Saturday night coming home from a cruise, I was driving about 25 mph coming into a corner when I heard a pop - I thought I had a blowout - becase I had a HARD push to the right - almost hit the neighbor's mailbox. Now, in corners anything above 20- it gets really squirrely. I put the car on the lift and I can NOT find anything obvisous. Now, granted, my suspension rubber is worn and old, but I didn't see any broken bolts, missing rear alignment shims, and the u-joints looked good. Any ideas what to look for? Thanks!
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Re: C2 hard push in cornering
Robert,
Put the car on a lift about 2 feet off the ground. One wheel at a time, twist them from side to side. One of the wheels has to have excessive play in order for the car to change direction. Sounds to me like it's in the steering linkage - a ball joint or a tie rod end. -
Re: C2 hard push in cornering
Check the rear spring carefully for any broken leaves. A broken coil spring would definitely cause that corner to sag, but it may not be that noticeable if just one of the rear leaves breaks, but it will put "wedge" into the suspension and make it pull to one side.
Also check the anti-roll bar(s) and links, shocks and steering components including the flexible coupling between the steering gear and steering shaft.
In any event, something in the suspension/steering broke, and I would advise not driving the car until you find the cause and correct it.
Use pry bars to look for excess deflection. Sometimes broken or bent suspension/steering parts are not obvious to visual inspection.
DukeComment
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Re: C2 hard push in cornering
I would take another look at those shims, I lost 1 or several one time while going around a corner and the result was the same as what's happening to you now. The mechanic that worked on my rear trailing arms never stated wheather I lost one or some but I heard one when I lost it clanging on the pavement around a corner but thought I hit some metal in the road. After that the car shifted sideways at times to the extent that I knew right away it was garage time again ASAP.Comment
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Re: C2 hard push in cornering
Do you have positraction?Comment
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Re: C2 hard push in cornering
Yes, it is a 3.73 posi. However - as an update, I was test driving again & made a hard right turn, loud pop, and now it drives fine (although I didn't push it really hard after that either). I must have lost a shim on the driver side trailing arm - or something completely failed in the bushing. Its the only thing I can thing of unless I broke a u-bolt on the rear spring and its moving around (maybe? it that even possible?).
Its all original stuff, so I'm just going to tear it all down a replace all the rubber, realign, shocks, etc. Its needed it anyway, I just didn't want to stop driving long enough. I drive it almost everyday.Comment
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Re: C2 hard push in cornering
A simple visual inspection will tell you whether you lost some shims on the rear trailing arm pivots. When installed correctly, there are enough shims to eliminate any possible side-to-side movement. In most cases, there will be shims on both sides of the pivot bushing.
When you do your visual inspection of all the bushings, be sure to check the two large "sombrero" bushings on the ends of the differential crossmember. Our own John Hinckley had one of those fail on his car, even though such failures are extremely rare.Comment
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