wandering car

My newest car is kinda hamb friendly A 64 barracuda [Being built as a traditional early muscle car] has one problem that i just cant figure out. the wants to wander down the road, I know to get it aligned but what else could cause this condition, the car has a power steering as well. Any ideas please help.
thanks retro rodder
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move front to rear etc with the tires to see if you have a bad front tire???

 

Tall sidewall bias tires grabbing or following grooves in the road?

 

Was the front end ever rebuilt? Does it have bias tires? Is the idler arm worn? A lot of things could be off. Best bet, take it to a front shop.

 

What are the caster specs on the alignment sheet? You need as much positive caster as you can get. If you don't have enough positive caster, the faster you go the more the car feels squirrelly as in changing lanes at freeway speeds. I've had trouble in the past finding an alignment guy who understands how to align Mopars with torsion bars.

 

Any bad suspension parts in the front or rear can cause a vehicle to wander the road like a lost child.

 

Seen issues with the rearend loactiong pins on Mopars before. One side of rear moves forward and backward. Car dogtracks.

 

Check the tire air pressure. The very first step in an alignment. If your rear tires are low on pressure they will squirm around and you try to catch it with the steering wheel. It will be all over the road. If that doesn't help check the front end linkage for play. Idler arm, tie rod ends etc. etc. You don't need to know how to set a front end to find slop in the steering. At the very least you will know that the tire pressure is set correctly.

Once you have checked the linkage you then can get it aligned and if they try to sell you something take it somewhere else.

 

You're right, especially since he's probably running radial rubber, which the car wasn't designed for originally.

Frank C.

 

control arm bushings are bad....

 

exactly what i had to replace to fix mine

 

first off thanks to every one who replied the car has radials up front and also it is running big and littles so i cant really check that. the front end was redone a few years back. the tire pressure was also set to spec so ex that off. i plane on bringing the car to my high school shop and throwing it on the rack ill try the positive caster treatment as well as check the control arms thank you all

 

If it wanders, let it go, man. If it comes back, then you know it is really yours.

 

worn suspension components, almost a safe bet on an old Mopar, or toe is out.

 

so you have radials on the front ? and bias plys on the back? THATS your problem my 69 charger used to swim going down the roadf when i had bias in the back and radials in the fron put radials on all four corners straightened right out

bias ply tires allways follow every crack in the road thats why i hate em and wont run em

 

i tried to adjust the steering box on my duster and it would NOT drive straight. try backing off the adjuster nut slightly

 

Also bear in mind since you're running big and littles, caster needs to be set to compensate for that. If you raise the rear end either with bigger tires or suspension modifications, it in effect tilts the spindles forward so that you no longer have sufficient caster to make it track straight.

 

10-4 on problems running radials up front and bias plies out back...not only will your car "tack" it will never drive right or safely. If you had the same type of tire on all corners and it still "wonders," then address the toe-out or toe-in and camber.

 

check the steering box, it should have an adjustment screw in the top. some times you have to tighten it to take the slop out of the steering.