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Wheels jack up when I turn hard left.

Started by Loa, June 26, 2018, 12:52:28 PM

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Mike DC

                
After 50 years the K-frame welds/metal could be fatigue-cracking apart in scary ways.  It's not the first immediate thought for what you describe but it doesn't hurt to check it.  

The first failure point would be the LCA mounts.  The tubes welded into the K-frame's rear legs can crack/tear loose from the walls of the leg.  


70 sublime

Sounds almost what my car was doing
I kept changing parts
Replaced every bit of rubber in front suspension
Turned out it was the mount in the K frame had half ripped out of the frame
Depended which way you turned it would pull or push over too far
The wheel had a bad lean to it when this was happening
next project 70 Charger FJ5 green

HPP

Quote from: Loa on July 07, 2018, 08:05:03 AM
Yes it did this before the alignment. I did not ask for a print out because I was with the guy the whole time. They were in pretty good alignment before the procedure in any case.

Also, the guy doing the alignment knows old mopars pretty well. In fact, it did this after the alignment when he tried it out. He then found that the bushing for the lower table on the passenger side was worn. He replaced it.

When I called him to say that the problem returned, he was really stumped. I'll have to bring the car back.

If it did this before alignment, and things return to normal when you put the front end in the air, I tend to agree with the two posts above that you potentially have K frame damage.  The mounts can tear loose in the K frame and not be obvious because the arm bolt is still running through the tube, the lower arm is in the way of seeing it, and still has a nut in its appropriate place on the front side. When you put it in the air, the weight of the wheel and tire pull the arm back out and down and it realigns. Even if it is just one side that is moving.

I'd suggest putting it in the air with some jack stands under the frame rails so the tires can hang. Then pry the lower control arm in and out to see if you can move it.

Only other alternative to allow that much range of motion effecting camber is the upper control arm bushing area and/or mounts are similarly torn and allowing flex. A crack in the upper control arm in the bushing area could flex some.


Loa

Thanks for the added suggestion about the K frame. I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks (not with the car) and I'll have to have it checked when I get back.

Loa

Well, after a lot of experts failed to determine what was going on, we decided to pull all the front control arms to discover the problem. The bushings, although they looked very decent from the outside, were all completely destroyed inside. So when there was a stress bigger than the weight of the car pushing them down, they would move around quite a lot. (Good job diagnosing, HPP!)

All four of them have been changed and the car handles very nicely.