Here's the deal. The front wheels of my car have a tendancy to jerk left and right for no particular reason sometimes like they are loose or something but when you put the car on a lift and pull on the wheels everything feels tight. WTF???

I have replaced the ball joints, gear box, idler arm, center link, wheel bearings, and struts. The tie rods still seem to be just fine. It has had alignment done many times and the alignment comes out fine but the car still does this and it is also wearing the hell out of my front tires. It also gets very tiresome to drive on a road that is not perfectly smooth because I constantly have to fight it to keep the car going straight.

I had someone tell me that the problem could possibly be the A-arm bushings. Does this sound like a possibility to anyone or should I just keep trying. Do any of you have any ideas what it could possibly be? This is getting very frustrating. Thanks.


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'88 T/A
305 TPI

[This message has been edited by Corey (edited February 23, 2001).]

I think what you have are your wide tires following the road imperfections.I had it with my trans am with the standard 255/50 x 16"tires but since I now have 18"wheels with 265/40x18"tires the problem is much worse.I do notice that new tires are better so if yours are old and past it try a new pair.It might make a difference.
check out www.lintonbros.ic24.net/car1.jpg
cheers powermite

Are those the 18 inch wheels in the pic?

They don't look as huge as I thought they would. Hmmmm...

Check your sway bar bushings and endlinks. They may be causing a bumpsteer type problem on bumpy roads. Tire balance affects this as well, but to a lesser degree. How many miles on your steering box? How good are your wheel bearings?

It's not just on bumpy roads, even on the freeway just the slightest change in the way the concrete was laid will cause it.

New wheel bearings and steering gearbox. Tires are balanced. New polyurethane sway bar bushings and endlinks. About the endlinks though, I never could get anyone to give me a straight answer about how tight they need to be. I figured like the shocks, you tighten them until the bushings expand to the diameter of the metal cap things on them right? Thanks for your help.

The torque spec for the end-links is very light; 12 to 15 ft-lbs. Also, you're supposed to tighten them with the car on the ground (and not with the tires in the air). This avoids any preloading of the anti-sway-bar.

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