Front End Slop
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 10:34 pm
When I first got the car it would wander all over the road, on acceleration, braking or just trying to go straight on the highway.
I read numerous posts here and jiggled all I could on the front end. This lead me to replace the lower ball joints and upper a-arm pivots. That fixed a lot. After that, on acceleration or braking the car stayed straight. I next replaced the steering idler. I had heard they get worn so I found a used one with no play and dropped that in. The old one had about a 1/16" play in the shaft. That helped a lot keeping the car straight. It's pretty decent now when I drive it, but it still seems to wander around when going down the road.
So the question remains, how do I test or check the rest of the components? How much play should the steering wheel have? Measured at the steering wheel edge, I have maybe 2 inches.
I have a steering box that I could drop in. How do you test the linkages? What else should I check and how? Could this also be caused by bad alignment (I've never had it aligned)? Should I just try tightening the steering box?
Thanks
Rustbucket
I read numerous posts here and jiggled all I could on the front end. This lead me to replace the lower ball joints and upper a-arm pivots. That fixed a lot. After that, on acceleration or braking the car stayed straight. I next replaced the steering idler. I had heard they get worn so I found a used one with no play and dropped that in. The old one had about a 1/16" play in the shaft. That helped a lot keeping the car straight. It's pretty decent now when I drive it, but it still seems to wander around when going down the road.
So the question remains, how do I test or check the rest of the components? How much play should the steering wheel have? Measured at the steering wheel edge, I have maybe 2 inches.
I have a steering box that I could drop in. How do you test the linkages? What else should I check and how? Could this also be caused by bad alignment (I've never had it aligned)? Should I just try tightening the steering box?
Thanks
Rustbucket