I am having some trouble with my recent upgrades...and am really hoping that someone might have some advice as to what may be the problem! I just did a disc brake swap on my '71 using granada parts...I decided to replace a few things while I was there. I replaced the springs..they were supposed to be the same as my original 250 springs but are about an inch lower...odd. Replaced the upper ball joints and the lowers. The tie rods were good so I left them. I took the car to two alignment centres but still can't get the car to handle nearly as well as it used to before the swap(but it sure stops good). The steering does not return to centre very well and it kinda feels sloppy..kinda like it is skating or numb feeling while going straight...but yet feels good when I turn. Has a bit of bumpsteer. One of my strut rods is almost bottomed out(end of threads)...which is really odd! The car is within alignment specs..but is really disppointing me as this point! Neither shop know what is wrong with it but both feel it is not good! I am supposed to be racing in the Kent "Pinks all out" race coming up in a few weeks...but am unsure about how this thing will feel at 120mph! Don't want to make the T.V by hitting the wall! Any ideas or thoughts are very much appreciated....
if u replaced that much, i would have went ahead and put new inner and outer tie rods on it. that way, it would have eliminated almost any guesswork in the steering. just my thoughts...
That and or they don't hold up when going down the road and come in (negative) causing issues. Something is up if the rod(s) are at the end of the threads too. Hopefuly not tower flex.
The strut rods are used to adjust the castor on these cars and it sounds like the castor is off...Hence the skating feeling in the front end,and the lack of thread on the strut rods..It took me 3 tries to find someone who knows how to "properly" set up our front ends.Perhaps the tech just didnt know how to do it.Most new cars only have Toe settings...The rest isnt even adjustable.
make sure the upper a arm bushings are not worn, but i doubt that changed too much. Did you replace the bearings or use the ones from the granada? also make sure the alignment tech got the camber bolts tightened back down right. i had one leave that loose and when i hit a bump the steering wheel changed by 90 degrees while i continued straight (talk about scary)
You do realize your on the Mav forum and not the F trucks forums? Sorry, I have never seen a drag link that adjusted caster.
it doesnt have enough caster. this problem occurs when you lower the car. this removes caster so the strut rod have to be pulled forward to adjust for it. the better thing to do is to put a shim in the upper control arms font bolt. this will give you the caster to get the the handeling in order.
the steering not returning to center is usually caster...need more positive...but could also be from the spindal change? do you know if they both have the same steering axis inclination? i would look at the alinment specs of the maverick and compare them to the granada you took the spindals off of. i would need to see specs. hell most people in those shops dont know what the hell they r doing anyways. should be 0 -1/2 neg camber and 2.0 - 3.0 pos caster with about 1/8 toe in i would also make sure your upper control arm pivots r in good shape as that will make a car dart side to side if loose
After 3 try's at an alignment shop I brought the car over to my Dads place for him to have a peek(back yard Mechanic). He found the problem in less than 5 min! The strut bars were loose(over 1in on movement going from forward to reverse! The rubbers were toast from all the slop and the steel bushings were trashed! I have no idea why the shop never even bothered to look for problems when they were obviously have trouble getting everything in spec! 4th alighnment at a differnent shop and everything is perfect...awesome!
I was going to suggest a different shop. About 20 years ago I had the same problem after rebuilding the front of mine and converting to disc. Took it to get aligned and it handled like crap. Steering would not recenter itself was just one of the problems. After repeated trips to the same shop I finally gave up on them. His last excuse was all the new parts made the the steering so stiff it wouldn't return. I said when it was new it had all new parts and I didn't have this problem. After a few choice words, I took it somewhere else. The guy was an older guy who knew what he was doing and aligned it correctly. No problems since. In your case, if the first guy didn't see that strut problem, I'd go else where.
Glad to hear its all good. Its hard to find guys to fix these old things properly. Our front end mans an old fart so he knows his stuff. Donig my car this week. It drives great so I dont think he'll change much.
