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Dreadful steering - Any suggestions? 200

posted by  impster on  Wed Mar 24 10:21 CST 2004
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last visit: Wed Feb 22 18:10 CST 2012
[RELATED]

Greetings,

Since buying my low mileage (88K at the time) 1985 wagon last summer, I have performed a fair amount of maintenance on the suspension. In the front, I have replace ball joints, struts, all bushings, and outer tie rod ends. When the local shop aligned the suspension, everything was tight. Rear shocks and some of the rear bushings have also been replaced (the remainder of bushings to be completed when it warms up). Given the car's low mileage, all of the old bushings were in good shape, so I doubt that the remaining rear bushings are too bad. The car also rides on new tires (balanced of course), and has had the power steering fluid flushed and replaced with Red Line synthetic.

However, the steering still handles in an evil manner. There is very little on center "feel". In windy conditions, the car is a handful keeping it going in a straight line. All symptoms are worse at highway speed. There is no precision to the steering although it doesn't act as though anything is loose. Upon hoisting the car up in the air today to check out all my previous suspension work (everything still tight and no slop in the steering between the wheel and tires), I discovered that the steering wheel could be easily turned without the engine running. Almost as though the car was equipped with manual steering - ie no power steering. This strikes me as odd as every car I've ever had with power steering was a handful to turn when the engine was off. This leads me to think that the seals in either the steering rack or the power steering pump are shot. But as the pump gushed lots of power steering fluid when I flushed the system, I am leaning more towards suspecting the steering rack. And because of the ease of turning, I don't suspect the steering u-joints.

Any thoughts on what if anything is wrong with my steering? I am making the assumption that this steering "feel" is not normal but have only a 740 (that I no longer own) to compare it to. Heck, even my old Ford 4X4 pickup had a more precise steering "feel" than my Brick does!

Thanks in advance,

Tony Fontaine

'85 wagon (w/ 97K miles)






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