Crazy alignment problems
I don’t know if they would have anything to do with it but ever since I went to the PerformanceOnline front disc kit I’ve had this problem. It seems like the passenger side is the problem. The driver side seems ok.
That was gonna be one of my next questions..... if the UCA's and spindles are not properly matched, then you'll never be able to get it right. Saw that on a car for sale.... wrong year UCA's vs spindles and the front end was all out of whack. I'll admit I have forgotten a lot of what goes with what, so maybe someone can take that matter up.
But first, let's go back to this statement: "When it goes forwards, the front end goes way down, toes out and hits the fenders."
Is the front end going down because you are moving forward onto a more sloped section of driveway, or are applying the brakes hard and it takes a set down? I am trying to figure out why this happens.... I can think of a couple of things:
- Something loose as noted but you say all is tight
- Torsion bars taking only part of the weight and the rest begin taken by torque on the bushings.... but you say you have poly bushings in the LCA's? Please confirm
- I don't understand what you mean when you say you have the torsion bars adjusted as tight as you dare.. can you expand on that?
Now for the 2nd part of your statement.... For the front end to toe out when the front end goes down, then the tie rod and LCA are at different angles and/or tie rods are improper lengths. The toe rod angle being shallow compared to the LCA or the tie rod end being too long would do as you describe. Things to think about that can cause that:
- Wrong idler arm, setting the inner tie rod end too low
- Wrong mounting point for the idler arm on the K member. Did you put shims above or below the mounting point of the idler arm?
- Wrong year draglink, putting the inner tie rod end inward too far. You show one pix with the passenger side tie rod end adjusted waaaay out so that might indicate this problem
- Something amiss with the lower ball joint assembly (least likely IMHO)
My best bet at this point is that you have something wrong with the draglink or idler. Looking at your 4th pix in post #17, the wheels appear to be turned full left, and yet the idler arm is pointing almost straight back... that is messed up. IIRC, the idler should be straight back when the wheels are straight ahead and angled over to the passenger side when the wheels are turned left. The passenger side tie rod being suuuuper extended matches with this apparent problem.
Looking at the ninth picture in that group of the driver's side, the wheels are turned hard right and the pitman arm location looks right; it is angled to the driver's side, and the tie rod end is a normal length.
IMHO, you may have the wrong draglink in there for the other parts that you have.