wife driving with steering wheel 90 degrees to Left

[500hpgtx]

My son sent me a text stating "mom is driving with the steering wheel at 90 degrees to the left!"

I had to get this repaired ASAP. I thought maybe a tie rod went bad and maybe went further. Steering had been off slightly to left prior.
Firestone said that when they ent to check alignment, they found that the strut tower was gone. I knew it had to be on the right side.
The passenger strut tower rusted through at the mid rear, and broke the spot welds, and was not attached at most of its circumference.
Fortunately, the body shop that repaired our van from a prior damage.(hit at stoplight) knew of only one guy that repairs this problem. He charges 350-400 dollars. Van is there now.

I replaced the struts about a year or two ago with quick struts. Did not even think of checking for this rusting issue.
Nasty Chicago area winter salted roads. Cause damage beyond belief to a
southerner. I had to replace my rocker panel on the right on my GTX. Hoep this guy does a good job repairing our van...cheers KEV

[500hpgtx]

The welding shop said that the new trainee completely burned the wiring harness to the PCM. They have to replace it, and that 1995 is particular to that year.
He saw that coming. He told me they had to be careful around the wiring. Pretty obvious...he should have done the work...hopefully get van back this Friday. KEV

[500hpgtx]

Well its late Friday and the place got the wrong harness for our van. He is having a lot of trouble finding a wiring harness, and even suggested buying the van from me. NOWAY! Too many busted knuckles. He may end up having to have a wiring harness made for about a $1000.
How could they consider welding a strut tower and not removing a wiring harness that goes everywhere?.....the guy who burned it up is in his 40's.
The owner says he is scouring the junk yards. I would make him spend the full weekend finding one....KEV

[500hpgtx]

Hi Guys!

Well the Transport is back in business.

The new welder spent the weekend in the rain at the junk yard and got the
correct harness. Thank goodness that the van runs fine. They did right by helping me. I didn't even yell at them for the problem.
Do not ask for grace when you do not give out any ....right?

Thankful they repaired the strut tower....cheers KEV

[LMP]

Great keeping it on the road. If you can take a picture please share....
The generation gap is quite obvious in my snowy and salty country: 90-96 are still out there visible and clean on the road...while 97---02 have almost disappeared or run rusted out. My brother has discarded his 02 Montana recently..tired of recurrent gasket and transmission problems...I think keeping a car in good shape for 20 year is environmentally friendly..ahh...and economically too. All the models that could replace my '93 without compromises are larger, heavier, and burn more fuel because of all the additional non essential features. WHen a car salesman tell me about the 2 dozen airbags, I specify that I intend to run the car on the road wheels down, not on top in the ditch....and that I know how to acheive this..so ESC and all those gadgets are overkill. ALso I would not need a rear camera when glass design allows me to simply see all around...impossible with most cars now. I'm not whining: I just like driving.

[500hpgtx]

Hi LMP! Here is the great job they did after the welder searched the nasty junk yards for the harness on a full heavy rain weekend! Thankful they were able to repair it so reasonably..$420..unfortunately I think they lost money on the job.

[500hpgtx]

Hi LMP hopefully these images of welded passenger strut tower show up!

[LMP]

Eh..very informative...I would have thought that the top around the bolts was the culprit...

[Jrs3800]

Originally Posted by 500hpgtx

Hi LMP hopefully these images of welded passenger strut tower show up!

Ok a few things for you....

First.... Paint the metal with rust inhibitor at the very least...

Second.... and I know this will sound stupid.... Clean the wheel wells very well ans paint them with Truck Bed Armor yeah thats right that Duplicolor stuff... Get it all sealed up to prevent any more rust...lol

[500hpgtx]

The car has grinding sounds when turning the wheel to the right.

The spring on the strut on the right is rubbing against the strut tower. The welding shop tried grinding it down, but no luck. He will pull the strut out tomorrow and pound out the area that is interfering.

JrS3800- they zinc coated the fender well.

[Jrs3800]

Funny I had a set of Moog springs that I had issues with... I had to pound out the strut tower... I went back to a spring from a 96 van and solved my problems... But they are too soft for what I like... So now I have a set of AC Delco springs to go on the van.... I may do a litte more forming just to make sure I have enough room between the tower and springs.... The I will again coat my wheel wheel with truck bed armor...

Glad to hear its fixed tho...