She's too loose! I need to tighten her up!

[DrGonzo]

To be Clear, This was all on paved country backroads with no houses around for miles. I don't trust tuning on the highways as they are too busy around here. I drive 30 min to get to these roads to do tuning runs.

So yesterday I'm out doing some tuning runs and really noticed how unstable the front end of the car was when going over 100mph. I hit 105-110 and knew not to push it any further. Steering was breaking up and it felt almost like it was floating to a point. I know off hand I have a bad CV axle on the passenger side "Some vibration in the front/right", so I ordered a new one from Rock Auto today. I'm going to get the front end jacked up to take a look to see if I notice anything out of whack.

Is there anything I should specifically look out for?

What I know off hand:
The control arms are still tight as I have to use a jack under them when attaching them back to the strut.
Alignment is still good as I can let go of the wheel and it does not vere and locking up the brakes it will stop straight.
End links were replaced last year but the dust boots have fallen apart "Ebay Crap", but they are still pretty tight last I checked.
Ball joints were not replaced, just cleaned, re-greased & re-booted. How do you tell if they are actually bad?
The steering rack has about 1/4-1/2 play in it which I think may be normal.

Let me know your thoughts on the above.

What has everyone else done to help tighten up the front end of the car to make it feel more stable at 100+ mph speeds?

[Blackmount]

idk about my VR4 but the I cannot recall a time where the front end felt loose in the SL even the 1 time i pushed it to 150mph...

I would like someone to correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like an alignment thing to me.

if your tierods are bad, jack the car up and try to wiggle the wheel left-right but do not make them turn. if it has alot of play you need tie rods. do this on each side

[DocWalt]

1/4-1/2 inch play in the rack? :eek4:

Jacking the control arms up doesn't prove much, you need to pry them and yank them around. Same for the tie rods (inners & outers) and the balljoints. Any slop that you easily notice with your hands is unacceptable and should be replaced.

If you replace the inner tie rod ends and the rack has that much slop, it needs replaced ASAP.

[DrGonzo]

1/4-1/2 inch play in the rack? :eek4:

Jacking the control arms up doesn't prove much, you need to pry them and yank them around. Same for the tie rods (inners & outers) and the balljoints. Any slop that you easily notice with your hands is unacceptable and should be replaced.

If you replace the inner tie rod ends and the rack has that much slop, it needs replaced ASAP.

I should have been more specific, Steering wheel moving 1/4-1/2 inch before the wheels begin to turn. I think this is referred to as the steering dead spot we have in our racks.

Tie rod ends are about 6 months old.

Also forgot to mention the pasenger side wheel bearing was replaced with a good used one. Last time the car was aligned we found the wheel bearing bad. So I swapped it out with another one.

[DrGonzo]

Jacking the control arms up means that the inner bushing are still tight. So if everything connected to the lower control arm is disconnected expect the rear 2 mounts. I can't pull the control arm up with my hands due to the rear bushing being tight. I have to use a jack to get it ti pivot back up into place to bolt it to the strut.

[DocWalt]

Ah, ok, that's normal then. Being new doesn't mean too much, I've had new parts fail in short time frames.

Not being able to easily move the LCA up and down easily doesn't mean too much. My rear bushings were completely shot but it felt "normal" moving it up and down. Once I replaced the bushings it was obvious what was wrong. How many miles are on your rear LCABs?

[DrGonzo]

I have no clue how many miles where on the frame when I acquired it.

Previous registration/inspection showed 78k which was a couple years prior to me getting the frame. I set the Odometer to the engine though which is at 148k

[DocWalt]

Ok. In my experience any little slop feels terrible at speed, so you'll just need to shake things up when you're down there replacing the half shaft. Any idea how old the strut mounts are?

FWIW After I rebuilt my front end with all new bushings and a new rack I was comfortable going as fast conditions would allow, which was well above the speeds you were tuning at.

[DrGonzo]

Strut mounts are good. They were all replaced when I redid the suspension and got the ECS system working with the new controller.

I hope to get it up in the air tomorrow after work. I'll get some videos of what everything looks like then.

[FeaRpb]

Reading this thread title, I thought this was going to be about Corey's mother..

[DocWalt]

Strut mounts are good. They were all replaced when I redid the suspension and got the ECS system working with the new controller.

I hope to get it up in the air tomorrow after work. I'll get some videos of what everything looks like then.

Sounds good.

[Roybatty]

Reading this thread title, I thought this was going to be about Corey's mother..
Kegel?

[drew0u812]

How many miles on those shocks?

[Ed87]

Yea that play your talking about sounds like struts to me, as mine are horribly bad an will be replaced soon.. found some KYB's brand new for 81$'s a piece. Definitely may be those, I'm not a fan of ECS either..

[DrGonzo]

The struts are fine. They all have some mileage on them "unknown" but none of them are blown or leaking. They were all checking during the huge project of getting the ECS system working and adding in the new ECS controller:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EhcVBiU7lA

Well I got the half-shaft replaced and the new one is really beefy!

http://3s.gonzoinc.com/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0903.JPG

http://3s.gonzoinc.com/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0904.JPG

I got the car aligned and I am still having some shaking in the front end. so need to get the tires balanced here in a couple weeks. Too busy the next two weekends to get it done. Probably going to just go ahead and do the ball joints also. They are original and could probably just use it anyways.