Steering Rack

Hi,

It has been over a year now since I have been chasing the front end snapping while turning, but that is just the start. I bought the car and it needed struts; had friend put on new struts. He did not have equipment to do an alignment so I took it to Sears. Sears said they could not align it without putting on new tires (needed them anyway), put on 4 Michelins Pilots (they suck by the way). Sears was unable to align the car and did not know why, when car was aligned to speck it pulled hard to the right. Took the car to Olds dealer and they said they would align it; "our guys are the best, and know how to do this". I sat and waited while their best man worked on it for 2.5 hours and took it out 5-6 times on the road. I knew right then that all he was doing was tweaking stuff to get it to go straight. Got the car back and it drove fine for 20,000 miles: then I noticed my front driver side tire had cords showing on the outside edge. Went back to dealer and showed the shop manager and told him what I had observed when I had the car aligned by them. He said it could be a number of things, none of which was anything to do with what they had done. Dealer said I should get 2 new tires for the front and get it aligned. I bought two tires and now the car pulls to the right again. Took the car to Firestone for alignment last Saturday and they came back and said if they put within specs it would pull so hard to the right that I would not be able to drive it. Took car back to dealer on Monday for an alignment and an hour later the guy comes back and says whoever worked on it last just bent shit up so it would drive straight. Told the man they were the ones that did the last alignment. The man had nothing to say :-) The man said they would have their tech look at it, and they would find out what is wrong, and why it can't be aligned. The man came back in an hour and said that it is probably my steering gear (Rack and pinion), said there is a tooth missing and because it is run on fluid that this would cause it to pull to the right. A new installed rack was going to be around $1200 or so. I told him about how they had screwed it up in the first place and that they insisted it was the bearing plates once, put those in but didn't help. He said he would see if he could find a cheaper rack and take my frustration and other expenses into account and get back to me on Tuesday. I called them on Tuesday around 10:30 and he said he didn't get a price or availability of a new rack and would call me later in the day. Today is Wednesday and I have still not heard anything from them. What should I do, and do you think the rack could cause this. They said the pressures going in and out of the pump were OK. Firestone also noticed that my rear transmission mount is shot. I looked, and it is definitely gone. Told dealer about this and they said the reason they didn't replace it was due to cost, 300 for mount and 500 for labor. What a bunch of shit, if they would have seen it, trust me, they would have told me about it and suggested I get it fixed. They should have noticed this when they were chasing the snapping noise up front when making right hand turns, hell, they even put the chassis ears on the car to try and find what that was. Said it was the sub frame bolt and tightened it down, lasted for one day.
Sorry for the long post but needed to fill you in on what has been going on. I truly look forward to any ideas or suggestions you may have.

Dave A.

Since no one has bothered to answer your post. I will at least take a stab at it. Do you know if this car have ever been in an accident? And have you ever checked the frame to see if it looked like it have been damaged? I supposed your ball joints and tie rod ends were checked, and grease fittings lubed. Well not much help. But it may get the others to thinking.

Pulling such as this can be caused by a binding strut bearing that develops a memory and causes a pull. Try and post the print out results of the alignment.

your getting took by that dealer..

I took the car to another GM dealer and they said all the Toe's were out and they could align it. When I told them that no-one else said they could align it and it needed a steering rack they had nothing to say. I looked at the toe specs and started adjusting the front myself. Lots of trial and error but I have the car going straight and the wheel is centered.
When I put one finger on the steering wheel and turn it 45 degrees with the engine running I get a lot of jerking around in the wheel. Presure on the wheel will increase and decrease along with changing engine RPM. It is like fluid is not going at a steady flow but is pulsing spratically. This got me thinking that the valves might be glogged up, sticking or something else. I sucked the power steering fuid out and kept addin and taking out new fluid to try and flush the system and then put in some stuff that said it will help valves and gummed up parts in your steering rack. The stuff I kept taking out was BLACK, BLACK, BLACK.

The car has never been in an accident.
Is there a way to adjust the cradle?
Here are the alignment specs

Front Left Front Right Range

0.9* Camber -1.4* -0.3* -- 0.7*

6.0* Caster 6.2* 5.5* -- 6.5*

0.18* Toe 0.28* -0.10* -- 0.10*


FRONT Specified Range

Cross Camber 2.3* -0.5*---- 0.5*
Cross caster -0.2* -0.5* ---- 0.5*
Total Toe 0.45* -0.20* ---- 0.20*



Rear: Left Rear: Right

-0.5* Camber -1.2*
0.04* Toe 0.04*



Thanks again for any help
Dave