For as long as I remember, my car's been pulling slightly to the right while driving and very prominantly when braking. Both ball joints are new and so are the cone bushings. What should I check? Would a very slightly seized caliper guide pin do this? Maybe under braking, but not when driving. So far there is no wear on the front tires since the beginning of the summer. I replaced the struts a while ago and I don't think the tire guy did a complete alignment, maybe just the tie rods. The steering wheel is also slightly to the left when I'm going straight. It's all very annoying. I'm thinking of going to a professional alignment shop soon.

Thanks,

Rene

Do get a proper alignment. Castor angle has the biggest effect on steering straight or not. Position of the top of the struts is where the most important part of your alignment is made. Replacing strut cartridges gives one the opportunity to put things back either close to where they were before, or nowhere close. You may also want to confirm that you do not have a caliper that is allowing the pads to drag. I have also seen the effect of a binding caliper caused not by the caliper itself, but it's flexible brake line that was delaminating from the inside. It looked old but sound on the outside, but was bloated inside and would not allow unrestricted movement of returning fluid. Weird.

Lastly, in rare cases, the power rack and pinion steering gear can have an odd internal failure that pressurizes the valve in such a way as to make the gear want to turn slightly. Sometimes you can see this with the car running and the front wheels off the ground. If bad enough, the wheels will turn by themselves from center. An accurate assesment can be made useing a tension gauge to see that both steering directions give equal resistance.

I assume the car has not suffered collision damage. An improper thrust angle of the rear axle may also cause a car to not track straight.

Phil G.

Regarding the steering rack favoring one side, I've only seen this in 240's with CAM racks. The star washer (with lock tabs) at the pinion shaft base no longer locks. If you run the engine with front wheels unloaded and see the steering wheel favoring turning in one direction over the other, this is the tipoff. Any old Volvo mechanic may have the tool for re-centering the pinion pre-load (it's a cylinder with a notch cutout for the pin). Then install a new star washer.

Yes, my experience is not with Volvos as regards the ZF gear, but with a ZF in a german car (essentially same) and a couple of GM power units (completely different). I had not known the english gear's a member of the club :-). Interesting stuff, thanks.

Phil G.

Thanks for the info. I'll get an alignment ASAP. I doubt that it's the stiff caliper because it's on the wrong side. I'll check the other one. I guess I would notice the rear-end more on acceleration, but I don't=good.

About the steering wheel being off centre, should that be corrected using the tie-rods or by loosening one of the steering U-joints? So many questions, I'll do the alignment and take it from there.

Thanks, Rene

Rene,

Phil here, an answer to your question about centering the steering wheel. There is a u-joint set that connects the steering gear to the column. On the column end it only goes on one way. On the steering gear end it has splines. If the gear has never been out of the car with the u-joint set seperated from it, you do not need to center the joint to the gear. In this case, the centering of the steering wheel is always made at the tie rods. If you replace the gear, remember to first center your steering (actual, not steering wheel), then remove it with the joint seperated from only the column end. On the bench, you can use it as a guide to understanding the orientation of joint to gear pinion when the replacement gear is centered and ready receive the joint and be installed into the car.

If you have to replace the gear because yours is shot, do not allign the front suspension now as it will have to be done after the new gear goes in anyway.

Good luck to you.

Phil G.

Thanks again. I actually have to change the U-joints becuase they are worn.

I will tell whoever does the alignment to make sure the wheel is cetered bafore adjusting the tie rods. Most of the mech's I know don't give a damn!

Rene

When the steering input joint set is noticably worn, that does not speak well for the rest of the steering from that point to the spindles. I should think those would be one of the last things to wear out.

Phil

That one is my fualt. They got stiff and "lubricated" them with WD40 which concequently destroyed them.

Rene

Hey, Rene, my steering u-joints were leaking and stiff also. When I got the quote on new ones, I decided to try rehabbing the old ones. Took them off. The oil seals around the outsides of the bearings were cracked and breaking anyway, so I pulled all of them off. Then, soaked the whole assembly over a couple of days in 10w30 synthetic motor oil, working the joint every now and then to get the oil to penetrate into the bearings.

Worked like a champ. Now the joints are VERY smooth. Will need to be repeated probably at least once a year, but for the price of new joints, I'll do it.