I've done extensive searching and found one thread that did not help me.

Basically, my car is hard to control and is all over the place. While im driving the car will pull to one side or another and I'll have to fight the wheel to keep it straight. This happens especially when the road is uneven. I have 8" rims and 245/45/17 tires. I've heard wider tires are prone to wheel travel, but the car wasn't always like this and its progressively getting worse with time.

I've also noticed my alignment must be off because I have to hold to wheel off to the left to keep it straight.

Is my alignment linked to my first problem? Any recommendations?

Thanks for your help

 

My car does this too somewhat. I think it is just part of living with an old car.

As for the "hold the wheel to the left" this is most likely due to the crown of the roads. You can have the car aligned to drive straight on a crowned road, but it would probably want to pull you into the grass if you drove on in the fast lane on the highway (this is just an assumption)

 

This is due to old worn parts/ alignment. It is NOT part of living with an old car, you have to fix it. That is how accidents are caused.

 

I seem to want to agree with that simply because my car wasn't always like this. Also, even on the newest and most even of roads, my car pulls to the right and pulls feels loose. So I'm guessing I should bring it to my mechanic and have him check over my front end and do an alignment?

 

So would you be mad if I told you the brakes on my car, that I drive everyday, were still origional parts put on in 1989?

 

My car does the same thing. I'm certain it must be the steering box, because I have new inner/outer tie rods, center link, strut mounts, struts, idler arm, ball joints, a-arm bushings, etc etc. Whole new front end. No play in the rag joint either. I tested it two nights ago on an empty 6 lane city street. I went in the middle lane and held the wheel straight. The car went left or right completely at RANDOM. Almost as much to change a full lane in one direction before deciding to steer itself back the other direction. I was basically making a big ugly random zigzag down the road. This is at 45mph. I start to not notice it, but I realized after driving other cars that when I drive I make constant corrections to the left or right with the steering wheel just to keep the car straight.

 

hmm....that sounds like my car. Ouch, this may hurt my wallet..

 

Toe in, which is one of the alignment settings can make a car fidgety going down the road where it seems you have to fight it to keep it in a straight line. Thats most likely your problem. As front end parts wear, your toe tends to go neutral or even negative which can make it a real handful to drive.

Pulling to one side is most likely the result of misalignment too, but can also be a tire. A separated cord can feel just like a bad alignment. You could swap your front wheels side to side to see if its a tire.

If your front end parts are badly worn, the alignment shop won't be able to sort it out without changing parts which will run the price up a lot. If you've got a lot of miles on the original parts you'll save a pretty penny by changing the ball joints and tie rod ends out yourself, then getting the car to the shop for the alignment.

You'll spend a couple hundred dollars by the time you're done, but you'll like the car a LOT more once its driving nice.

 

I don't know, how many miles? Do you have the original brake pads in there?If you posted a question that said your brakes make an awefull squeal and you couldn't stop properly I would be mad that you are still driving around because that is how people get killed. If you tell me your car is very hard to control then you've got a serious problem that needs to be fixed.
You can't agree that a car that is very hard to control is safe and it's something you need to live with because it's old, can you?

When your car doesn't handle like it used to and keeps getting worst that means parts are worn out. It is not really something you should live with because it's an old car. It is something that needs to be repaired before it fails. Moving parts are not designed to last forever.

AdmAnt13, you should definately get your mechanic to check the front end, ball joints tie rod ends ect. then get an alignment. It may cost you some money now but it is definately worth it.

 

Don't you mean toe-out. Toe in tends to help stabilize a fidgety car, toe out will make it be really sensitive to steering inputs, and a little directionally unstable, but it'll turn in great...

 

guess I should have just said toe setting.

 

Here is the thing, I'm only assuming here, Darkshot probably put all those new parts on trying to diagnose a problem himself, if not sorry in advance. But I have been guilty of doing the exact same thing. Change out part after part because I don't want to pay a mechanic to fix it. In the long run you spend way more time and money and may not solve the problem. A good mechanic should be able to tell you what's wrong with your car. STRESS "As long as you trust him and he is a good mechanic". You do learn alot fixing stuff yourself though so whatever you think is best for you I guess.

 

We're assuming that DS got a proper alignment after he changed all that stuff out. I'm sure he did, but there are plenty of guys out there who will change parts and call it good.

 

I have the same problem and i know it is an alinment and a worn front end. Mine even knocks a bit. I know I know scary but I'm saving up for a new K member and a power rack from summit. more expensive now but cheaper later. a front end rebuild would be about 300 bucks. then the alinement. Mine is toe also. brakes weird and tracks like tractor sometimes. vibrates over 85 too. take it from me get it looked at now rather than later. I waited too long and now mine needs complete replacement.

alinement: 75 dollars, one missed day at work: 100 dollars, having a safe car that does not need a new front end later on.......priceless

 

Where are your cars' pictures in the convertible forum?

(I think it's toe out for more stability).

 

alignment, tighten your steering box, would help more than you could imagine.

get under the front of the car with it on the ground and start pullin on the steering tie rods, ball joint if anything moves or makes a noise it needs to be replaced, and its probaly ur problem

 

Yeah the gearbox is a good thought. Apparently they have a habit of coming loose or tearing themselves out of the frame on these cars. Sure worth a look.

 

DS got af ront end that's fresher and tighter than these cars had when they came out of the factory. I think that's well worth it. The fact that one of his problems didn't get fixed is, in my opinion, irrelevant, since all those parts i the front end should be replaced eventually anyway.

 

The car only has 55k, and its a manual. So that helps brake usage alot. Especially with someone like me that is brake and clutch conscious, I actually am always thinking about budgeting them when I drive. Use as little as possible. But yeah, when I bought the car they were all factory and still are.

As for the suspension, well as you can guess, thats all origional too. I do need some stuff for it. The ball-joints have a small amount of play (have seen much worse at work) the control arm bushings up front are gone, and so are the strut mounts. Wheel bearings too, but I will have to learn how to do those because this is my first old car with re-packable ones.

 

I'm gonna stay with toe out is unstable, toe in is stable.

 

No offense, but I wouldn't consider it irrelevant if my car was drifting all over the road by itself after I just changed the whole front end out and got an alignment. I'd be pretty bent about it.

 

Everything I changed I did because I needed to. Not only were they worn, but the front end was totally tweaked from a curb hit. It helped a lot, but the problem I explained still exists. Next weekend I'm going to pull out my steering box and adjust it. I'll post up how it works.

 

Replace all the worn bushings, tighten or replace the steering box, get an allignment (toe-in, mine's toe out and likes to wander).
'Living with it' isn't something you have to do unless you don't have the money or are just too lazy to get it fixed.

 

I'm sorry but you don't live with something like that. It's just stupid.
I do understand not having the money.
If your car wanders my question is how do you think it was new? You don't live with an old car, you beat the *&%^ out of it and junk it, or you fix it.
As far as replacing parts that don't need replaced. If you have any tie rod, ball joint, u-joints on your car that are still factory, you really need to think about replacing them. They do get worn. Having factory u-joints, ect... that you cannot grease just shortens the life of them.
The cheapest way is to put the parts on yourself, eyball your alignment, then have one actually done so it is right.
Common misconseption, your car shouldn't pull to the right at all, it should go straight down the road.

 

I'd imagine these cars were just as much rattling, bouncy, crapbox cars back in the 80's when they were new. And I still love them

Also, people live with old cars everyday. Alot of my friends dont spend over $500-800 on a new vehicle. A few other friends prefer the $20-80 cars. They dont go and replace everything. They drive the car into the junkyard and get a new one.

 

just to get rid of any confusion about toe in/out.

toe out reduces stability but helps with turn in. toe in helps with stability, but reduces turn in. our rear wheel drive cars tend to slide a lot with heavy throttle so usually we should have just a little toe in for control.
if you don't know what toe is, its the measurement of the tires facing inward or outward from the wheelwells.

toe in: the fronts of the tires are facing inward ><. increases stability because if you start sliding the tires want to travel back from where they came. ex: you start sliding right. the outside tire helps the car from going right more because its pointing left.

toe out: the fronts of the tires are facing outward<> increases turn in because when you turn, the inside wheel is already turned in the direction of travel. ex: take a left turn and the left wheel has already turned in slightly. this decreases stability because when the car slides the outside tire are pointed into the slide.

 

Requoted for truth...

A little toe in would be factory specs, as chevyracingrox indicates, toe out is not stable, and not a good setup for most folks going straight line and daily driving, toe out does have some use for us auto-xers...

 

I took my 88 camaro to the shop for my steering, pretty much told me the whole front end suspension needs to be replace, wonder how much thats gonna cost, i already replaced my shocks, :/

 

one other thing here for guys that are not running stock setups. one thing to remember if your lower have bigger wider tires. these alignment shops have service manuals an these manuals have specs in them, best thing here is let the shop know what they are dealin with talk to the mechanic. with these modified cars you may need to take it back a few times remember this keep track of where your alignment settings are. when you modify geometry the geometry also changes find her sweet spot.