Steering and Travel

[PureStyle]

Afternoon,

After last weeks excellent advice I'm hoping you may be able to answer the following!

I've noticed the car does a couple of annoying things which may or not be related.
1. Car will drift to the right when driving.
2. I seem to have lots of play on the steering wheel, although I've been "assured" steering box setting is in its optimum setting.
3. I've noticed on the suspension arms bright marks which suggest travel, although guess that's ok.

I have balanced wheels, new tires all at correct pressure.

Car is a 1980 2000i

Cheers
Rich

[seabeelt]

Photos of from suspension parts?

[DieselSpider]

When was the last alignment and if they used the settings in the owners manual without putting 150 lbs of weight in each front seat plus the required weight in the trunk then your front wheels will become sometimes horribly toed out when you sit in the car and drive it causing drift/float and inside tread wear.

At each oil change it is recommended that you check the torque of all the fasteners on the front suspension/cross member which can allow the camber, if they get loose, to go out again causing a toe out condition with drift.

When I had mine aligned I had the local Firestone shop do a Lifetime Alignment on their Hunter Rack so I can bring it in and have it checked a few times a year and adjusted if it needs it all at no additional charge for as long as I own the car. The even offered that they would have no problem checking it at every oil change or even monthly if that was my desire.

Of course do check for loose wheel bearings, failed tie rod ends, etc up front and the trailing arm bushings along with the pan bar bushings on the rear axle too. Where on the front suspension arms are you seeing the bright marks? A clear photo would help.

If all else seems solid do give the brakes a good check since a dragging caliper can also cause drift to the side they are dragging on.

[PureStyle]

Hi thanks for the responses I think I attached the pic?

[img][IMG]http://i376.photobucket.com/albums/oo204/PureStyle1/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpssukmrcb9.jpg[/img][/img]

[vandor]

These cars will have more on-center play than a modern car, but it should not be excessive. The play could come from wear from any of the steering or suspension components, or a combination. The steering box also has to be in the middle of its travel in the straight-ahead position to minimize play, which is not always the case.
By this age most of these cars need a complete suspension and steering overhaul.

[djape1977]

i've had cars come straight from alingment shop to my workshop and owners complaining of car pulling to one side or other.
in 90% of cases it was the axle distance that was wrong, and at alignment shops they somehow "missed" that.

park your car on even ground, set your front wheels to straight position as best as you can and use ordinary tape measure to compare distance between front and rear wheel on both sides. measure from any point, edge of the rim for example, just use same spots on both sides. if there's more than couple milimeters diference, the car will pull to shorter side.

there's a variety of reasons that can lead to one side being shorter than the other.
wrong alignment
worn silent blocks in the front and/or back
cracked suspension components, chasis legs and crossmembers included

at most alignment shops there are 20 something kids working with no experience on old cars

recently i've had a car come in with every component of front suspension NEW, steering box included, and owner complaining that the car pulls to one side when he accelerates, and to other whem he lifts off the trottle. he's been to his "regular" mechanic who changed all of front suspension at huge cost, and then to alignment.
guess what? nobody bothered to check rear suspension bushings. 8 out of 10 were worn.
just goes to proove how little "professionals" actually know

[DieselSpider]

A thrust line alignment check is required regardless of whether the rear track bars are adjustable or not however many alignment shops skip it on cars like the Spider. On a modern rack like the Hunters its all in the computer printout and pretty hard to miss.

The Firestone dealer who did my lifetime alignment mentioned that they were quite surprised that my thrust line was perfect and didn't require attention which was unusual on a near to 40 year old car. With my alignment the computer printout showing the before and after values was the first thing they gave me well before I paid my bill and they took the time to go over each section of the report. Mine was so far out they had trouble believing that the car had been aligned less than 6,000 miles ago by the shop that had put on the now worn out tires and that it was done before the new front end parts they could clearly see had been put in. The previous shop had done the alignment unladen.