Any ideas? My car drifts back and forth in right curves or turns. It has always done this. It is fine for the most part going left or straight depending on the road. However, going down the road, at freeway speeds, into a right curve it does this drift or pull back and forth in the curve. Also right front passenger tire has worn 1/8 inch lower than left front driver tire. Both front tires have worn tread evenly across. Also noticed once in a great while something pops when turning right.
My rims are not stock.
My tires are BF Goodrich Radial TA
Front tires size: P235/60 R15
Rear tire size: P255/60 R15

According to a build sheet I got from another car of the same year the stock tire size was P215/65 R15

I have owned the car since 2009 and this is my first set of tires on the car. I have put 23,316 miles on the front tires.

I have also replaced the A-arm bushings, tie rods, center link, front and rear shocks, packed the bearings, and had the car aligned twice. It was an older outfit and their alignment machine only aligns the front. I have had a few different mechanics check the front end and they said it tight, ball joints and all.

I have not done anything to the rear end, other than the shocks.

My brother has a 1987 TA and I noticed his steering gear seems to be a lot tighter than mine, so I adjusted my steering gear. The steering was a little tighter, but seem to have no effect on the drifting back and forth in right curves.

A mechanic suggested that I go to a new outfit that can align all four tires at the same time to see if the rear is tracking with the front tires.

I spent hours checking posts and this is the only one I could find that was close to my problem, but had no conclusion on solving the problem.

http://https://www.thirdgen.org/foru...er-itself.html

Any advice would be appreciated......

 

The poping sound you describe almost sounds like the common frame crack by the steering gear box. However usually the steering is just plain erratic in any direction when that happens and it doesn't just happen when you turn the wheel one way.

Let me see if I can find some pics to give you a reference so you can go check your car to see if it has the frame crack. It's very common and is repairable.

Also, whats your alignment set at? Do you have the specs?

 

This may not even be your problem, but better to check anyways; Here's two pic's:

Ignore the red circle on the first pic, that's circling the rag joint; which may also be your problem. Look to the top right of the circle, that's the frame crack I'm talking about.

 

After checking to see if there is no frame crack, the next thing I would do is to get the front end of the car off the ground and have someone move the steering wheel back and forth. While a partner moves the wheel back and forth you will watch every part of the steering and see if you have any slack in anything. This includes the steering shaft-rag joint and steering gear box, along with the rest of your front suspension.

 

So a remedy for this to keep happening to begin with would be the wonder bar? SFC's?

 

I don't know yet if it is actually the problem with the op's car, I'm waiting to hear back from him if it is.

But yes, a wonder bar is an absolute must in my opinion. Actually not even my opinion, it really just is a must unless you want your steering box to tear away from the frame over time. It was actually called the "wander bar" by GM due to the wandering effect the car would have when the steering box frame crack appeared. I'm not sure why it's morphed into the "wonder bar" over time.

It was only used on the Iroc-z's from 85-90. It really should have just been a standard part.

Also there are K member triangle braces that helped out the whole front end too.

Here's the triangular braces that are important:
http://www.spohn.net/shop/1982-1992-...er-Braces.html

I prefer spohn for most parts, however there wonder bar is just ok. If you want a great wonder bar that's stronger than the original then look no further:
http://www.top-downsolutions.com/tds...ame&order=DESC

 

I agree that the Wonder Bar (Steering Brace) is mandatory even in my 3.1L V6. Strengthens the chassis, keeps steering box from tearing out, and improves handling. It's cheap and easy to install.

 

Yea it doesn't matter if your pushing a lot of power it's still needed regardless. According to GM the most stress the front end frame rails see is in low speed turns, especially at full lock. Like if your in a parking lot trying to squeeze into a tight space, your pretty much bound to go full lock while going at a crawlers pace. The wonder bar stops that stress from tearing the box from the frame it's mounted to.

cxxm, any updates? I'm still curious to see if your alignment is just out of wack or something.

 

I had a really good mechanic that I trust thought the same thing. He checked the gear bolts and the frame. He said both were good. The guys who aligned it move everything back and forth checking for slop. They said everything was good. These are guys that have been working on these cars for over 30 years. I just replaced the a-arm bushings and had it aligned a couple of weeks ago. This problem has just never gone away. I called these mechanics and their guess is the rear is not tracking with the front. I was on a freeway ramp in a right curve and now I am not sure if it is the front or the back that is moving. I guess it is time to replace bushings on the rear end since I have not done anything back there. Thanks for the info on the steering braces. I'll get some of those. I'll keep chipping away until I figure it out. Thanks...

 

That makes sense. As long as everything else in the front is in good shape, then it could be the rear lower control arms steering the rear of the car due to bushing slop; something I've never experienced and couldn't tell you much about.

Have you checked your ragjoint for play? That's something most shops don't check when looking at the steering.

If you want some really good (no bind) lower control arms then these are some really good quality street friendly ones I recommend:

http://www.spohn.net/shop/1982-1992-...ot-Joints.html

A cheap alternative would be these:

http://www.foundersperformance.com/p...d-Rod-Kit.html

Notice the second link also includes a panhard bar, a most necessary item you will want when upgrading the rear. Also notice the lca's & panhard bar are both adjustable. Your going to need that adjustment, believe me. That adjustment will make all the difference on how well your cars rear suspension takes the corners, and how your car handles in general.

The founders set is cheap but they have good reviews all round; and I personally have a set of there upper strut mounts and have had a good time with them.

The Spohn set costs more but I prefer the higher quality build. The Delrin rod end Del-Sphere set up that Spohn has developed is excellent. You can read all the advantages and longevity it provides on the page above.

 

Also here is some personal experience with pressed in poly rear control arm bushings: (just in case your considering it)

Don't do it. Here's some reasons:

A: You still have the crappy flimsy rear control arms in place, just with a set of harder bushings.

B: The creaking/gowning/popping sound with poly lca bushings is very obnoxious.

*I have poly sway bar bushings that don't make a sound, but the poly bushings on the rear control arms were ridicules.

C: I religiously lubed my lca's with synthetic lube. It would still make a lot of noise, and would get progressively worse until I re-lubed it and started the process all over again.

There was a while where I wasn't even sure whether it was the poly bushings on the panhard bar, the sway bar or the lca's that was making the noise. It wasn't until I upgraded to a set of Spohn adjustable lca's that it turned out to be the poly in the lca's. I never had noise issues when I still had factory rubber, and changed to fully poly all at once so I didn't really know which one was the culprit.

D: Aftermarket lca's can be had for cheap. No reason to stick with the stock stuff with all these low prices on much better aftermarket lca's.

I'm not even going to get into the binding issues these can cause during cornering.

I wish I would have just purchased some aftermarket control arm's instead of those damn poly bushings.

Installing them was such a bitch, even with my press. and to get such lousy results.

BTW: I have had no problems with poly sway bar bushings.

 

Yeah, installing the front a-arm bushings really sucked. I think I'll get new control arms for the rear like you suggest. Also, I was talking to guy about my issue and he said he would bet that my problem is being caused by bad track (panhard) bar bushings in the rear. Cheap enough to replace, so I thought I would focus on that next. I have not checked the rag joint, but I'll take a look at it. Thanks for all the info....

 

Just a follow up...

It turns out is was not the panhard (aka track, wonder) bar in the rear end causing the drifting, wandering, chattering or whatever you want to call it to the right, but not the left. Some how the cross member (aka craddle, carrier) that bolts to the subframe and holds the a-arms and ultimately the wheels was not straight on the car.

Since I have own the car, I noticed that the front passenger tire sat closer back to the back of the fender than the driver front tire. For example, if you are facing the rim and measure the space between the tire and wheel well ( the fender space closest to the doors), I was seeing a difference between the spaces. At the bottom on the driver side, I could get all four fingers in the space at the very bottom were the tire and inside fender are across from each other. On the passenger side front, I could only get about 2 ½ fingers. Maybe about an inch difference, between how the passenger and front tires were positioned on the car.

Myself and others could never figure out if it was some weird body damage or what was going on, so I just left it on the back burner hoping someday to figure it out.

After my last alignment, I took the car back to the shop. They put it back on the lift, checked the suspension and tires all of which were in good shape. I showed them the weird issue, I mention above and they thought it was really weird, so they sent me to an auto body shop to have the frame measured.

Note, I was not chewing up tires and the car was going straight down the road, fine left, but problems going right.

The body shop brought out a book with frame measurements and a giant ruler. It took them a while to measure everything, but they zeroed in on the cross member or what they called the carrier. They undid a few bolts that they said were a floating nut inside the sub frame and held my some wires or something. They moved the passenger side of the cross member forward and measured the frame again. After they got done, I could get my four fingers in the space, I mentioned above on either front tire. Both front tires were now in the same position inside the wheel well. The crazy part is that they really did not move the cross member that much. Just that little bit that they moved it had a really big effect on positioning of the wheel overall.

I had the alignment rechecked. The guy was really cool and did not charge me. The numbers are very different. Now the front tires alignment numbers are very similar to each other. When I get a chance, I’ll post the print out from the alignment.



The way it was explained to me, if I understood correctly, is that since the passenger front wheel was sitting back further than the driver wheel it was creating this weird force or following momentum between the two causing the car to rock back and forth in a right curve or corner.

Since the issue was not normal, subtle and I had no weird tire wear, which is why the alignment process was not picking it up. It seems the alignment is more concerned about the rear and front on the same side following each other. Anyway, once I post the alignment print out you will see how they were compensating for the real problem.

The auto body guys said the car had not been in a wreck and had no idea if the cross member had been that way from the factory or what happened.

I also installed the wonderbar steering/frame brace (105021B). Very easy to install and worth the cost. I could tell a difference right away that the steering was a lot more solid. Drives much better without the wandering due to the larger tires.

Anyway happy to finally know....

 

It's been awhile, but I had to get new tires. I was running 235/60 R15 on the front and 255/60 r15 on back. I found some factory rims and put on the factory size 215/65 R15 on front and back. The car drives a lot better with the factory rims and tire size. The bigger tires really hurt the handling and stock set up just feels better when driving.

 

Thanks for the update and glad you found the root cause of the wandering! not something that is common or easy to pick up.

Having all 4 tires same size does seem to be the best way to go with tire sizing (if you turn corners, drag racing is different) from what I've seen/read. Glad you're seeing improvements with your changes.