About 2 months ago I went through the entire front end on the Cutlass at my girlfriends dads shop, new everything.

Upper/Lower Control arm bushings, center link, idler arm, tie rod ends, upper/lower ball joints, everything. 4 New Cooper Cobra Tires too.


I had the car aligned and drove it home. But after driving it for a few hundred miles it seems to drive funny. When on the highway, it seems to wander, but never to one side or the other. Always random. Maybe I'm just so used to how it drove with a worn out suspension, but I kind of have to keep paying attention otherwise I find myself wandering back and forth between the lines. Like the old tires were both worn down on the outside edges. Camber wear I think thats called. I'm guessing from my worn out ball joints.

Secondly, if I hit a bump going around a corner(a decent bump in the road) the car seems to jerk, almost as it it's pivoting on a point in the middle of the car. Does it either direction, left or right. Almost like what you'd expect the car to do if you weren't holding onto the steering wheel.

I know I'm not explaining this very well, but the only way I can articulate it, is it feels like the difference from when my Old Thunderbird didn't have a rear sway bar, to when I put the heavy duty one in from a Turbo Coupe.

Any suggestions, I really don't know where to start. I've played around with the tire pressure just to see, and haven't had any real difference. The glove box says 24psi, but those were biasply tires, I think the Coopers are at 32psi right now. It's almost like the steering wheel is more sensitive, and like there is more play in it at the same time. I've sat here for 20 minutes trying to explain this, and this is the best I can do.

 

These cars didn't have the best suspension set up do you have a alignment print off ? Just wondering if your castor might be way off
Look up robs 64 build or talk to him about the b body spindles to help the bump steer
(Therobski )

 

I'd check all the alignment settings. And if the ball joints are bad, replace them. The car also needs the correct toe in, which is kind of like slightly pigeon toed, which is what you want. When you go faster, the rolling resistance of the tires pushes the tires out and more straight. If there is not enough toe in, the tires will push beyond straight, and the car tends to wander and jump from side to side.

 

Sounds like you need more caster. Caster is what pulls the wheels back to a straight-ahead position, and keeps it feeling stable on the highway and over bumps, but makes it a bit harder to turn if you do a lot of slalom driving.

- Eric

 

X2. The factory alignment settings were designed for ease of steering. More caster will increase both stability and steering effort. You can even buy aftermarket upper control arms today that have the ball joints moved rearward to provide more caster without resorting to large shim packs.

 

Technically speaking you need more negative caster. That means the upper ball joint needs to me adjusted towards the rear of the car; positive caster is the reverse with the upper ball joint being moved forward. ( that's the easiest way I can explain it). Also when you finished the front end rebuild did you do the final torque on the control arms with the weight of the car on the suspension? If not this will cause the bushings to bind up and also to wear out prematurely.

 

What alignment settings did you use? I like the following:
Camber/ 0-0.5 negative camber, same for both sides
Caster/ as much positive as I can get without effecting camber. Usually no more than 3 degrees with stock equipment.
Total toe in/ 1/16 - 1/8 inch

 

Actually, I'm afraid you have it backwards. If the steering pivot axis is angled with the top towards the rear of the car, that's positive caster (castor is a type of oil, or one of the Gemini twins).





This article also has good info on alignment.

 

This was my first thought, too.

 

While I admit I had the nomenclature reversed, the direction the that the caster needs to be adjusted (if that is the problem) is correct. Sorry for the break in propriety.

 

If the rear control arm bushings are worn, the car will steer from the rear and you will have to keep correcting as you race along the highway...How do I know this???

 

If the alignment was set for A body specs you will have your described symptoms.Set it to G body specs.At least 3 degrees Positive caster.

 

Yup, I did that myself just to be sure.

And you guys are probably right, all the guys told me was that it was setup per whatever the factory would have done. So it would probably be fine for the old bias ply tires. I guess I'm going back to pay someone else to set it up to more modern specs. Damnitt, I printed out the specs someone posted and asked to get as close to these as possible. Grr.


I've got new shocks coming tomorrow (warrantied through Monroe) so I figured it'd throw those in first just to see. The parts store told me they don't carry the "Gas-Matic" versions anymore, so I'm being upgraded, for free, to the Sensa-Trac Reflex ones (Awesome) so we'll see.

If not, I'll go somewhere else and have the car re-aligned. :/

Thanks Everyone, I'll post back in a couple days with results!