Cutlass Pulls Right When Accerating..

[NonSenCe]

1st things first.. Greetings from Finland Europe everyone.

And then to business. Just bought 1980 Cutlass Calais, and on drive home while cruising on highway I noticed it seems to Pull right (towards the ditch) when accelerating. And when I let go of the pedal, it Yanked/pulled back to the left.

Not that alarmingly much that I got scared driving it but enough to notice and worry abit about it. It seems that the tail end of the car just nudges sideways when powering it and back to "normal" when letting it coast.

Any idea whats wrong in there? Where do I start to look and how to test them?

my first idea was some bushing beeing worn out?


ps. looking for headlight trim bezels for this car too (before i bought it, it was in small parking lot collision with suv that messed the front plastic parts, grilles, bezels, and the middle part between the grilles)

 

[kanek4]

I would start by checking all of your front end steering/suspension components. First thing that popped in my mind was a worn idler arm, and/or possibly center link. Then maybe an alignment check.

 

[pontiacgp]

sounds like your right with suspecting the rear bushings or it could be a broken upper link. When you give it gas the right wheel wants to travel forward which would rear steer the car and cause it to go to the right. When you let off the gas that right wheel want to move to the rear which would cause the car to turn left. If an upper link was broken or the bushings were really bad that would allow the rear end to rotate on the lower control arm. I would be fixing that before you drove the car again

 

[NonSenCe]

jacked the car up today.. didnt find any loose parts there even when using crowbar to pry them around. all bushings start to look a bit old but are there still nothing is rusted out and loose.. so it seems it wasnt any of the links etc.

pulling the wheels in and out felt similar small movement in and out on both sides (i think that is the c-clip setup there causing it)

so started the car and put it on drive and the drivers side tire wobbles and shakes alot.

i changed the wheels from left to right and the drivers side wobbled again and passangers side was straight and true.

so whats wrong now? axle bent? bearings?

is it safe to drive anymore or do i need to park it completely now until fixed?

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Pull the wheel off and watch the axle spin while in gear. That should make it pretty apparent if it's a bent axle.

 

[NonSenCe]

Aye did that yesterday. (the car was on stands jacked up in air when i let it run) the wheel wobbled clearly. so it was most likely either worn out bearings or axle bent.

so today friend suprised me as he had pulled an used rear axle from his junk spare parts pile and helped me remove it and change it.

the axle itself seemed to be straight when rolling it on table but the end flange where the wheelbolts were was twisted out of whack. (so its likely bent on the flange then.. hah) just wondering what could cause that kind of damage.

on short test drive, it seemed to cure the previous shake and wobble it had before. there is still small nudge to the right when powering and then back left/straight when letting go of power. but even that was reduced i would say.

. sadly we didnt have all the new parts we needed to really do it properly (bearings etc) because it is sunday afterall and stores are closed (not that we could of found any old american car spare parts easily on normal day either here) so there might be something there still worn out even thou we didnt feel any movement up and down etc. will likely pull it apart later in summer or during winter to change the bearings and bushings too.

hopefully it was fixed now enough so i can actually start to drive the car around now. previously it just felt dangerously "wrong" before. lot better now.