BP makes the suspension go CRAZY!

[IdealSociety]

ok everything in my (aspire on festiva) suspension is new as of last year or so, control arms, tie rods, all new bushings ect, and i recently put in the escort gt bp/g25mr tranny, and now the steering seems extremely loose and it likes to shoot all over the place. also when i give her the throttle (how can you not? bp festivas are fast! :twisted: ) the thing flies all over the road and is almost impossible to keep in one lane lol...

any ideas whats causing such massive changes? everything was fine before the swap, perfect even... im also running 15x6.5" rims with a 195/50r15 tire... what could have changed? the only things i did involving the suspension when i did the swap was to pull the hub out a bit (i kept the tie rods on) so i could put the XR2 axles in. and i made sure everything was back together tight (multiple times lol)

any help would be MASSIVELY appreciated lol... if i cant fix this before it gets warm out again ill never be able to stay in my lane at the track to get times :cry:

[Silv3rBull3t]

Torque steer... FWD will always get it when power goes up... Although something else maybe the cause. I would say recheck all the bolts make sure they are all torqued down correctly... -Kyle

[Whittey]

Have you had it aligned?


-=Whittey=-

[mattswabb]

Mine did that when I did my swap. I then changed most everything up front. I feel the fms springs and the kyb struts made the most difference.

matt

[IdealSociety]

yeah i had it aligned and it helped a bit but it still jerks to one side really hard after i let off the gas even if im not accelerating hard... im gunna go take another look under there tonight and see if i can find the culprit...

[yvanlavoie20]

RENFORCMENT

i install a solid bar between the bolt that hold the ball joint to the bolt on other side of the body,

it solve the steering problem until tires come smoking

[92FestivaMPG]

Sounds like you have bad bushings in your sway bar where it meets the a-arm. check that out first.

Good luck,

John

[IdealSociety]

brand new as of last august :wink: and they are still nice and tight...

it seems it must be something on the left hand side (drivers side) because it mainly acts up when changing lanes to the left or when going around a curve to the left. it like tries to jerk itself real quick for some reason, and its always to that side...

[Safety Guy]

This is just a guess, but I have worked on the suspension and done an Aspire brake swap...

Carefully check out the control arm to body pivot bolts. Perhaps the one on the left side is loose?

Check for binding in the left side CV axle. Maybe you got a defective one or it got damaged upon installation?

Go over the Festiva factory shop manual suspension problem troubleshooting section. It has detailed steps to take to solve suspension problems. Maybe that will help.

Good luck!! Let us know how it goes.

Karl

[festivagt]

...

There are alot of reasons for the car to jerk. One being that you might have a greater amount of weight in the front of the car, Possibility that you have a broken suspension bit, Or maybe the shop that did your alignment did a very poor job. The alignment will effect most of what you are complaining about. Basically if both wheels are pointing straight and asuming your on a FLAT road, they will both be pointing in the same direction when you turn the wheel. If your alignment is out they could be pointing in the same direction with one pointing slightly in the other direction. When you turn the wheel the left tire finds the road before the other wheel and pulls it over to its direction. Hence the jerk. If you are driving on a crowned road (humped in the middle), this is considered normal as the tires on your car will tend to follow the hump or road imperfections. This will make the steering wheel 'pull' all over the road. Torque steer will have a play on this as the front suspension will deflect under load and push the drive/steer tires in all sorts of directions(pull the steering wheel). Check to make sure you don't have anything bent on the suspension and get it realigned at a reputable shop. Just because you don't loosen the tierod ends doesn't mean that you you are not going to alter your alignment. Whenever you disturb ANYTHING that is suspension/steering related you should expect to perform an alignment.