What's Wrong

[cantontruck]

My 72 drifts either to the left or right when I hit an uneven place in the road. At around 70 MPH it can be a little scary. I have have the front end aligned and that helped some but did not fix the problem. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Pat

[cdowns]

do you have swaybars?? what is the condition of your shock asorners and tires?? ball joints tierod ends,idler arm,pitman arm all should be checked for excessive wear

[72402]

I had this problem with lowprofile tires-225/50/17. Changed to 255/60/17's, it drives fine.

[VetteVet]

There are a few things I can think of that might cause the problem. I don't know why the alignment shop wouldn't catch them if they checked stuff like they are supposed to. Most shops won't do an alignment if anything major is worn out or loose. I know that these are some causes.
1. loose tie rod ends
2. bent center link.
3 loose or worn idler arm bushings.
4. A frame bushings worn.
5. wear in the steering gear box.
6. Toe in or out maybe.
A good check is to have some one move the steering wheel back and forth and watch for slight movement of any of the components in your steering system prior to the wheels moving. A good alignment shop should have found any of the above that were bad except maybe the steering box. Some times you can adjust the box by loosening the jam nut on top of it and tightening the screw a turn or two. If you go too much it will bind and wear out prematurely if it's not already done so. There may be other causes also.My advice would be to find a good garage and have them check out the system.
Vettevet

[jamie72]

sound like balljoints to me.

[cantontruck]

The garage said the front end was in good shape. The mechanic did think that the steering box could be part of the problem. The tires are P275 60 R 15's. Not many garages around here like to work on these old trucks.
Thanks for all the input.
Pat

[flip66]

What size tires do you have on it. If you are talking about the uneven places on these texas asphalt rods the tire size may have alot to do with it. I have the same problem with 275/60/15 but my friend has 235/75/15 and does not have the problem.

[greasemonkey]

Mine gets a little squirrely sometimes, I have 275s with manual steering and it likes to drift when I hit a rut or groove in the road. Switch to some skinnier tires up front and you should be good, that's what I plan to do.

[vfrdude]

This could be a problem with the 'tail waging the dog'. I would check the trailing arm bushings and the pan hard rod bushings. if the rear isn't stable, that would cause this.

I just did a bunch of work on mine a couple of weeks ago. Here's the list:

Replaced the 2.5 inch drop tubular controls arms (right side failed) with stock control arms(Brothers)w/new lower ball joints, 2.5 in dropped spindles(ECE), new poly sway bar bushings(ECE), installed the adjustable pan hard bar(ECE), rear shock relocators(ECE), and installed poly trailing arms bushings.

Needless to say, all this work made a huge difference!

Took it to the alignment shop, they couldn't get the right side camber in spec, and the left side just barely in spec, so I'm going to install the Tubular uper A arms that Brothers sells and new upper ball joints to address this problem.