floating feeling out of the front end?

1622 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Guest, Mar 20, 2001

Discussion Starter · Mar 19, 2001

my 65 convertible front end has a bug. if i am on smooth road, it tracks great - no wobble or nothing. I can feel the road real good. but when i hit road that is well worn and has a groove in it, i loose some of the control. the car seems to wander and i have to correct it. if i add a pothole, it sounds like it falls in with a thud - a dropped off the edge sound.

i jacked it up and shook the wheels and tie rod ends, but they don't seem to be bad enough to cause the above. any help or suggestions appreciated.

randy

65 pony from ground up, inline 6 (son's car),
66 Red Convertible, 289(dad's car)

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66CoupeNW

· #2 · Mar 19, 2001

If you're toed out or in, bumps and imperfections will pull the car. My 66 had similar symptoms, till I got the alignment fixed (toed out by over an inch!).

How are your front tires wearing? This might provide clues.

DanM
66 Coupe, check her out at http://www.66CoupeNW.stangnet.com

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education" - Albert Einstein

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Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 19, 2001

i haven't been driving it long enough (just got it running) to tell. i guess i better get it checked before i have to buy tires...

65 pony from ground up, inline 6 (son's car),
66 Red Convertible, 289(dad's car)

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Shaun @ Street or Track

· #4 · Mar 19, 2001

Mine used to feel like this until I added a 1" sway bar, export brace and monte carlo bar. Now it handles soooo much better.

Just a thought...

Thanks

Shaun

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Gene_J

· #5 · Mar 20, 2001

That loud clunk over bumps might be a bad spring perch bushing. If the suspension tracks straight and true other wise this could be the culprit!

Gene J

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1584519&a=12058180&p=43615717.jpg
66 Coupe/66 Convert/84 GT Turbo/96 coupe

Gene's cars

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Hottarod

· #6 · Mar 20, 2001

Some of it sounds like alignment but I think some of it is inherent in the old steering gear boxes, center links and tie rods and some of it has to do with what kind of front tires you run.

These days a lot of places don't even know how to align a car that doesn't have struts. One place I went to didn't know how to convert 1/8 inch toe in to degrees for their computer and the computer had no alignment spec's for my car. They messed my alignment up too for $75.

Something I have read about has to do with staggering the caster for curved pavement. Theres a drop off designed into most roads on the passenger side for water run off. To compensate for this the passenger side is supposed to have a bit more caster than the driver side but I don't know the particulars. Maybe this is a phenomen peculiar to the old steering boxes and it doesn't effect rack and pinion and strut rods. I don't know. If your alignment people have no idea what this is about I would call somebody else.

You can see my 65 fastback at: http://hottarod.stangnet.com/
http://members.aol.com/macstang/Gifs/macstang3.jpg

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Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 20, 2001

I noticed that too in my 68 on my trip to Oklahoma a few weeks ago. I noted though that road patches had patches and just sort of figured that was the cause. soon as I hit Texas again and no road patches the problem disappeared.

1968 Coupe, 6cyl Std, Bench Seat. Driven through 10 years of College.

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