Steering All Over the Place at 55mph+
As Kern Dog said there’s no way you’ve got E-body upper control arms on there, the mounting dimensions are very different.
If F/J/M spindles were used you have the later 73+ A-body large ball joint UCA’s, or small joint stuff with spacers.
More than likely you’ve got factory alignment specs, which means you’ve got no caster at all (or even negative caster!!!) which will make it feel like driving a shopping cart with radial tires. If that’s the case, you need to get it re-aligned. This is a good place to start…
“Typ. Perf street” is the minimum I’d ever run, but if you have stock UCA’s and non-offset bushings it may be more than you can get for caster.
And yeah, idler and steering joint would be other things to check. You will also want to check the condition of the lower control arms bushings and strut rod bushings. The LCA bushings are often skipped even when other stuff is replaced because the stock parts are more difficult to R&R than the other components.
Another thing to check is the K member for cracks. The factory welds were lousy and steering box mount cracks are not uncommon. Same for the LCA pivot mount breaking loose.
But with an alignment done at a chain alignment shop, it probably was just set to factory specs with no caster
As Kern Dog said there’s no way you’ve got E-body upper control arms on there, the mounting dimensions are very different.
If F/J/M spindles were used you have the later 73+ A-body large ball joint UCA’s, or small joint stuff with spacers.
More than likely you’ve got factory alignment specs, which means you’ve got no caster at all (or even negative caster!!!) which will make it feel like driving a shopping cart with radial tires. If that’s the case, you need to get it re-aligned. This is a good place to start…
“Typ. Perf street” is the minimum I’d ever run, but if you have stock UCA’s and non-offset bushings it may be more than you can get for caster.
And yeah, idler and steering joint would be other things to check. You will also want to check the condition of the lower control arms bushings and strut rod bushings. The LCA bushings are often skipped even when other stuff is replaced because the stock parts are more difficult to R&R than the other components.
Another thing to check is the K member for cracks. The factory welds were lousy and steering box mount cracks are not uncommon. Same for the LCA pivot mount breaking loose.
But with an alignment done at a chain alignment shop, it probably was just set to factory specs with no caster