Technical Marshmellow steering

It's been modified with Omnisteer R&P which looks to be in good alignment with the lower control arms. Suspension is stock, supposedly stock rated springs front and rear. Drives kinda like a marshmellow on the road, and doesn't track well (been aligned twice). I plan to cut one coil off the front springs to lower it slightly and stiffen it a little. It tends to go sideways when it encounters a mild dip or bump in the road. I'm very uncomfortable driving, especially at speed, and running out of ideas to correct the problem. Any help out there???
Tom

 

What is the car?

 

Have you had an alignment done? All worn parts and rubber replaced? New shocks? What tires, and what tire pressure?

Fifties cars were a little vague compared to new models but if in good shape, should drive easily and not dart around. The dartiness suggests bump steer, caused by the replacement steering fighting the suspension, in other words faulty design of the new steering.

 

Oooops..I posted to another thread somehow.

 

I tried google for omnisteer and got nothing.

Sounds like bump steer
The height of the rack and geometry of the tierods have a lot to do with bumpsteer

 

Maybe he took the steering off an old Omni.

 

Sounds like a pretty bad case of bump steer, which is pretty common when guys go stuffing rack and pinion steering units where they don't belong. What car and front end are you dealing with and how about some pictures?

 

Is it the 33 Nash model 1123 or the 32 Packard 900 Vickie?

 

Sorry, MJ40's. I haven't figured out how to reply to a particular response to my post.

 

Well if it's not bump steer you'll need to be more descriptive and describe something other than bump steer.

So it's been aligned twice, both times 1/2 ***ed on a machine that doesn't fit. That kinda means that it has not yet been aligned right?

Omnisteer ? A rack from a dodge Omni was fitted, is that correct?

 

SORRY!! It's Unisteer, power R&P.

 

You can easily measure for bump steer if you have access to turn tables on the alignment rack. Discover it or eliminate bump steer

Zero the turntables, tie front of car to rack note toe change, raise car 2-3" past it's resting point, note toe change. This test will show you your bump steer, the problem is there really isn't a spec provided by the manufacturer for what's acceptable. You'll need to rely on your ability to decide if it's excessive. But it will clearly show you what it is

 

Thanks, I'll do that at the next alignment (soon).