74 Satellite wanders and has sloppy steering

[arsinist01]

Well the title pretty much says it all. Car tends to wander left or right, it's not really fussy which way it goes. And the steering wheel feels pretty sloppy. Any ideas on what could be the cause of all this fuss?

 

[Cranky]

How many miles are on the front end parts? Poor alignment can also make a car act bad but if the front end is worn, not much you can do as alignment goes will help it. How much slop does the steering box have in it? You can check this with the car sitting still....

 

[arsinist01]

Looking underneath the front end it appears that a lot of the parts under there could very well be original lol. That being said the car has 85k miles on it. Not sure how to test the steering box for slop though, could you give me a heads up on how to do that?

 

[Kern Dog]

Some have said that even at 85,000 miles, a stock steering box may need a rebuild. The idler arms in our cars often wear out within that time.
An easy way to test the steering response is to start it up and stand outside of the drivers side with the window down. Look at the Left front wheel, then reach in and turn the steering wheel back and forth. You should see the tire move with a reasonably small amout of turning of the steering wheel. Looking at a clock, say 11:00 to 1:00 should be ebnough to get something from the tires. Any more than that means parts are worn or the steering box needs an adjustment.....Maybe both.:upside down:

 

[Big Jim]

Don't forget to check the coupler between the steering column and box...

 

[Propwash]

If your car's wandering all over the road and you got 85,000 on the parts, first area to look would be junk ball joints/tie rods/idler arm and an alignment...after that Upper/lower control arm bushings.

Don't get me wrong, steering box's do wear out/break, but take a look at the obvious hardware that wears out on a much more frequent basis first before sinking $400-500 on a new steering box

 

[arsinist01]

Ok, had the car in for inspection/emissions (passed with flying colors by the way). And they guys were nice enough to check out the front suspension for me. They didn't find any excessive play in it, so their suggestion was to adjust the steering gear box. The guy did tell me that he suspected it had a loose wheel bearing so I'll get to that but I don't think that alone could account for everything.

 

[67 coronet]

check your ball joints yourself,not normally done correctally at most shops.put front of car on jack stands(good place is frame rails near front of doors)then put your jack under the front suspension(under lower ball joint)and jack up until suspension is close to ride hight(while in the air)then try to wobble(with hands at 12 and 6 o clock on the tire)if you have movement,then there is a problem.if done with two people you can see what is loose while you wobble the tire.putting hands at 3 and 9 oclock will check steering linkage.it will also let you tell if you have some bearing play.

 

[arsinist01]

Took the car to a buddy of mine down here that has a custom car shop. He checked out the play in the steering gear box, and said he thinks he can adjust it to where it will be a lot better. So taking it down to him saturday and hopefully all will be well.

 

[Ron 73]

I had the same problem and the short of it was two bad front tires, thought id mention this, They looked real good and checked out with balancing. Broken belt and it was like night and day after i put the new ones on it..

 

[74roadrunner440]

alot of people for get about the lower control arm bushings an mins doing the same thing cant keep it on the road i think the lower control arms are shot somthing alot of people for get to check

 

[scotts74birds]

Don't forget that back in the day, they touted the cars for ease of steering. Steering wheel feed-back was unheard of. The P.S. was so overpowered that there was very little feedback. Now most folks are used to the power-assisted rack-and-pinion. The old ones almost feel like they are steered with a rudder!

 

[74roadrunner440]

i wish somone made metal k frame bushings that i wouldnt have to sell the farm to get at a reasonable price firm feel is way expensive any one know of any one else lol

 

[Kern Dog]

You can make bushings/spacers out of polyethylene plastic. Check for local plastic suppliers and buy a 1ftx1ft square of 1/2" thick poly. You could use an old bushing as a pattern.

 

[hendo0601]

Road wander is often caused by worn steering/suspension parts or alignment being off. Too much positive caster will cause the car to want to wander left or right, and it also affects the "returnability" of the steering wheel when making turns. As mentioned above checking your steering and suspension is pretty simple. Make sure you have the jack under the lower control arm when checking ball joints as they have to be "loaded" in order to check them correctly. If you jack it up under the frame with the suspension hanging you will not get an accurate check and could misdiagnose good or bad parts. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself take the car to a reputable alignment shop. Most places will shake the front end down for free. If you do have worn steering or suspension parts you will need to replace them before you can do an alignment as any worn part will change your alignment angles as soon as you move the car. I am the senior alignment tech at my shop so this stuff is my bread and butter.

Also another thing that is often overlooked is tire pressure! Make sure you have the correct pressure in your tires, as excessive or low tire pressure can cause the car to wander or pull. Hope this helps

 

[ilm65]

Check out Steer & Gear's website--they've got a great assortment of components, all priced on the website.

 

[arsinist01]

Got the steering gear tightened up. Seems to have solved the problem.