steering vaugeness on my fox?

Kerpal

New Member
Aug 9, 2004
400
0
0
I bought a '90 GT with about 100k miles the other day. I'm pretty sure the car hasn't been lowered.

There seems to be a vaugeness in my steering... going down the road in a straight line, I need to hold the wheel steady and occasionally make tiny corrections to keep it on path. Going through narrow lanes will definately make you pay attention to your driving.

I've taken a couple curved on-ramps at normal speed (roughly 35-55) and there's a slight feeling of the car wanting to steer itself... it like it feels not certain of where it's supposed to go.

When I first got the car, the very inside edges of both front tires were worn at a very severe angle... while the tires were at at least 50% tread, this area had cords showing through, so I replaced them before driving home. The car came with stock size tires on stock turbine wheels.

The tire shop said I probably needed an alignment, but the car doesn't pull to either side, the steering just feels vague.

I know lowered stangs have bumpsteer problems, but my car looks like stock height, so I don't know if my problem is the same. I do plan to lower the car with bumpsteer correction and camber plates eventually, but I'm not going to modify anything until the car drives correctly as stock...

What do you guys suggest I check and replace to fix this?
 
  • Sponsors (?)


You definitely need a new alignment. Your tie rod ends may be shot. Since you are planning to lower the car anyway, I think I'd go ahead and get the bump steer kit, which is just fancy, beefier adjustable tie rod ends, and put them on with little or no shimming for correction and take it to the alignment shop. You kill two birds with one stone that way. Other than that, just check bushings, ball joints, rod ends, etc. Struts can cause abnormal tire wear too.
 
There are three basic angles of alignment along with various other byproducts from each adjustment. Caster, Camber, and toe. Your tires wearing that badly on the insides would be extreme negative camber. Take a look at the front of your stang and use the rear as a reference point since it is a fixed point and then notice how far in the tops of your front tires tip in. Your "new" tires will look the same within no time so get that alignment soon.

Next, your steering wander. There are several things to look at. The biggest enemy of this problem is bumpsteer (which is very noticeable on lowered cars as you said). Knowing that your front end is sitting so low like that, you need to know why. Weather it be the isolators gone or all the way worn down, something not tightened in the suspension, or if it has in fact been lowered but just not with the use of caster/camber plates. Your wander itself if everything else is intact, should point to the inner tie rods or the rack itself. The outer tie rod ends don't go bad as fast as the inners because they are subjected to less movement. The other things to check out are the lower ball joints, the wheel bearings, and the control arm bushings. Bascially with the car lifted in the air, wiggle the hell out of the wheels in all directions and check on what moves - there are your problems!

Good luck on the gremlin!
 
another alignment vote. also note that improper caster can allow a 'wallow' or the tendency to get stuck in ruts in the road. CC plates will allow one to correct this. but if something else it out of whack, you might not be close to factory settings (caster).

good luck.