[pantherpink70dustr]

ok heres my problem i have replaced everything in the frontend from wheel bearings to boots on the torsion bars and have had the front end alighned at 3 different shops and went thru 2 sets of wheels and tires and they are balanced. but still at 70 mph the thing starts to shake somthing wicked up front ..the steering wheel even starts shaking around...and it still pulls right at any speed...so i was wondering if something could be bent in the front end like control arm wise an such?
thanks,
dino

 

[71 demon child]

Did you happen to look at the way the tires were wearing(inside/outside,left/right)That atleast will give you a baseline to go on.Check your ball joints.We had an old truck that had bad ball joints.When you got up to speed it would vibrate you clean off the road.I mean scary bad.Start with that Dino.

carl

 

[moparrr07]

does it pull by itself or just because of the crown in the road, try driving on the other side of the road to see if it pulls equally the other way

 

[Jim_Lusk]

If something were bent it would not align. Make sure the shake is related, but it could be shocks, steering gear, idler arm, etc.

 

[Xwaynestaticx03]

any reputable alignment shop SHOULD have checked the front end before performing the service. idler arm and pitman arm play could possibly be your culprit. as for the pull to the right, i bet that is the road crown like moparrr07 said. if youre driving on the highway, assuming that where youre driving 70+ mph, the road is crowned steep to the right. most cars no matter how dead on the alignment is, will at least drift to the right on the highway. (when in the far right lane)

 

[pantherpink70dustr]

thanks for all the replies. the car has all new ball joints new pitman arm new fliaming river steering box new shocks also...it pulls right at all speeds and on any surface the tread wear seems normal. there new tires so its hard to tell.

 

[MVRCorp]

Check rear alignment. Has anyone followed you and checked tracking?

 

[pantherpink70dustr]

yeah the rear end is in there straight i measured it to see if it were square when i was doin the rear brakes a few days ago..i stumped on this whole thing

 

[MVRCorp]

What's the story on this car???? Torque wise, is it possible it's been twisted?

 

[signet]

when you got your alignment done they could have given you a printout of the readings.

post the caster numbers or scan the whole sheet and post it.

could it be your driveshaft is super bent.

no big rot holes in the important areas?

maybe a drum or disk is realy out of ballance.

i agree that a shop cannot do an alignment with bent/worn parts.

 

[b569rr]

Since you are under there you might as well check everything. Like signet says I would also check the drive shaft. I bent one with a little N.O.S. and slicks and the shaking was violent above 30 mph. Lift the rear and get a buddy to put it in gear and watch it rotate. It was a Chevy so bending parts is expected.

Tom

 

[1967dart406]

check the actual tires, new tires come to us quite often that are bad you could switch from side to side and see if the pull moves to the other side. the other thing i have seen several times are calipers that were sticking just enough to cause a headache without the usual signs of something like this occuring both willl be a long shot but working in the dealerships i have seen both go bad and would check the tires for sure as that is your first point of contact

 

[bOb shingler]

1967 is who i agree with. replace both of your brake hoses on the front.when they go bad the inside rubber will act like a check valve and will not let the fluid release out of the wheel cylinder or caliper. oh and the roads are crowned in the center(which is the left in most of the real world) so water will run off to the shoulders on 2 lane 2 way roads, 3 lane 2 way roads. multi lane 1 way is still the center lane, or something very simular to that.

 

[b569rr]

I bought a brand new set of wheels from GM for a '67 442 (still in stock 5 years ago). They were not true and had never been off the shelf. Something to think about.

Tom

 

[pantherpink70dustr]

thanks again for all the responses...i wish my slant six could twist the frame )(/* .....i checked the driveshaft and rotaded the tires an it wasnt bent and it continued to pull right...i will look for the alignment printouts...it has new brake hoses..the only thing thats not new in the frontend is the rotors an calipers that came off of a donor car..but there were no groves in anything and the calipers arnt hanging up...could the rotors be warped? or maybe bent?

 

[Guest]

You could also try spreading out the total toe a bit, seemed to help my car. Oh yea and find a tire shop that can do a road force test on your tire, excessive road force can do some weird things to the way a vehicle drives.

 

[Xwaynestaticx03]

i work for a national tire chain, and we get bad tires with radial pulls all the time, right of the rack. hell, 2/3 of the time i get a car with a "pull" its due to one of the front tires causing the whole problem. if you let go of the steering wheel just coasting down the road at speeds less then 30mph and the steering wheel turns back and forth on it's own, 9 get you 10 one of the front tires is squirrely. good luck! also, read the alignment print out the shop gave you. if your cross caster (the difference between the caster from the left and right sides) is more then around .5, itll cause wandering due to the differences in the ease of steering side to side. let us know how she goes! good luck

 

[moparteacher]

I think everything has been hit on already except to check the pitman shaft for twisting and gear box function. I assume the steering wheel is centered and the turning radius is the same from side-to-side? In other words, is the the PS gear box centered when the wheels are pointing straight?

Try this if you have power steering. Put the car on jack stands, under the lower control arms and as far out as you can get without hitting the tire, level the car, and start it up with the steering wheel centered. Does the steering wheel turn by itself? If it does then the problem is in the steering gear box.

The next time you take it to an alignment shop get SAI angle and scrub radius. SAI will tell you if the sterring knuckle is bent and scrub radius will tell you if it's due to wheel/tire combo (backspacing and tire diameter.)

Do the front wheels have the same offset and backspacing?

 

[acpat]

what kind of suspension parts did you use? I had energy suspension parts in a 72 slant car that were shot before I made it from the garage to the alignment shop (3 miles). I don't care what anyone says it is moog or nothing that stuff is absolute junk. After replacing the defective parts it went 10000 miles and was all toast. Moog fixed it all.

 

[oldkimmer]

I agree with moparteacher, u need your SAI+IA #s to see if anything is wacko. Caster as well as camber will make it pull. I have found on more than one occasion that u have to compensate adjustments to get rid of a pull or shake even if the specs are within the normal range allowed by the manufacture...Sometimes it is trial+error that leads to the best handling car of all...I have been there,done that, often especially on the A body mopars..Dont get me wrong as every brand,model has something peculiar to them, that needs sorting out. Please post your alignment specs...........the older+wiserkimmer.(or so I hope)