Major handling issue

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flathead5173

flathead5173

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wadsworth ohio
My 74 duster has a bad handling problem. When I'm going down the road the car could be handling normally then suddenly it will take off to left or right with out warning. Once it does this, it will be a handful till you get where you're going. I can barely move the steering wheel and the tires will squeal. It very unsafe to drive. I've notice that if I jack the front end off the ground and the front suspension completely unloaded , when I let it down and take for a ride it will handle normally till I get on the throttle. Then it starts acting up, Then I have to drive it 35mph to be safe. Anybody no whats going on here? I know the idler arm is barely touching the headers but I don't believe its enough to cause this problem. I've replaced the pitman arm, tie rod ends, idler arm. It doesn't appear the ball joints or bushings are bad but I'm certain.
 
Lower controll arm pivot hole in the K frame is most likely cracked......
 
Directional instability is usually caused by a toe out condition. X2 on checking the lower control arm pivots.
 
I would inspect everything while it's together and then take out all suspension/steering components for further inspection. It could be worn out bushings/ball joints/idler/pitman/etc. It could be broken parts, but you likely won't see any of this clearly until it is all apart.
 
i seriously doubt the pivot hole in the K member is cracked unless you bashed a curb or it is completely rusted out. they just dont "crack" for no reason. your bushings/ball joints may have finally worn to the point that the camber and toe are out of spec and are making it pull and wear your tires out. did you get it aligned after the tie rods were put in or at least measure the toe in/out? did make sure you got the right idler arm ? is everything tight ?

chances are your bushings in the lower control arm pivots are virtually non existant. i have had upper control arm cam bolt adjusters slip and move as well.
 
They DO crack, and its not for "no reason" theses cars are 40 years old, stuff wears.. If you look at a factory 340 A body K frame, you will see the factory welded a u shaped peice around that area to strengthen it. I have fixed this problem many times.
 
well in my 30 years of driving and parting out hundreds of cars, i have never seen a K member just "crack" for the hell of it without some other associated event that helped it out.
 
Ok then. You know, the only way he is gonna know for sure is to pull it apart, he asked for things that could cause it, thats what we are throwing out there, ideas and possabilitys.
 
replicaracer43 said:
Ok then. You know, the only way he is gonna know for sure is to pull it apart, he asked for things that could cause it, thats what we are throwing out there, ideas and possabilitys.
Click to expand...

you are 100% correct
im by no means saying it cant happen or has never happened, just sharing my personal experience and that i believe its highly unlikely. i certianly wouldnt want to scare the guy by telling him his K frame is busted when its probably just worn out LCA bushings, ball joints or related suspension bushings. it could be as simple as needing an alignment due to the new parts he has already put it on it.
 
Nobody is trying to scare anybody, hell he is scared to drive it as is!! Hes gonna have to do some good old fashioned dirty work for sure! But he now has some ideas of what to look for
 
Just another idea. Check to be sure the upper control arm bolts are tight. If not your alignment could suddenly change as the bolts and cams turn.
 
I had a similar issue on a '69 Dart just not random like you are speaking it was consistantly doing what you are explaining. I had Poly ower control arm bushings and these were moving around during drivig. I went to regular bushings and Viola! the problem was gone. I'll never put poly lower control arms on an old Mopar again... At least an A-body. Hope this helps.
 
Mine did something like this and it turned out I had a bad hub front right it just wore out. Easy fix once I figured out what it was.
 
I checked it out thoroughly and found the lower control arm bushings were shot. As well as the strut rod bushings and the strut rods were bent. On the drivers side the hole where the lower control arm shaft goes through the k frame is wallowed out.
 
unless its all new pull it apart and rebuild the whole front end.$300 WILL GET YOU A NEW HANDLING RIDE.
 
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