Steiring help please?

I have a 1958 studebaker and the onlything stopping me from driving is the steiring. When parked the bottom of the front tires stick in and the top stick out? And when driving and I hit a bump both tires turn left or right real fast and hard. What is causeing this?

 

Your front suspension is worn out. Possibly upper and lower control bushing, ball joints, tie rod ends, or all of the above. Stu

 

Is it a ball joint front end? with your caster in that position, I think you need to check all parts for wear, replace the worn items and get it aligned. You may still have a bump steer situation after that, but your going to have to solve the wear issues first to see what, if any, other problems exist...

 

Everything is dryrotted. I will take pictures so you can see. And car needs a new home. check cl***ifieds.

 

If it's dry rotted, isn't that a pretty obvious sign of worn out front end components? not just trying to drum up attention for a car you're selling are ya?

 

What's steiring?

 

No not trying to drum up att. And yes I cannot spell alot of words. And I cant read big words. Do you make fun of people in wheel chairs too? And I am trying to fix this car so I can drive it. I am working on putting the chrome on and filling the steering box with gear oil. And yes all the bushing's are dryrotted but no need to replace everything right now just need to replace what's messing up the steering. It would cost around 500 a side to replace all the steering parts. This is not my first project but is my first with this steering trouble. Thank you for your help.

 

58 Studebaker Commander, from what you are saying I'd say that the front suspension and steering are pretty well worn out and will need replacing before it's safe to drive. I think I may have done an alignment on one of those in my life and that would have been over 35 years ago at the latest so I don't remember how they are setup and what to look at.

By the way Firefox browser and some of the others have spell check built in and can help with a guy's ability to get his point across a bit better. See a little red line under the word, right click on the word and find the correct spelling and no one else even knows that you did it

 

Who knows, maybe it's a trick question.

 

I'm confused ... or maybe my reading comprehension is off today. The steering (and suspension, probably) are worn out. You want to fix it up to drive but only want to do the minimum amount of work required AND it's listed in the cl***ifieds but you're not trying to sell it.

Now, if I were fixing it up to drive I'd want it fixed right, not half-***ed, kinda-sorta fixed. Frankly, if I were selling it I'd either leave it alone and sell it as-is where-is OR I'd fix it right. Kinda-sorta fixed could cause problems down the road.

'Course, I could be all messed up and you're actually talking about glazed donuts and milk ...

 

Some of the responses are wise-*** ... but I think that you're asking for a more specific answer than you could possibly get from people that haven't seen the car. Each suspension part affects the others. You will probably need to either replace all the worn items or do them one at a time until the behavior is acceptable to you.

 

Whew...!!!

I read all of this...and I still cannot add anything to this...

R-

 

Thank's everyone. I am trying to sell one car. But not pressed on selling this one. And I am working on it because I like to work on them it's fun for me like a hobby. But sometimes I come acrooss a promblem that I cant figure out where to start fixing. Steve,

 

Look at the lean on the tire. The same way on the ground.

 

don't drive it again til you fix it, one thing to risk your life, another to risk other peoples, get a book, google it, but learn to diagnose your problem

 

Im not driving it. I am driving my 52 plymouth.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words.
Dry rot is right! Wow. Even the shock bushing is pushed out in one of the shots.
I would not do anything more than yard drive it like that. Just start picking away at rebuilding it as you can afford it. Don't have to rebuild the whole front end at once. Failing that, sell it as is. You have some good pictures here and a lot of buyers would appreciate you honesty.

 

Thank you. I have a guy wanting the motor for his rare 2 door ranch wagon.

 

Good pics. I am not 100% familiar with the suspension design on this car, but I think I would start with pic #1. It looks like that's the lower control arm bushing in picture 1? That could allow a lot of play when hitting bumps. I would replace those first.

If it's dual wishbone suspension, I would check the upper arm bushings too.

The ball joints should be easy enough to check by jacking up car at the lower control arm and trying to shake the wheel in and out. (That lets the suspension be in its natural position during the test. Jackstands under the frame as a backup for safety, of course.)

The missing shock bushing must make for a rather noisy and harsh ride, but I don't think that would affect alignment much.

 

While not pretty, the cracking shown on the bushes probably isn't your problem. The part of the bush that is between the arm and the shaft is probably ok.

You need to get in there and start really looking for things that are out of shape or mis aligned.

The shock bush has pulled out completely. This will not affect alignment, but will affect how it drives.

Jack the car up under the bottom arms and pull and push the wheels around looking for play in all the bushes and joints.

Make sure the car is secure, you don't want it to fall and crush you, and you will be doing some heaving.

One of the track rods look bent, this will have affected the alignment, unless compensated for. It should be carefully straightened (cold) or replaced.

There's no need to spend $500 a side, just isolate the real offenders and fix them.

I have a section in my 63 Motor's Manual that covers the steering, if you want I could scan it and send it to your email address.

let me know.

Mart.

 

Thanks and if you want to send a copy that would help.

steve.weber25@yahoo.com

 

Just sent the scans - hope they are useful to you.

Mart.

 

Thank you.

 

It looks like a tie rod is bent. That will affect the alignment, causing toe out, not good.

It also looks like it has negative camber, that's when the top of the wheel leans in. But it's hard to say for sure, because it appears lots of parts are missing off the car, which makes the car weigh less, so it sits up higher. The natural result of sitting higher is that you get negative camber, because of how an unequal length A arm suspension works.

You really need to get someone who knows about this stuff to help you look over the suspension, and check for worn parts. It's pretty hard to explain it all over the internet. Or you could just spend some time looking at it yourself, the first thing is to jack up one side by the lower control arm, near the outer end, just enough to take thew eight off the tire. Then grab the top and bottom of the tire and try to move it in and out, see where it is loose. Also grab the sides of the tire and do the same, and look for slop. When it's on the wheels on the ground, have someone move the steering wheel back and forth so the tires just start to steer, while you look at all the steering joints to see if there's any movement indicating a loose part.

 

I will load a picture for you with the car on the groung.

 

Pictures are a little dark but look at the wheels.

 

Seehow the tops are sticking out and the car is ridding on the side of the tires. And I can hear a popping sound just turning the car around.

 

With the tires out at the tops, you have positive camber, where you want slightly negative camber.

So that means, either it's really badly aligned, or the control arm bushings are so badly worn that it CAN'T be aligned. So I would check the control arm bushings first. And also the wheel bearings.

 

Actually is sounds like death wobble, but yah, he should get the worn parts replaced and an alignment.