I have something amiss in my front suspension.

A little background. I just pulled my 1988,5.7, WS6 GTA out of storage after 8 years. It was stored in my garage, on the tires, not jack stands. Car suspension is 100% stock. She has never been in an accident. Today was the first time I drove it. I didn't expect it to go perfect, what fun would that be? On the drive the car was pulling hard left and when I got to the first stop light I could smell the brakes. So I figured I had a seized left caliper. Pulled back into the garage and the left front was smoking pretty good. So as I'm standing there admiring the smoke and deciding what brake combo I will be putting in, I noticed something strange. The left front wheel is sitting quite a bit forward in the wheel well. I measured the distance from the center of the wheel to the forward fender well lip and it was 15.5". Also had a rub on the fender liner, I think that's what its called, the black plastic in the wheel well. It's a fresh rub and has never rubbed before. I went to the rt side and the same measurement was 17.25". So I searched on her and couldn't find anything. I'll include some pics to help tell the story. Was looking for help or a link if previously discussed on here. Thanks!

 

Here is how the alignment looks...pretty F'd up. Something is either realy worn or broke.

1st pic is left wheel
2nd pic is right wheel

 

jack the car up and start looking at all the suspension, something is wrong and you shouldnt drive it anymore until it is resolved. Should be obvious by removing the tire I bet.

 

Did you back the car in by chance?

 

No I drove it in forwards.

 

well there went my idea of it being a bad ball joint then......

 

check the lower control arm bushings

 

Raise the car, grab the tire at 3 and 9 o'clock and try to move it back and forth. Feel and listen

 

Yea I'll give that a try after I finish the brakes and get the tires back on. There is no play trying to move it side to side with just the brake rotors. Thanks 426.

 

Carratini is probably on to something. That would definitely cause that bad angle, either a terribly failed bushing or a broken part. Just jack it up, I bet it will be obvious as I stated before. Post pics and let us know.

 

Yea there is a lot of slop from 3 to 9 o'clock. And I can hear the steering wheel slapping around. But everything seems to move in conjunction with each other. Everything seems tight in the linkages. I'll try to shoot some grease in there and see if it helps, but I'm not counting on it. But I have a whole new problem now. I changed all the brakes in front out, calipers, rotors, bearings, pads. Now I can't get any fluid to the left front brakes. So pissed. I saw somewhere that the rubber hose from the hard line to the caliper can fail internally. I guess it's off to napa in the morning. Plus then I can"teach" my daughter how to bleed brakes. I bought one of those vacuum "one man" bleeders and it doesn't work for s***.

 

With the engine off and steering unlocked, have a helper(good job for your daughter) turn the wheel left to right repeatedly, taking up the slack. Get under the car and inspect. Anything loose should be easy to spot.

 

Thanks Joe. Upon further inspection I found a fresh rub on the right side aft fender liner too.

 

I agree with the others about inspecting all the front bushings.

As for the pulling, you might have a collapsed brake line, it's common for a car that sits to have this problem.

 

Bent a arm, shot bushings, shot ball joint, etc.....

As for the brake fluid, you probably need to reset your prop valve.

 

Ok I'll try to reset the prop vale. I don't know what that is but it sounds like a hydraulic fuse of some sort. I'll search on here on how to do it before I install the new lines. Thanks I appreciate it.

 

I ended up just changing both of the front brake hoses and it works. It bleed pretty easy which kinda scares me. I'll road test it when I figure out this suspension issue. I had my daughter help me out by moving the steering wheel and the only thing that looked like it might have some play where the outer tie rods. I'm going to research some bushing kits and try to swap them all out and change the inner and outer tie rods. Anything special I should know before I tackle the bushing swaps? I'm big on preventative maintenance so if there are any high fail front suspension components that you think I should change also, I'm all ears. Thanks to everyone that has helped out, I really appreciate it. This website has save me a ton of $ and time! Case in point, the brake hose causing the brake issues.

 

Jonesyfxr nailed it so far as his brake issue goes...I had the same thing happen on my car when I first thought I had it road-worthy.

The thing had new calipers on front, new pads, rotors freshly turned and both sides would stay locked up when I hit the brakes. Several hours later, the wheels would spin again...I had a heck of a time trying to figure it out. My car had sat for 7 years outside...

GOOD CALL!!

Only thing I could possibly add is that I've heard contaminated brake fluid (water) can cause the hoses to swell internally...I'd bleed all that out till you see fresh fluid.
....Now hopefully the OP can get his suspension issue figured out...