71POWER

OK, here's the story:

• replaced my 225/75/15 with 255/55/18's
• new pitman arm
• wheel alignment (by a good old mechanic that knows his cars)

The car pulls to the left, wanders when the road is rough and tracks cracks in the road.
Anybody have any of the same issues, and were able to resolve them.
I thought wider tires would not follow the cracks in the roads.




Solutions or opinions:

• I was told to cross the front tires to see if it is a tire problem.
• I also heard that a positive caster would be another solution.

Anything else would be appreciated????

oldcutlass

If you have no other worn parts, your alignment is off. The wide tires amplify your problem.

joe_padavano

^^^ This. The advice to swap sides with the tires is a good one, just to eliminate any possibility that it's a bad tire. More positive caster is what you want, not camber. Increasing the camber will only increase the wear on the tires. Increasing the caster makes the front end more stable - at the expense of increasing steering effort. This usually isn't an issue with that vintage power steering.

Also, what's the offset of your wheels? You may have changed the scrub radius, which will also amplify problems.

Also, wow, those are tall tires - 29". That's about 2" taller than the 255/60-15s I run on my H/O.

don71

I agree, something going on here. Any chance you can take the car back to your good old mechanic and have him drive it?

How about the braking....Do you have drum brakes? and are they adjusted properly? Regardless of brake style, do both front wheels rotate equally..no drag.. when lifted off ground?

I'm sure were all wondering, the car didn't do this with the old tires and it began to occur after new tires/wheels and an alignment? Right there is where you need to look at.

71POWER

Sorry I guess I meant to say CASTER not CAMBER

71POWER

OK, this weekend I will:

• rotate the 2 front tires, to check for a bad one.
• I will jack it and free wheel the tires to check for rubbing/grinding.
• I have disk brakes in the front

if all of the above do not help, I will bring it back for a positive caster alignment. my steering is really lite as it is. can't hurt
Here is a pic of the 18's, pretty bad I will take a better picture all around.
The last pic is the 18" in the front and the 15 in the rear, I just started to change them.

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