Check your alignment. New set up may like some diff specs try less/zero toe

 

here are my alignment specs after the front end rebuild

YOu guys probably understand this stuff WAY better than I...

But - regardless.. here you go... everything look legit?

Rob

 

what does the red letters mean versus the green?

 

Alignment looks ok. I think what you're seeing is what happens when you drive a narrow track car down a road that's got road grooves made by wider trucks. I think it's called tram lining?

Try switching lanes.

There's really not much you can do about it. You've got heavy trucks going down the road and leaving depressions that are a little wider than the track (distance between the wheels left and right) of your car. So the car wants to fall into one track or the other.

bs

 

Many highways have those truck grooves worn into the pavement. Esp the right lanes where the trucks are often relegated to. This for sure will cause the steering to want to "hunt" a little at speed. Irritating but not much you can do about it. Goes away on either new pavement or "milled" old pavement.

Also, some tires are more sensitive to the grooves than others because of the tread design.

I also notice that you reduced the amount of toe in. The closer you are to toe out, I suspect the more you will feel the wander, as maybe the tire closest to the outside of the groove may want to climb that outside "hill" just a little more eagerly. I would increase the toe in just a little back toward what you originally had and see what happens. Something to try anyway.

 

Rob - there is a pretty good non-techie description of alignment on the Tire Rack site, and you can find lots more esoteric narratives on a web search. I see that you had the alignment done by the same guys who set up your car, so they probably have alignment specs that they have found work for how they set up your car. You have very little camber, a modest amount of castor and a little toe-in. A little more toe as Del suggested and a little more caster might improve your stability but since you are already working with Glynn, what do they say? For reference, Centerline provides 1/16" of toe-in, 0.5 degrees camber, 5 degrees castor for GTV6/Milano. Not quite the same platform, but close.

If it is minor and non-irritating, I'd let it be and see how it goes. Stiffer suspension will make the car more sensitive to all changes as well as tire design and road surface, and you might find experimenting will give you the result you seek for stability, steering effort, lateral traction and tire wear. For example, on my GTV6 with 225/50/15 and stiffer suspension, I now run zero toe, 1.5 degrees negative camber, 5.0 degrees caster.

 

As mentioned above, also consider the castor. I found in my 78 sedan, that the castor had been set waaaay too high, and the PO really complained that the steering was far too stiff, that this was one of the reasons he was selling the car. I reduced the castor and it mad a world of diff.

I suggest that as well as a little more toe in, maybe you could experiment with the caster to set the steering feel to what you want, while seeing if it does alter the wandering.

You are lucky, in that you can set these alignments. With the 164's, you can only set the toe. We are stuck with the castor and camber for the most part.

 

All new bushings on the rear end right? Watts Linkage bushings? You didn't attach the links backwards or something silly like that??

 

I'd go with what folks are saying about the road. Can you find a freshly resurfaced road to drive on?

 

It's the New England roads. You can do all you want to your car, but it's the roads especially this time of year all the roads are heaving. Trucks do groove the lanes on the highways, and without power steering on these cars we feel every pull and tug. It's the nature of the car. I feel this in all my 116 cars, less in the GTV-6, maybe because of the extra weight in the front. All the roads up here are chewed up. I just went to R.I. in my Fetta this weekend and all the states roads were terrible.

 

The roads can do it. Wider tires are more susceptable. Your description of rear dedion bushings, I assume you mean the watts linkage bushings. The watts linkage is what locates the dedion/rear axle/rear wheels by allowing up and down motion but restricting left and right motion, so if the bushings are worn enough to need replacement they can be allowing the location of the dedion and therefore wheels and tires to move about under the car.

 

Most likely what's happening is "bump-steer". A result of lowering the front suspension. The alignment guys seem to have done a very good job which is unusual for folks that don't know these cars (Esp. the fact that they were able to deal with the camber). Closest thing I can think of is the old early 70's Dodge Dart. My first thought was that you may have had too much negative camber, but the numbers don't show that at all.

While the car is at rest on level ground, do the lower "A" arms and steering tie-rods angle up? If so, this is why (and why ball joint extenders have come to be [or dropped-spindles for 116/119 cars]). Ball joint extenders are also referred to as Roll Center Correctors.

 

Rob,

I suspect the road as well. The wider the tire the more suceptable. Also with your refreshed front end, you may just notice it more - because it is so good everywhere else.

You should feel it in my wife's ZR-1. Yanks you all over. I find that driving on one side of the humps helps, as you are not continually correcting.

Glad to know you are enjoying the car.

Mark

 

I have the same thing happen in my LS, with new Michelin Exalto tires, in a minor way. Took a nice drive to Portland and back last weekend, and on the old sections of freeway where the pavement was worn, the car did want to steer right or left slightly depending on which side of the "truck rut" I was driving in. Where the pavement had been shaved smooth or was newer paving, the effect went away with no adverse steering.

 

lots of great info....

I am looking at it all... will check if the lowering was too much... but I don't think so... I'll check... and certainly the roads could explain it..

That noted, I am refreshing the watts linkage bushings and the Dedion Swivel bushing... I had a separate post asking about how hard that job is to do.... looking for opinions, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a hard worker, but a lightweight mechanically... great responses.. thank you guys.

 

Hey Rob,

You will want to recheck this after you have freshened up the rear bushings. Alingment specs look OK. If the rear bushings are worn you may have a little rear wheel steering going on.

 

I had this problem with my Sud (many years ago) and it was because the trailing arm bolts had worked loose ...

So IMO it would pay to check all is well.
Pete