I just rebuilt the front suspension back in the winter on the wife's 63 Nova wagon. I took it to a front end alignment shop and got it all squared up. Recently I started hearing a rubbing sound and noticed the tire on the rt front was rubbing just barely on the fender, when I turned. No biggie, I have always had that problem with hot rods. It has all new parts including upper and lower ball joints, tie rods, sway bar and bushings, control arm bushings etc. Well, it progressively got worse, so I had a coworker stand out and watch the front end when I would pull backwards and then forward again. The front wheel seems to being moving forward and aft about an inch or more. It still drives ok, and the alignment seems alright, but I am taking a road trip tomorrow in it and I wanna make sure I make it. I miss straight axles. What would cause this?
It has a single pivot lower a arm with a strut rod. I'd guess the strut rod nut did not get tightened.
Check the stabilizer bushings, and attachment brackets for cracks or (possible but not likely broken rivets), I would think the alignment shop would have noticed if it was. Also check those eccentric adjuster attachment bolts. Phil may be right. As you may know these cars had about the worst designed frontends that Detroit put out. I can say this because I did a complete changeover on my wifes 67 SS to get rid of all that junk.
I am stuck with what I have and I hate to dump more money in the front end. I am hoping it's something simple. I have a phone call in to the front end shop right now. Everyone's at lunch.... I am curious about the stabilizer rods. I replaced the bushings on that as well.
If the stabilizer bar is doing it's job it wouldn't move like that. It's gotta be a loose/broken link or bushing somewhere. Shouldn't wiggle an inch.
Strut rod was a REALLY likely suggestion...look at the thing. Or go on the road trip...the rod will be much easier to see with car upside down!
I am leaning towards the strut rod. I'm gonna throw it up on the rack after work. I have an idea, the alignment shop loosened the strut rod jam nut to make some adjustments and never tightened it back up. I went out and looked at it in the parking lot and the bushing doesn't look quite right. Like it isn't captured correctly. I haven't really had a chance to drive it, because I have been fixing all the shake down items that reared their ugly heads. This just happens to be another one..
Sounds like you got the 'new guy' at the alignment shop. (probably transported from here...I took my F100 in just to have camber checked...this idiot said, "I kin check it, but there's NO adjustments on them old trucks...Hell, what would ya do? BEND THE AXLE???") I didn't answer, I was chuckling too hard. Damn fool was probably 50, didn't know what he'd stumbled onto. Yeah...bend the axle. Shim for caster. Duh!
or you got the new kid just out of tech school who is still learning these old set ups , several of my local shops do not know how to fix anything but the strut /a arm type suspensions now offered . the one shop told me they couldn't do anything but spring shims for my O/t truck even though it can be adjusted by the ball joint concentrics ( 3/4 -1 ton GM 4x ) my buddy aligns his old cars in his driveway with a plumb bob and some string and protractor . and when put on the rack they are spot on .
One of my beater vans - a '95, but the upper A-arm pivot interchanged back into the '60s on some pickups - had one of the bolts that held the A-arm pivot rot to the point that the whole thing would move a little. That POS got retired not much later, but the point is something has to be loose to allow that motion.
I had a '66 Riviera with bad strut rod bushings that acted just like your Nova. I drove it that way for a loooong time. Stuff you do when you are 17
I tightened the strut rods last night. They were loose. Not super loose, but I got quite a few turns out of them. It drives tighter for sure. I still have a tire rub issue, but I can foresee a TCI kit in my near future.
Roothawg-- Glad you found (part) of the problem, keep in mind that there are quite a few people addressing the Nova suspension issue besides TCI. If you've not heard of stevesnovasite.com you will find a lot of valuable info. there. Enjoy your trip.
The trick with the Nova struts is to get them started before the strut gets bolted to the lower arm, important to get the bushings square with the frame holes. I used to measure the exposed threads before I took it apart and installed the new ones with the same side-to-side value so the caster would be fairly in the ball park.
Roothawg-- my apologies for the thread hijack, and to any Hamb traditionalists. Anyone interested in Novas really should visit stevesnovasite.com, I am not registered there but have been a long time visitor to the site. An alternative to the above mentioned vendor would be Church Boys Racing, pretty highly regarded by Steves site members. A couple of things that should be mentioned is: do not base your decisions on the lowest price, and consider the possibility of having to do some modifications that were not planned, as the better setups are not all complete bolt-ins as some vendors advertise, the effort will reward you with results beyond your expectations of these cars. This cars suspension is somewhat of a custom setup; anyone interested can PM me for details, the last photo is the shock tower brace, really stiffens up the front of these cars.
Denny, I am a member over there. I am discussing my options there as well. That's a sweet setup. I just don't know if I wanna drop that kinda cash.
A friend with 64 Nove had the same problem had it ti several shops and ended up having to put a kit that converts car to lowwer a frame to cure it?
No need to buy a new front end- unless you want to..... If the rod's have new bushings,then they were left loose=(mentioned) Also- but captured are the lower arm bushings,locked in. If those are not new,replace them. Once that's done,you should be trouble free,and a re-align. Better to have new bushings=cheap,and re-set,than dump a couple of G's,then more work,for an easy fix. I've had over 25 nova's spanning at least 25 years......
run it 'as is' ... just keep an eye on it and for alignment issues like toe in. run your hand across the tread and if you feel a rough edge on each rib as you go across... you have a very simple (do it yourself) adjustment needed.
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