Hi again,

2000 DRV 1500 5.2L V8 with 210k miles

After some early hiccups, this van has been a champion. Love love love it.

One remaining issue is a pronounced pull to the right. To drive a straight line, I have to hold the wheel about 15 degrees to the left. Release the wheel and it quickly rotates past the center point, to about 20 degrees to the right. And the van steers to the right accordingly. Anyone want to share some advice on troubleshooting?

Some notes and things I've tried:
- Alignment has been done by two places and checked by a third shop. They all agree that everything is straight under there. Apologies as I don't have the most recent spec sheet to post here.
- New front brakes (rotors, calipers, flexible hoses, and pads.) Mechanic thought it might be a bad right caliper sticking, so warranteed it out and replaced a second time. No change.
- New front wheel bearings, replaced along with brakes.
- Both font wheels seem to spin pretty freely when off the ground. No big difference in resistance.
- Tire pressure is correct (F = 35psi, R = 41psi)
- Swapping front wheels left-for-right doesn't change things.
- Seems to pull worse on rough or bumpy roads.

Thanks, and let me know what other info might be helpful. Appreciate it!

 

Did you look at the radius arm bushings?

 

Hi ElkCon - my van's also an Elk conversion! Even took it through Elkhart, IN to let it connect with it's old roots .

Are these what we're talking about? Moog calls them Strut Rod Bushings. If so, yes, I did replace these with the Moogs. But worth noting that both of the strut rods that they mount on were badly worn where they come in contact with the bracket at these bushings. The right side rod and bracket were repaired by a professional welder and went back together beautifully. The left side we didn't have time to fix, but was less severely worn. Photo of the left-side rod attached.

Again, bushings, spacers and metal plates are new. But would this kind of wear to the rod cause a right-side steering pull? I'm pretty sure the issue existed before I replaced the bushings and repaired the right-side rod, although back then so much was wrong that I might not have noticed.

 

The shops are either using the wrong front end alignment specs, or something moves once you start driving. Any brake related issues with pulling left or right pretty much only happen when applying the brakes, the one exception is a stuck caliper. But in that case the brakes would be cooking and the smell of them would be obvious. The one other possibility I can think of is, the steering gear is messed up internally causing the fluid pressure to go to one side more than the other. This can be checked by jacking the front wheels up off the ground and starting the engine, then turning the wheels left and right then straight again. If the wheels stay straight, it's not the steering gear.

 

Did you figure it out??
I wanted to add that I have had that issue too when my slide pins were sticking because I put the pad mounting clips on upside down...

 

Thanks guys - still no resolution yet, but I did pull it apart today to check a few things...

@alloro - thanks for the tip on the steering gear. With the front end lifted and the engine running, I turned steering wheel all the way to the left, then all the way to the right, then back to center. Steering wheel and wheels stayed straight. So I guess this means steering gear is okay?

@ElkCon - slide pins seemed fine, although those mounting clips had me going for a minute. I did have them upside down on one side, but turns out they actually want to be in that reversed position side-to-side. If this sounds wrong, lemme know and I'll put up pics to make sure.

Left-Side Brake Pads - one of the pads on the driver's side (aka away from the steering pull), somehow got bent. It was the inner pad, and the metal plate was bent back away from the stopping material. And the stopping material had split across the middle. My guess is something wasn't sliding correctly on that side, so pressure from the pistons bent the plate and cracked the pad. Replaced both pads and they seem to be sliding / floating correctly. Steering still pulls to the right.

Stuck Caliper - when installing the new thicker pads, it was a bit harder to compress the right-side caliper than the left. I had to go get one of those little spreader tools. Dunno, maybe something?

What about ball joints? While lifted, I grabbed both wheels at 12 and 6 o'clock and gave them a good wiggle on the vertical axis. ? Maybe a little bit of play? And a recent grease gun job on the upper right seemed to have leaked down onto the lower control arm. Balljoints are one of the few things up front that hasn't been replaced.

Thanks guys!

Photos of weird bent pad vvvv

 

Yes, the steering gear is not the cause of the pulling issue.

The bent pad is a sign of a caliper that is not sliding correctly. This happens to the inner pad because the piston in the caliper pushes the pad, yet the opposite side does not pull in, so the inner pad bends to close the gap to the rotor.

 

that is actually a bad wheel bearing unless you actually see the shoulders of the BJs moving....

 

Hi all - apologies for delay in closing the loop on this. I was all geared up to start tearing out ball joints and wheel bearings, but took it to a Firestone in Phoenix, AZ because they were across the street from a taco shop. Tech said alignment was WAAAAAAY out of line. Half an hour later, it drove straight and has had no issues since.

Why can't anyone in Massachusetts align my van? I do not know. Seems like the setup for a joke. But man is it a joy to drive straight while holding a cup of coffee.

Sorry for wasting y'alls time

 

Thanks for the solution.