Silver Creek Sunbeam
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I have a long, sad story and I’m hoping you guys can help me make it a happy ending. You’ve never let me down before.
Some of you may recall that I had basically a catastrophic wheel bearing failure that ended up with me having to replace a hub assembly and spindle on the driver side.
I am now having major issues with my steering. The car is a Series V with stock 13” wheels.
As mentioned, the hub assembly and spindle have been replaced on the driver side, as well as on both sides - upper/lower ball joints and tie rod ends.
The car has also been to the shop and been aligned manually, using the specs form the WSM. The same shop did the suspension parts install on the passenger side and the upper ball joint on both sides.
We have used the same shop without issue in the past on this same car and my Dad’s Tiger as well.
Here are the symptoms, as best as I can describe them:
From my own research, I feel like there is something going on with the idler arm or bushings, as a problem that Bill Blue described once on the forum had a similar ‘ring’ to it as what I have going on now but that’s just a guess.
My other thought is, as I mentioned above, something was damaged/failed leading up to or during the bearing failure.
I apologize for such a long post but I wanted to try and be as descriptive as I could. If you think I left out information that would help, ask and I will try and answer. I’m losing the driving season here in Georgia, as my little car sits and waits for me to figure it out...
As always, any guidance would be much appreciated.
Some of you may recall that I had basically a catastrophic wheel bearing failure that ended up with me having to replace a hub assembly and spindle on the driver side.
I am now having major issues with my steering. The car is a Series V with stock 13” wheels.
As mentioned, the hub assembly and spindle have been replaced on the driver side, as well as on both sides - upper/lower ball joints and tie rod ends.
The car has also been to the shop and been aligned manually, using the specs form the WSM. The same shop did the suspension parts install on the passenger side and the upper ball joint on both sides.
We have used the same shop without issue in the past on this same car and my Dad’s Tiger as well.
Here are the symptoms, as best as I can describe them:
- A faint ‘ratcheting sound (not able to be heard over road noise at traveling speed) when turning the wheel left, seemingly coming from the steering column behind the dash.
- When traveling at low speeds in a straight line, no noticeable issue but when hitting third gear type speeds, the car begins to drive like a boat (best way I know to put it), as the steering has play and the car will arbitrarily pull significantly left.
- When hitting any imperfection in the road, i.e. a bump, the car jumps left and when correcting, there is an inch or two of travel before the steering responds.
- When making a right hander, the car seems to push to the left (almost feels like a centrifugal force push at high speed).
- When braking (and this may be a secondary problem) the car pulls left.
- On the pulling to the left (not including the braking) it’s not an out of alignment type feel but more like a blowout on that side, just not that severe...I guess I’m saying it’s a pull/jump and not a drift.
From my own research, I feel like there is something going on with the idler arm or bushings, as a problem that Bill Blue described once on the forum had a similar ‘ring’ to it as what I have going on now but that’s just a guess.
My other thought is, as I mentioned above, something was damaged/failed leading up to or during the bearing failure.
I apologize for such a long post but I wanted to try and be as descriptive as I could. If you think I left out information that would help, ask and I will try and answer. I’m losing the driving season here in Georgia, as my little car sits and waits for me to figure it out...
As always, any guidance would be much appreciated.