swoody

Ok, well I swapped out my QA1 suspension, and put the stock SS suspension back on my car a little while ago. Ever since then, when I put the car in reverse and back up a little bit, my front wheels point in towards the rear. Then when I pull the car forward, they straighten out again. I put the car up on ramps, and took a good look at everything I could see on the front-end. I checked to make sure the steering, and everything else is connected, and there appears to be no loose ends anywhere. Nothing seems disconnected, damaged, broken, or bent in any way. The only thing I do know is that the one nut that goes on the driver's side to hold the spindle to the lower a-arm is somewhat stripped, and does not go on all the way. I didn't think this would cause this kind of issue, but is it possible? It's not just a minor thing, either, it's *really* obvious when the wheels point in. You can feel it, too when backing up the car, as the tires turn out.

If someone can post any kind of pics of their a-arms, brake spindle, etc. it would help me out! I just want to make sure I put everything back on correctly. I have no idea where to go from here. As far as I can see, nothing's broken and nothing's moving on the frontend. Please, if you guys have any advice, I'd be GREATLY appreciative! I really want to get this taken care of quickly!


Here's the car with the steering wheel straight - as you can see, both wheel toe out slightly when going in reverse. The front of the car is at the bottom of the pics.




Here's the car with the steering wheel turned, so the driver's side wheel is straight. Here you can see the drastic difference between the two wheels. Again, the front of the car is at the bottom of the pics.









I also noticed that when the alignment goes off like this, that the front of the car raises up in the air. Here's a couple pics comparing the front of the car, and the rear on the same side:

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

Alignment is held by those big-*** nuts from the A-arm mount
to the K. They had better be spec-tight.

Maybe shoot a dot of paint on the nuts, then back it up hard
and see whether they are moving on you.

swoody

What's spec tight? Just damn tight? I just took a look at them, and they are both moved all the way over to the passenger side of the slot that's on the k-member.

Going to back up car now....


More diagram fun
Slot:
<---- Passenger side of car
.._____________
.//*******\.................\
||---X---|..................|
.\\........./________/

Bolt that goes through the slot is the Red part with the X.

swoody

Still do you guys think it would be best to move one of the bolts that attaches to the k-member? So they're both all the way in, or all the way out? Instead of both going towards the passenger side?

swoody

Well, good news is, I got the car the toe the wheels out again. Bad news is that the wheels are toeing out again I checked the bolts that hold the lower a-arms onto the K-member, and they hadn't moved at all, so that takes that out of the equation. Once again, pulling the car forward puts everything back in line again.

I was able to snap some pics, to hopefully show you guys what I'm talking about. I added them to my original post.

redz_02

iTrader: (4)

Wheel Hubs? They making any noise?

Nevermind, just looked at the pic again. Looks like a steering shaft problem, b/c the wheels look pretty perpendicular to the ground. I would say check all the steering shaft bushings and so on. Make sure everythign is snug to the k-member. I had HAL's (now QA1) on my 02 and never had an issue. But I also had drag springs and it was slammed.

SS SLP2

iTrader: (8)

you should have car align after replacing any parts, have aligned, then paint the bolts/nuts which control the caster/camber/toe, drive it back/forward see it problem returns

Johnny

swoody

Well yes, I know I need to get an alignment, but the worse that would happen with an off-alignment would be bad tire wear and handling. This is not being caused by my alignment being off, I know that much Plus with the way the car is now, I'm not going to attempt to drive it to a shop to get aligned. That would be risking serious damage to the car or myself trying to drive it like this.

swoody

I will crawl under the car tomorrow, and check out the steering. That's what I was thinking, too, but last time I looked, I'm pretty sure everything on the steering was hooked up just fine I will be sure to go over everything with a fine-tooth comb this time, though.