88LX suspension issues

[boostmaster]

My recent acquisition of an 88lx has been pretty interesting to say the least. I purchased it with bald tires and no brakes, no exhaust, and drove her 6 hours to my home with no issues at all and 47.6 mpg!

I have recently re-done all of the bearings, new rotors up front and drums out back(new pads and shoes). Front end alignment and some "new" jy tires on 13" rims. Apparently they have flat spots because te car has a slight vibration. Additionally, there is a crazy rattling noise out back as I engage into gear slowly or while I'm driving. If the car is parked and I shake it there is no noise.

My question, however, has to do with suspension. While the shocks and springs seem fine, the car seems to want to float all over the road- almost wandering. Even with the alignment the car pulls slightly to the left. I was going to install new tires at walmart ($180 out the door) but I figured I'd check here first.

Any ideas as to what my problems might be?

[billthekat]

check the shifterlinkage and the exaust for the rattle....

the float sensation could still be struts. or worne out weak springs.

the vibration could be tires, but wen you get new tires (personally i wouldent touch walmart, not for product, but for service.)

have them check for bent wheels.

keep an eye out for uneven front tire ware. it sounds like the alighnment still isint right.

[gdawgs]

Does the car move severely to one side of the road under acceleration, then go the other direction under deceleration?

My first guess would be the control arm bushings. I drove a Festiva where the bushing was completely gone on one side. That car was absolutely scary to drive. It was all over the road and very unpredictable. It could also be severely worn tie rod ends, but more likely the bushings.

[Pu241]

[QUOTE=gdawgs;169894My first guess would be the control arm bushings. It could also be severely worn tie rod ends, but more likely the bushings.[/QUOTE]

I agree with gdawgs assessment, but I would have thought the place that did the alignment would have found the tie rod or control arm issue.
Provided they knew what they were doing.
Who did the alignment?

[skeeters_keeper]

check your control arm ball joints. They have a tendency to go bad after a while, and will produce the symptoms your describing... worst part is, they are always under pressure from the springs unless you remove the strut from the knuckle or remove the knuckle from the lower control arm so just jacking the car up and yanking on the tire probobly won't be good enough. I had checked mine several times, by jacking it up, yanking on it, etc and could never find the problem, I decided the replace them as precaution, and one of mine so bad i could move it in and out of the socket 1/4".

[boostmaster]

I told the alignment shop that the bushings and tie rod ends were worn but they insisted that a flat spot on the tires and an inner bushing was the culprit. It's a "local" shop that generlaly does good work. I assumed that they had seen the worn bushings and in the infinite wisdom, deemed them unnecessary to replace.

Cheap tires at wally world ar $180 (service is ok-)
Tie rod ends from Autozone $17.50 each.
Not sure about bushings?

I'm not good with suspension but I think I have the tools to do this stuff myself.

What springs are recommended? BTW, I went with jy wheels and tires to replace the 12" ones and it took several tries to find them. Anyone have other suggestions? (Besides the aspire swap-don't have the time for that)

[billthekat]

i heard somewhere that geo metro wheels fit 4x110mm bolt patern. never tried it though.

[FestYboy]

^ no...

[Pocket_Rocket]

i heard somewhere that geo metro wheels fit 4x110mm bolt patern. never tried it though.

If you meant 4x114.3 Geo metro (Swift, Sprint,Firefly,Metro from 1989 to 1994) wheels they should fit, I have some on my car (12") and seen another Festy with the same wheels. If you were talking about 4x100 wheels, then no, it won't fit unless you get an Aspire swap, and when you reach that point, you might as well go with 13" tires for better choice and availability.

[billthekat]

um, yea, the 114.3 one, sorry, i thought instead of looking it up again...me and numbers, not so good....sorry.


has aneyone swaped to bmw lug bolts? i tried some randome ones a frend had in his toolbox, and they wer the same diamater and thread pitch, + the conical seat was the same.....17mm head....just curious.

[93SOHC]

the only problem with geo rims is that they arent hubcentric like the festys. I am using 87 mazda 323 rims. proper centric and lug patern. Just my.02

[gdawgs]

I agree with gdawgs assessment, but I would have thought the place that did the alignment would have found the tie rod or control arm issue.
Provided they knew what they were doing.
Who did the alignment?

I don't assume anything about shops. A guy I used to work with took his Festiva in for an oil change. These local shops don't make money on oil changes, they use the cheap oil changes to get people to bring their cars in so they can find problems with the car and do those repairs. That's where the money is.
The shop called him up and told him that his steering rack needed to be replaced because the power steering was leaking. I told him to call them back and ask how that is possible when the car doesn't have power steering.

I wish I could have seen their faces. I believe the manager was a bit embarrassed on that one.

[deathegg]

My '88 has the same rattle when I engage 1st gear; it's the muffler heat shield that's loose.
Check that.

[boostmaster]

I found the sourse of some of the rattling noise...It was a bracket that attached to the muffler that would hit another piece of metal if the car hit any kind of bumps... I fixed it my sliding an old piece of rubber hose over it. I tested it and there are no problems and no noise!

I still need to work on the suspension. Anyone have a suggestion for shocks/struts/springs. Key word is "inexpensive"...

[MONSOON]

Just get some Gabriels.
41.99 each for rears and 61.99 each for fronts at Autozone. Might find them cheaper elsewhere or on Ebay.
Dont try to cheap out too much when it comes to suspension parts ,unless the thoughts of dying appeal to you.