Rear differential question

[burt ragio]

My car costantly pulls left to right. I have had the front end checked upper/lower ball joints tie rod ends all seem to be fine. Carfixer specs. Could the rear differential clutches be causing this pull from right to left ? I have no unusual noises.

[4play]

no, first check your tire pressures, might be your steering rack starting to fail, check the fluid.

[SpartaPerformance]

If your tire pressure's are good then try crossing the two front tires, if the pull changes direction then you have a radial pull.

[EMAS]

So you are saying the pull switches back and forth, left sometimes and then right other times? If that is the case then yes it is likely your rack going bad if all the other parts and alignment are right.

[Marauderjack]

Also might be a condition called "Bump Steer"......."Zero Tow" makes it worse.....I call it wandering depending on the road crown....may go left or right??:cool:

Mine does it a little too.....slightly right to the right of the road center and slightly left to the left of center.......straddle the center and it tracks perfectly!!:beer:

[burt ragio]

How do I check to see if the steering rack is going bad ?

[babbage]

Lucas makes some great PS pump fluid, I put it in mine - no more whine from ps pump and better feel... If your ps pump is lazy with old fluid etc it won't work as well - which might be some of your problem..

[fastblackmerc]

I'd try flushing & replacing the fluid first.

[Krytin]

Before you start to play with the power steering, have you checked the tire pressure yourself and if that is even side to side did you try switching the two front tries side to side?

[4play]

Before u replace the rack once u tried everything else get another alignment, did u do something to your car before u noticed the condition.... mine did the exact same thing, felt sloppy wondered and had a hard time tracking strait, constantly had to correct it, thought it was my rack but I decided to check the tires with a guage even tho they looked ok and one front was down to 20psi when the other was at 35. Pumped it up and it was normal.

[Got_1]

if there is not play in your steering wheel or tie rods and no oil leaking from the rack boots then your rack is fine. If your car is pulling left AND right then the only possible thing it can be (aside from loose front end parts) is that it is following rutts in the road. To fix that you must add positive caster to decrease wander. 0 toe doesn't effect pulling/wandering.

[SpartaPerformance]

If your tire pressure's are good then try crossing the two front tires, if the pull changes direction then you have a radial pull.


Before you start to play with the power steering, have you checked the tire pressure yourself and if that is even side to side did you try switching the two front tries side to side?

Great minds think alike!!! :D

[Kennyrauder]

My Marauder would wonder all over the road... too much negative caster. Backed it up as much as possible. Now perfect!!!

[Krytin]

Great minds think alike!!! :D

Just following your lead Tom!

This is the stuff you learn in HS Auto Shop.