Strange steering issue

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player1up

player1up

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Oh boy, where to start...
My daily driver is having some steering issues and I'd like a second opinion, something other than my own :)

Car:
73 Duster /6 833OD, manual front disc brakes, all new everything under the front end as of 2-3 years ago ( including, pitman arm, idler arm, tie rod ends strut rod bushings, kyb shocks, UCA/LCA bushings, .870 t-bars, upper and lower ball joints, etc ) Would some of this stuff be bad already??

Symptoms developed over the last few days:
1. Car wanders on the road, but only sometimes..and seems to do it after a hard left hand turn.
2. Some strange knock from the front end, again only sometimes, not bad but I can hear it, so something is loose. Sounds like possibly passenger side.

Things I've checked so far:
1. Steering box is tight to the k-frame. ( bolts wont budge with a 2' breaker bar )
2. Steering box is not sloppy ( power steering btw )
3. Toe is set correctly - 1/8

So, I plan on taking the passenger tire off and checking all of the bolts, ball joints, tie rod ends, strut rod, wheel bearings, but this is still just a guessing game. I'm kind of at a loss... Is it possible that the k-frame is loose?

What would you check?
 
Put a wrench on EVERYTHING to check wether it's tight or not. Check your strut rod bushing for sure. Back in the day of being an alignment tech I ran into a few Mopes where the LCA mounts in the K-member hand torn loose, or technically "wallored out".
 
Since you say everything is new,I would check mounting points for rot.Maybe check your UCA mounting area,torsion bar mounts(front and rear)also check to make sure the t.bar clip didn,t pop out?Let us know what you find.
 
Possibly need to adjust (center) steering gear valve body? Although this doesn't explain knock! Good luck.
 
Ok, I've been out of town for a while and thus out of touch... I did some checking under the front end and everything IS tight, but when I was under there I noticed that the center link is NOT level to the ground.
I had been working on a few different projects and didn't notice that it must have changed when I installed a new power steering box and pitman arm.
The center link is lower on the driver side than it is on the passenger side. It also appears that the pitman arm is not as far up on the output shaft but only by a couple of mm. So is there any way to shim the idler arm down or ??

Oh, and an update on the symptoms. knock was a loose caliper, who would have thought that a caliper could make so much noise?? Now that I've driven it more it seems that the wandering/odd pull is predictable not a "sometimes" type thing, for example: on the same road at the same point on the road it will wander/pull like when changing lanes...
 
After spending some good cash for new parts.Time to take it to an alignment shop for proper diagnosis.Good luck.
 
Your parts are 2 to 3 years old? What brand parts? Could very well have bad stuff up there already.
 
my guess is K frame where lower control arm attaches.The tube breaks loose from the k frame and allows the control arm to shift . just my guess ,without seeing the car. .............Wish I'd known Matt............I was at moparty and orlando speedworld last weekend ......................and coulda stopped by
 
Kim, It did it on 2 different sets of tires...

Petty, It was aligned and fine, but I swapped out the steering box because the old one was leaking and sloppy, alignment was fine but there was about 3-4 inches of steering wheel travel... After spending almost 2 weeks away I got to thinking about when the issue started and what I'd done...and the only thing steering related was the box.

abodyjoe, All but the tie rod ends are moog stuff. I had thought about bad parts already but if I've got to start replacing stuff after 2-3 years of 10-20 miles per day.... I have no idea what to do :lol:

Joe B. No worries, I was just getting back into town this weekend and didn't even make it outside.

I'll have more info after this weekend as I'll be spending all Saturday "gettin all up in there"

Thanks guys!
 
you said the alignment was fine...what is your SAI measurement? what is caster and camber? how are your upper control arm bushings?
 
I've not been able to find the sheet from when it was done, but it'll go back to the alignment guys when I get this center link alignment this thing fixed, and I have a set of the moog offset uca bushings that will be going in as well but I'd like to concentrate on one thing at a time.
 
I can attest to the upper control arm bushings and pins contributing to wander. In fact,my old Duster would change lanes by itself. Those uppers are a ***** to get out.
 
When you changed out the steering box did the coupler come apart? If so, the little "shoes" that are inside the coupler may be installed improperly.
 
resto, I checked the uca bushings and they look fine, bolts are tight and no movment that isn't supposed to be there, even when dropping the floor jack quick.

Scuba, I did have the coupler apart but it did go back together the way it came apart, not sure if it's correct but it is the way it was :)


So I'm thinking that this whole thing is related to the center link and that is where I focused my attn tonight.

ok so here is what I know from tonight.
The pitman arm is not as close to the body of the steering box by about .3 inches measured with a caliper old vs new.
View attachment pitman_arm_old(Small).JPG

So here is what the measurements look like from the ground.
Passenger side:
View attachment passenger side.jpg
Drivers side:
View attachment drivers side.jpg

So not sure what to do, did I not install the new pitman arm correctly? I think it was something like 130ft/lbs
 
Is the steering wheel center changing positions when you're driving, more noticeably after a turn?
 
6pk, not sure I understand the question so let me see if I've got this...
like if I'm driving down the road straight, and the spokes on the steering wheel are at say 2 and 4 o'clock and 8 and 10 o'clock and after the corner it returns to straight driving but the spokes are now set at 3 and 5 and 11 and 9.?
No that doesn't happen.
Steering wheel is always in the same position when the car is straight.
 
had been working on a few different projects and didn't notice that it must have changed when I installed a new power steering box and pitman arm.
The center link is lower on the driver side than it is on the passenger

Is it possible , since the problem didnt start till the box and pitman was changed that the pitman is not right for you application maybe longer or sweeps lower causing that side hanging down and causing geometry problem, here is a link on pitman arms.





http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/steering/14.html
 
I actually still have the box for the pitman arm....Moog, K7076.
So I'm gonna pull both the old and new arm off and compare... but that's a task for tomorrow or this weekend.
 
Just put a new box on a cuda a few weeks ago and the pitman was boxed wrong, see that happen once in a while.
 
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