Thanks Frank, I rang them and they only had left handed string in stock. I left it needless to say. I'm not completely stupid when it comes to these things.
If you think I'm going to strand here listening to you twine about this whilst you try to rope me in then your hankering is going to go unanswered Clive. It won't end well you know and I can see it unravelling already so if you think you're going to have a ball; frayed knot. You must be twisted or loopy maybe to try and string me along. I knew a Lasso was the same some while back; she played me out and wound me up for a while until I cut the ties with her. Eye am going to wrap it up there before you give me anymore (g)reef.
How much do you want by the way?
I have finally got my head around this set up. I had to start from scratch because I was replacing track rod and steering rod ball joints simultaneously. Despite "counting threads" on the old joints and replicating with the new joints, everything was wrong. It is essential to set the steering whilst the track rod is disconnected ( from one end) and then reconnect it to set the tracking. I originally assumed the Pitman arm would move with the adjustment on the steering rod but this is not the case. The nearside wheel moves and if its still connected to the offside wheel via the trackrod, adjustment of the steering rod impacts tracking too.I also set my tracking manually.
Know this is a bit controversial but, living in Wales, I don't have enough level ground around my house to use the string method so I use a stick . Colour and provenance of stick do not matter but a rigid one is best.
Once done I pop along to my local tyre place where they will check your tracking for free and only charge if they have to adjust it. It is in their interest to check thoroughly and so far my score is 3 checks and all between 1.0 - 1.5mm toe in.
If you fancy having a go at setting your tracking yourself this approach works well.
If you get it wrong the experts set it correctly with their fancy gear and you pay .
If you get it right you save a bunch of 'Fivers', the satisfaction of doing it yourself and the ring of confidence of an 'expert' second opinion .
Maybe my problem is that I had the front wheels off the ground on axle stands and therefore adjusting the steering arm was turning the road wheels rather than the steering wheel?You can disconnect the steering arm and turn the steering all you like and the tracking will not alter lol. If you disconnect it on a straight road, lengthen it, put it back on and drive off the wheel will be off centre but the car and tracking will behave the same. Tracking instructions in WSM confirm this.
Maybe my problem is that I had the front wheels off the ground on axle stands and therefore adjusting the steering arm was turning the road wheels rather than the steering wheel?