What did I break this time? Steering?

[Motorhead350]

The issue is my steering wheel has to stay turned to the left to stay straight. If I let go of the wheel the car goes to the right, yet the wheel is still to the left. I also just recently noticed when I turn the wheel on a soft turn or switching lanes the steering wheel will wobble/shake/vibrate. You will only notice this if your hand is on the wheel, a passenger cannot tell the wheel is shaking unless they touch it.

I bet this is something to do with a few weeks ago when I blew out the front left tire on a pothole going 70mph. I have had new tires put on and balanced, but I didn't align the car and never have. I will take this car to Pepboys for an alignment tomorrow, but I want to know if you guys think I should look for anything else suspension wise or ask the people at the store to look at something for me.

Could an alignment fix the whole issue?

Opnions please.

[DOOM]

Sounds like an alignment problem to me dom.

[RF Overlord]

Agree w/Doom...

If you hit a pothole hard enough to blow the tire, you have either knocked something out of alignment (best case) or bent/damaged some steering or suspension component (worst case). Get it checked out ASAP for safety's sake, but for the love of God, DON'T bring it to a Pep Boys unless you have no alternative, or you've been there before and are comfortable with their competence.

[FordNut]

Agree w/Doom...

If you hit a pothole hard enough to blow the tire, you have either knocked something out of alignment (best case) or bent/damaged some steering or suspension component (worst case). Get it checked out ASAP for safety's sake, but for the love of God, DON'T bring it to a Pep Boys unless you have no alternative, or you've been there before and are comfortable with their competence.

I'll second this! ^^^

It could be the steering shaft, steering rack, bent component, or just something knocked out of alignment

[Pops]

You may have some worn out parts Dom. The car is getting up there on the miles. Get it checked ASAP as it is not safe to drive!:help:

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Pep boys is most likely not going to have the adapters to hang alignment heads on these wheels without damaging them, even a lot of dealers still don't have them.

[justbob]

I know you have friends at pepboys Dom, but if you go with Firestone, you can get a lifetime warranty on your alignment at 2600 locations for around $125.00. They are true to their word, I have had about four alignments over the years. They told me also that if you work on the car such as lowering, feel free to drop on by for another alignment.

[Phrog_gunner]

Pep boys is most likely not going to have the adapters to hang alignment heads on these wheels without damaging them, even a lot of dealers still don't have them.

Do you happen to have any pictures, part number or other info about these adapters? I'm about to get my car aligned after my new wheels get delivered and would like to make sure the shop has them.

[fastblackmerc]

The correct adapters have a small tab that goes in between the tire and rim. So it "clips" on the outside of the rim.

[Phrog_gunner]

The correct adapters have a small tab that goes in between the tire and rim. So it "clips" on the outside of the rim.

The last shop I went to had ones that worked like that and there was still some clear coat damage. That's why I was asking for pics, I know it's a long shot, but I am a visual type of guy. Thanks for the help...:beer:

[Motorhead350]

Sounds like Firestone is the place to go. I will look up a place and see them tomorrow.

John, the car is trickly to drive, but it already went down the race track as is. I can handle it. ;) ......for now.

[LeoVampire]

Who ever you go to in the long run make sure they do a complete check on the front end and make sure none of the parts are bent or damged.

Chances are on an impact like that to blow out the tire and throw off the alignment there is something else also going on.

And there is a post on here about the best alignment spec's to use on our Maruaders might want to use them. Here is the spec's I wrote them down.

Camber -.3 to -.5
Toe is absolute 0 deg.
Caster 5-6.5 deg. Positive with .3deg. lead on the right side.

[FordNut]

The "correct" adapters have plastic tabs that fit against the rims and hooks similar to meat hooks or wrecker hooks that reach around the tire to hold the fixtures firmly against the rims.

[Motorhead350]

Thanks for the info Leo. I will foward this to Firestone.

[RF Overlord]

Dom, you may be able to "handle it", but if you get into any kind of accident, even if you aren't at fault, and they find out you have defective steering or suspension, it'll get way uglier real fast...be careful, brah.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

The correct adapters have a small tab that goes in between the tire and rim. So it "clips" on the outside of the rim.

This is the exact opposite of what you want. The universal hunter tabs like that, are very likely to damage a rim with a bead-protecting tire. They were designed for old fashioned passenger car wheels that ran a high profile balloon tire and wheels that were not lipless.

There are several systems to hang alignment heads without touching the wheel face. Remember on a hunter machine, the tech rolls the car with the heads mounted, so the machine compensates for the head not being completely flush or the wheel having lateral runout. In addition to the meat hook looking adapters that I have had used on my car, there are also adapters that mount off of the lug holes with deep lug adapters and stand off a machined disc that the hunter heads then mount on using the tabs.

If your regular tire shops don't have any of the above (many won't, even Firestone, goodyear, etc.) I would go somewhere that does a lot of high end import stuff like mercedes, acura -- those cars have used lipless wheels almost exclusively for years, so they will have to have the right adapters.

[Motorhead350]

It's at Firestone right now. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Let's hope they don't say "I've never seen damage this bad before. How did you not crash?"

I have heard that enough.

[Motorhead350]

Firestone fails

They wouldn't touch my car because of the supercharger piping in the way. I offered to remove it in the garage, but nope. They don't wanna be liable and I told them it's just pipes.

They told me to go to another Firestone that has the lazor correction... this place didn't have it to my surprize.

I will try again tomorrow.

[LeoVampire]

Firestone fails

They wouldn't touch my car because of the supercharger piping in the way. I offered to remove it in the garage, but nope. They don't wanna be liable and I told them it's just pipes.

They told me to go to another Firestone that has the lazor correction... this place didn't have it to my surprize.

I will try again tomorrow.

If they have the old string type of heads your better off going to a place with the lazors anyways much more accurate equipment. The other one's serve the purpose but it does leave a margen of error. They didn't want those line's stretch out near the pipe's I guess.

[Motorhead350]

I took it to Pepboys and they said they could do an alignment, but the tires were the problem. Turns out both tires were not only not straight, they were going out side of the car. The right tire was going to the right and the left was going to the left. The "inner" part of the tires were cracked after 2 weeks of use and one tire had a nasty cut that looked like it was getting worse.

It's a good thing I bought 4 tires last week instead of the two. I went home, grabbed the two tires in my garage, had Pepboys install them, balance them and the problem was solved. I did need an alignment, but the tires were required too.

Next time I knocked the car outta wack I will get an alignment. I should get an alignment everytime I get new tires no matter what car.

Another day, another lession learned.