I have an 86gn that gets pulled into any rutt or grove in the road. I have replaced every bushing and joint in the front end -the steering box is a new reman-the rag joint is new-the power steering pump is a new reman-i have gnx wheels and tires. What do you think?
Need help diagnosing vehicle getting sucked into any groove in the road
- Thread starter geenex
- Start date
blackmonte
New HP Technology !!!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
Mine does the same thing same wheels, I think it's the wide tires, I put my Telstars on with skinny tires and no longer tracks the road.
This should help you some. Donnie posted a good question about this same problem but on the track. Not hard to figure out if you know what you'r looking for.
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/g-body-drag-car-alignment-settings.290592
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/g-body-drag-car-alignment-settings.290592
Looks to me like your left front camber needs a little adjustment. Are these specs from your alignment or did you have them measure it? I'll dig up a little more info on where exactly you need to set it up to. Your rears tires arent really really much wider than your fronts so that wont have a huge effect. How are your ball joints? Also, this may soud stupid but check to make sure your lug nuts are tight. On an aluminum rim, hey have a tendensy to work themselves loose.
I think you just explained why the car is all over the road. Did you look at the link I posted for you? Cross caster won't hurt you but the camber is screwed to say the least. The tire has to be flat to work the best but a .1 negative is the best if you're sitting in the car when it's done. The chasis will change when you get in it or add weight. Since you're at a positive it will be worse. You need to find someone that actually know about a performance alignment. The wide tires are effecting the way the car goes down the road because they will pick up every grove unless you compensate for it.
TurboTnZ06
Go on red!
- Joined
- May 7, 2002
Most ruts in the road are narrow. My GN with 235 60 15's seems to ride fine. One the same road, my 245 45 17 T has some wander and is more of a handful. My Z06 with factory spec alignment and 275 40 17 up front and 305 35 18 out back it requires both hands on the wheel...
Wider tires are aggravated by grooved roads, and will cause a vehicle to pull more. The 'Vette should be worse than the other just because of the factory alignment. The have a lot more "factory" Negative camber and toe out to increase handling and responsiveness. Pair that with a set of decent sized meats in the front, and the car is going to have a mind of its own.
2QUICK2B6
Black Car Fever
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2004
Yes my 99 SS camaro has 275/40/17's all around an it finds all the big ruts.
The TTA does it a little but not as bad as the camaro. and the GN has 3.5 wide front wheels so it doesnt track at all
This is way to high for a street dirven car. It will cause edge wear on the tires both inside and outside. You'd be better off with a 3.25 on the passengers side and .4 lower on the drivers side. This will keep you from killing the tires when you go around the corners. The toe may be OK with more toe in but you need to check and see how much play there is in the linkage to make sure it's not going to cause toe in wear.
Silver Fox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2003
How old are your tires?
Silver Fox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2003
Personal story - rebuilt my entire front end with some high end components and car still tramlined all over the place when there were grooves in the road.
I replaced the tires (which looked good and no dry rot) and the "T" tracked fine afterwards. Don't discount the tires as being part of, if not all, of the problem (especially if they are directional). I put asymmetrical tires on my car.
To this day, I wonder if I even needed to rebuild my front end - although the SC&C stage II kit is nice.
Rob
I too have been all through my suspension trying to fix tramlining. I found that caster, camber, toe, had less to with it than tire width and specifically wheel offset. Wheel offset affects the scrub radius. Basically the factory geometry was designed for skinny wheels and ease of low speed parking. When you put a wider wheel on, even a factory GNX wheel it changes the scrub radius. The Hunter guy who services our alignment rack at work got me looking at this. In the end, I want the car to look good so I deal with it. But definitely get your alignment specs right as it does help. I'm also looking into bumpsteer's affects on this as well.
