I am currently having an issue with doing an alignment on my 81 malibu. Do the factory big shaft steering boxes have a internal limiter? Or do the have a biult in nuetral center? I seem to have to kept constant pressure pulling to the left to stop the car from tracking to the right. Pitman arm is pefectly straight and alignment machine says car is straight in the front.
steering box /alignment issue
- Thread starter 81msw79
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I would check the tire pressures and if they all check out then get a thermal gun to check brake temperature to see if any of the brakes are dragging and if nothing wrong there I would rotate the tires front to back. Also check the rag joint see if that has play. If it still pulls after that I would bring it back and tell them the problem and ask them to fix it. Did they give you a print out of the toe, camber and caster settings. A difference in the caster setting will cause a car to pull. There are many "alignment" shops that only do the toe since with most cars theses days that is the only adjustment. I had to take my car to three different shops before I found one that could do the 3 settings. I even took it to a shop who specialises in Corvettes and they tried to tell me there was no adjustible caster setting on my car
I did check tire pressures. I really cant swap the tires around *ss i have 275/60/15 in the rear and 225/60/15 up front. I dont have a print out but i seen the screen as they did it and everything was in spec. Bi have the newer u-joint style steering shaft the i got from a pretty reputable on maliburacing.com. i did notice almost everything in the steering system is keyed to fit one way except the pitman arm. It has 4 keyed spotd on the shaft. That is one thing the one item i never touched. I was curious to know if it is possible to put the srm on the shaft in the wrong position and dtill have full turning ability but not be in dead center of the travel range. This may be the pressure i am feeling. The pull is not super hard but noticable.
Try crossing the front tires and see if the pull goes away or changes, if it does change, that points to a tire problem, if not an alignment is called for. when the did the alignment did they change(add or remove) any shims at the upper control arms? These are the adjustment for caster and camber if they did not change the shims they did not adjust caster or camber, if they claim to do an alignment and did not change the shims find a new shop. Also does it do this on all roads, some roads have more crown than others which will cause the car to track to the right.
It does it on all roads. Did the same thing with the old tires. When it did the same with my tires thats when i decided to have it aligned. It only drifts right never left . It will do it on any road. Thee first shop said only the toe was alittle out but the caster and camber looked ok. This is the second shop to look at it. They said everything was in spec. This is why i questioned it maybe being the possibility of the steering box trying to find its natural center if these boxes are biult that way.
I think he just spun it around the block. He wasnt gone very long. I am going to call a different shop tomarrow see what they say. I would take it where my dad gets his cars done. But it is a 2 hour trek to get there.
I'd go back and ask him why he didn't check out why the car was pulling after he road tested it. If he didn't say anything to you about why the car was pulling and check it out if he didn't have an explanation he's not much of an alignment guy
Yeah seems finding any good old school mechanic is hard. Most shops habe numb skull kids that only know rack and pinion stuff
The gear box can be tightened with the allen bolt and 5/8" nut on the top of the box. If it is set too tight, it's hard to find center. Did you check your front wheel bearings?
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