strange handling, shocks or camber?

[Outkast]

My ride is a 1970 2door dodge dart slant six with no power steering with not much play at all its steering is nice, tires are decent and no sqeeking from the front end stuff so i'm guessing the bushings arent to shabby, but on smooth highways with a dip or tilt to them it sometimes feels squirley like maybe the camber is shifting or something, it feels almost like getting hit by a strong cross wind, what should I be looking into?

 

[69MOPE]

Set your front end height to factory specs and install some stiff shocks. What you have is called bump steer. It is caused by toe spec changes during suspension travel.

 

[69MOPE]

In a perfect world, your tie rod centerline and your centerlink centerline should be paralell at ride height.

 

[Outkast]

Thanks man I thought it could be just shocks, but it's always good to get some input, I had a 74 valiant and one of the camber bolts was loose, that was an interesting few first days owning that one, I think it's setting stock height but I'll check that line up you mentioned.

 

[mcnoople]

If you adjust your ride height you MUST align the car as well. Ride height affects camber, caster, and toe. Even if the steering feels tight you could still have worn out suspension bushing. Lower control arm bushings aren't that easy to inspect for looseness and do wear out. Have you inspected the strut rod bushings? There is a world of difference between old worn bushings and new rubber bushings in how the car drives in normal conditions.

 

[blown71duster]

I agree , check the lower control bushings. If they are bad it will cause symptoms like you are describing . Check the condition of the rubber in the lower bushing.

 

[stroker402]

My buddies 72 swinger is acting the same way with bump steer .. We thought it was because someone had installed the torsion bars on the wrong sides ... so we corrected that and it still is all over the road..
I said he had new shocks installed on it too and still has bumpsteer.
told him ........ to have a shop rebuild the suspension on the dart. something is worn out bad .