a torque checking journey that found all sorts of "interesting" values......
I was fortunate that it decided to come loose pulling up to my driveway. The car made a hard right turn without any driver input right into the apron. Eyes wide open and change of shorts required.

Hmmmmm...

I've never heard it stated in such an absolute fashion.

This from eHow.com...

"In most (FWD) cars the left drive shaft is shorter than the right one. This causes the car to torque steer to the right because the long drive shaft has more flexibility and winds-up under torque, it acts like a torsion bar; this decreases the available torque to that wheel, consequently, it causes the car to steer in that direction. (if) the drive axles to the wheels are the same length and strength (they) will decrease torque steering because of axle length difference."

Read more: How to Fix Torque Steer | eHow.com //www.ehow.com/how_8784078_fix-torque-steer.html#ixzz2CuGPmVnJ

That presented, the small amount of difference in Mini axles and their heft should translate into much less of an issue than might be the case with other cars. The rest of the article repeats what has been posted about geometry. I add my voice to the choir, because I've been through this in VTEC mode. The newest kit addresses the geometry (specifically scrub radius) and virtually eliminates torque steer as an issue, even at VTEC power levels. 

I recall seeing a kit to equalize stock Mini axle lengths (MiniSport?), but know noone that has used it. 

FWIW, my worst experience with torque steer, (we're talking one full lane change to the left faster than I could get off the throttle) was on cold tires, on a 17 degree day, and with a lower suspension arm that had come loose....geometry! (plus 'a nut loose on the steering wheel'!)

If they car has Hi-lo's then the suspension need to be adjusted and equaled out.