Sudden jerk to left when accelerating

[88FestivaLX]

I had this same problem. It was torque steer! Well, not much, but its there. Ha, I know I'm not much help, but this is the first FWD car I've had.

[nxp]

I had a similar problem - steering and car both jerk sideways on varying accel/decel - very dangerous in fast traffic! It turned out to be a combination of (right) wishbone pivot bolt wear, wishbone bushing wear and play of the pivot bolt where it passes through the body. Changed the wishbone and pivot bolt and re-made the pivot holes and its all ok now. Swaybar bushings made the whole handling feel "tighter" but didn't take care of it by themselves.

[lessersivad]

Well it hasn't been doing it lately but I know it didn't fix itself. I'm gonna have to take a good look at the bushing and ball joints the next time I get it inside. I'll try to remember to post findings. Thanks everyone.

[ketchup]

i agree its the bushings and or ball joints. has happened to me. then the ball joint popped out a while after

[zrice88]

i had the same problem on my 90 L with the Aspire swap. One of the ball joints was really loose. I replaced it and all was well.

[bruce wiles]

it's ball joints . if you want to fix them your self call me bruce at 1-812 -384 7016 it's not that hard with the right stuff.

[jep]

Did you ever find out what the problem was?? My '90 L Plus with 274,000 miles would jerk to the left about a year ago then stopped for 6 months, did it a couple more times then stopped for about 2 months then did it again the other day. Seems to happen more when cold out. Mine seems to do it when their is no torque on the drive train like when shifting or slowing down to brake. If I was real gentle with it when accelerating and shifting, it wouldn't do it. Before it started I had replaced the bushings, bearings, control arms. When it started I replaced the inner/outer tie rods then the tires and calipers. The left cv joint makes noise and the motor mounts need changed so I'm going to try those next. At a loss with this one.
John

[lessersivad]

jep. No it hasn't done it lately. I'm more than likely going to wait and do a fairly complete rebuild of the front end cuz I noticed last week when changing the left caliper that there is some cracking in the cv boots. Maybe something will become obvious during tear down.

[JoDan]

i had the same problem with mine and its was the control arm/sway bar bushings

[jep]

I replaced the motor mounts and master cylinder, thinking it might have been a brake issue or engine movement causing the twitch but it still did it.
I changed the axle and bearings on the left side and, knock on wood, it hasn't happened again. The outer cv joint was pretty much toast and the grease in the hub smelled like it was burned.