Severe Pull to the Left

[DCTiger]

Came back from the TEAE United near Toronto. Developed a severe pull by the end of trip back. Rebuilt front end to make it to United 36 (2017) in Staunton, VA. I also cleaned up the rack and pinion and put new seals on it. Have drove to Long Island, NY and La Crosse, WI and finally to Oakville, Canada. Was raining continuously from Toronto to PA. I thought that the issue was a collapsed front brake line since the brake were getting older.
Replaced front brake lines and bled the system. Brakes work fine.

As I was test driving the car Slow alley speeds), it would pull the steering wheel from my hands and dive left. Any thoughts on what might be causing this?

TIA,
Rob

 

[Forrest39]

Rob,
I have a similar issue and discovered one of the two pistons was not releasing in the bore. After taking out the pistons, I found one was corroded so badly that it had to be replaced. New SS pistons and a seal kit from Sunbeam Specialties and I think it should be ok. I would suggest jacking up the front left wheel and check for a dragging brake, and that BOTH pistons are moving freely.
Cheers, -Kevin

 

[IvaTiger]

Sounds like the master cylinder piston is sticking

 

[IvaTiger]

Possibly the front right caliper piston is stuck so when braking the pressure moves the left piston and not the right , this will cause the dive to the left. Does the caliper release when the foot is off the brake ? If not then the master cylinder is at fault.

 

[DCTiger]

Jacked it up and the wheels roll freely, so not stuck piston.

Drove car slowly in alley without applying brakes, car steered left to the stop by itself, then applied brakes to not hit anything.

Don't think brake system.

Moved wheels end to end by hand and could hear gear noise as rack engaged the pinion or vice versa.

I was trying to look at all the various torqued points to see if anything was loose.

Baffled.

 

[IvaTiger]

Yes baffling
Something may have let loose on the crossmember , track rod , A arms , shock tower. Did you hit a pot hole
Keep us posted

 

[michael-king]

Potentially a cracked A arm. Look around the ball joint.. Also... Check the ball joints...there was a batch of defective ones that had no grease inside and they flash rusted and would start to seize

 

[HolyCat]

It could be a loose steering arm ball joint. Once on my car, the nut came loose and fell off and the steering arm was no longer connected to the steering rack. The front wheels no longer pointed in the same direction. The car pulled very strongly to the side. As you know, this can be a serious situation and you do not want to drive your car at speed until you have identified and fixed the problem.

 

[DCTiger]

Thxs for the added items, will put on lift and start checking items listed.

I'm glad we made it home from Canada before exhibiting these extreme problems.

Definitely not driving at any speed, until I figure it out.

Will keep you posted,

 

[DCTiger]

Thanks all for your guidance!! Numbers on Fig 9 of Section F of the Rootes Workshop Manual.

I dropped a bolt holding the top link (22) thru the fulcrum pin (26) to the spring turret (32), don't know how that happened but am happy to find the problem. It also loosened the nut on the lower fulcrum pin (53), so I retorqued that.

Could've been catastrophic.

Happy drivin'

 

[IvaTiger]

Hopefully your navigator does not quit or the back seat drivers 😮
Glad you found the problem , it could have been very bad
There has been a lot of discussion on these forums as to what the torques should be on the fulcrum pins , what did you torque them to and are you using nyloc type nuts ?

 

[michael-king]

If the fulcrum was not loaded properly and you drove around with it having uneven loading maybe check it. They are a weak point in Tigers so make sure it didn't have any undue stress