Unsettled suspension
10-04-2004, 05:07 AM
#11
Marcus,
A further variable here are your tires. They have been 'worn-in' to your old alignment, and in my own experience it will take a few miles for them to acclimate to the new settings......
Brian
A further variable here are your tires. They have been 'worn-in' to your old alignment, and in my own experience it will take a few miles for them to acclimate to the new settings......
Brian
10-15-2004, 04:49 PM
#12
Registered User
Thread Starter
Found the problem!!!
I went to check for possible bearing problems, and started tugging on the wheels/tires. There was no play top-to-bottom, but I got a noticeable thunk-thunk when I pushed on the front and back of the left rear tire. Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner!
My first thought was still that it was the bearing, but I wanted to be sure. I jacked the car up and started tugging at the wheel to find the play. It turns out that the thunk-thunk was coming from the ball joint on the control arm. I grabbed the castle nut, and it was loose enough to wiggle, even with the cotter pin in.
Apparently, the genius that did the alignment thought he could get an extra 0.01 degree of adjustability by popping the ball joint on the control arm loose. The problem is that they didn't torque it back down properly, and it backed out and then I ended up with a "dynamic alignment".
Anyway, I pulled the pin and removed the castle nut by hand and the ball joint popped right out. I checked it out and it looked fine, so I put it back in, torqued the castle nut to the proper spec, inserted the pin, and lo and behold the problem was solved. 
to The Auto Shop at Plano Pkwy & Coit in Plano, TX. 
I went to check for possible bearing problems, and started tugging on the wheels/tires. There was no play top-to-bottom, but I got a noticeable thunk-thunk when I pushed on the front and back of the left rear tire. Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner!
My first thought was still that it was the bearing, but I wanted to be sure. I jacked the car up and started tugging at the wheel to find the play. It turns out that the thunk-thunk was coming from the ball joint on the control arm. I grabbed the castle nut, and it was loose enough to wiggle, even with the cotter pin in.
Apparently, the genius that did the alignment thought he could get an extra 0.01 degree of adjustability by popping the ball joint on the control arm loose. The problem is that they didn't torque it back down properly, and it backed out and then I ended up with a "dynamic alignment".
Anyway, I pulled the pin and removed the castle nut by hand and the ball joint popped right out.
I checked it out and it looked fine, so I put it back in, torqued the castle nut to the proper spec, inserted the pin, and lo and behold the problem was solved. to The Auto Shop at Plano Pkwy & Coit in Plano, TX.
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