Front end problems: car pulling to right!

[fastivaca]

Hello all,

Just recently I rebuilt the passenger side hub, replacing the bearings as they were making way too much noise and there was a lot of play. Prior to this work I had no issues with steering or alignment.

Once I did this, ensuring that everything went back together the way it came apart, the car pulls severely to the right. I double checked everything after a day or so but all seemed to be as it should.

I noticed that there was play in the drivers side balljoint so I replaced both lower control arms with brand new Moog ones. I guessed wrong, the car still pulls to the right.

I have a theory about what has happened. When I removed the steering knuckle to rebuild it I only jacked up that side and had it up on a jack stand. My theory is that while it was sitting up on the stand the sway bar and everything attached to it slid in its mounts towards the passenger side. Another symptom is that the driver's side tire is wearing very quickly on the outer couple of inches of tread.

Let me know if you have any ideas as to what I may have messed up. I'm going to jack the front of the car up and loosen the sway bar mounting bolts and shock mount bolts to see if things "spring" back into proper position. I'm also going to check the steering rack. I should get to that later tonight or sometime tomorrow and will report back.

Once that's done I'm going to replace the tie rod ends, inner and outer, and then find a reputable alignment shop to put things as they should.

Cheers,

[leapin]

Ian, when I did a bunch of front end work I found the toe was out. Would explain the tire edge wear. It ended up being a tie rod adjustment.

[fastivaca]

Scott,
What I wonder about though is there were no issues prior to taking off the one hub. Other than disconnecting the outer tie rod end, the ball joint and the shocks nothing was moved, turned or twisted.

I'm definitely going to get an aligment done before I put the summer tires back on!

Ian

[mattman]

its jus 63 rageing horsepower wanting to go right instead of left....lol

[fastivaca]

its jus 63 rageing horsepower wanting to go right instead of left....lol

83 raging horsepower... I have a B6 :p

One thing I discovered tonight: I had to make a fairly quick stop while out earlier tonight and hit the brakes hard with no pull to either side.

[shadetree]

Sounds like camber to me!!! Loosen both lower shock bolts and shove in on the assembly then tighten !!!! Either that or you had a camber bolt and it's been installed incorrectly!!! Although you can usually see the wheel tilted in at the bottom when this happins !!!!

[fastivaca]

Sounds like camber to me!!!

Other than the top of the strut mount there is no camber adjustment on the Festiva. The only things I disconnected on the drivers sider were the LCA, the tie rod and the two bolts that connect the bottom of the strut to the steering knuckle.

I will have a chance later today to go and have another look at things though it's -22şC (-8şF) here right now and even with garage its a little cold on the fingers

[tulsacarman]

Toe is the easiest thing to check. I've used a string with a bent nail at the end for years.

Tie a bent nail at the end of a spool of twine (nylon works great). Center the steering wheel as if going straight down the road. Hook the nail on something inside the wheelhouse, behind the rear wheel. Pull the string forward (down the side of the car) toward the front wheel. The string should lay flat across the face of both tires if the toe is correct. If the string touches only the front of the front tire it's toed out. If it hits only the rear of the front tire it's toed in. This should also tell if there is a toe problem on the rear as well (whether it can be adjusted or not).

This is a general "quickie" check and you have to make sure that there are no puckered areas or bulges on any face that the string lays across. Also, this wouldn't work on an Aston or other cars with staggered front and rear widths. I myself have never had to worry about that possibility.

If you're wearing tires badly and quickly and it's pulling to one side then it's most likely toe and it's probably just a couple cranks of the outer tie-rod end to square it up.
I can't understand why this issue would surface after the work done though.

[perucho]

^ Yes, check the toe with a string. I bet it's off.

[batstiva]

Any chance in breaking stuff loose to remove the knuckle, that you changed the outer tie rod end position? Or forgot to tighten the back nut down tight, if you had to loosen it? Just asking.

[FestYboy]

i'll be betting on improper bearing preload and too much spindle nut torque (more likely the preload).

[tulsacarman]

i'll be betting on improper bearing preload and too much spindle nut torque (more likely the preload).

Do you mean that the bearing is tightened too much causing the wheel to not turn as freely on that corner? If that's the case, it's an easy check to jack the car and spin the wheels to make sure they aren't tightened too much. This would explain why the issue only surfaced after the work.

That could cause it to pull as if you have a caliper that's sticking but I don't think that the wear on the outer tread could be caused by this. Even if it's pulling to one side because one of the front tires is, essentially, dragging you would see opposite wear on the front tires (inner wear on the normal side and outer wear on the tighter side). The driver is forced to turn the car against the pull so it would be like being in a constant, gradual turn away from the tight side (if the toe is correct both sides).

A camber issue will give you tread edge wear but shouldn't be so much a pull issue on straight ahead driving unless it's WAY off (assuming toe is correct). Caster, on the other hand, can cause a pull. If one of the tires is too far forward or rearward it can cause the car to pull a bit. You can measure the wheelbase on both sides to make sure one's not out of whack. Just measure from center to center of the wheels on each side. Either a caster or a camber problem will show in how the car corners since there is a tire that's leading the other through the turn.

[mechanicaldj]

could your right caliper be dragging?

[tulsacarman]

fastivaca, did you figure it out?

[Aspire]

^^ was it figured out.