1985SE Pulls when accelerating????

[craazy]

I just bought this car yesterday and it seems to pull to the left pretty hard when I accelerate and when I let off then it pulls to the right??
Does anyone know what could cause this to happen??

I called Meineke and they said it was a "Torque Spear", I have never heard of this before so are they blowing smoke?

[RedFiero]

I have an 85SE V6 Auto and had the same problem and was making it difficult to drive the car. I noticed that when I was letting off the gas I got a rearend sway, and when giving it the gas had the same thing.
I jacked the car up (back wheels) and found that the inner tie rods were shot. After replacing the tie rod ends I had no more problem. Watch the Mineke people they have a habit of mis diagnosing problems on Fieros' Click back here time to time..no one know more about Fiero problems than a Fiero owner.

[craazy]

Well it seems that the actual problem is where the tie-rod attaches to the frame.........the bracket that it bolts to is broken away from the frame. So I think that I am going to purchase the bump-steer package and completely eliminate that bracket. Otherwise I have to buy a whole new sub-frame and that is a whole lotta work!

[RedFiero]

I replaced my rear cradle because the right rear frt portion(under the battery) was completly rotted. I got the cradle with control arms and lower balljoints for $100.00 from KickHill Farm in Lebanon Conn. Look at the condition of the frame and if it's poor...contact Bob Parker @ KickHill. He's got 75-100 frames out and ready to go !!

[Ragtop_Renegade]

Originally Posted by craazy

I called Meineke and they said it was a "Torque Spear", I have never heard of this before so are they blowing smoke?

What you mean is "torque steer" - this problem is real, and it's caused by the driveshafts not being of equal length. This is in fact a design flaw common to 80's cars, but.... it's only an issue with FWD where the steering wheels are driven!!! They really should be reminded that Fieros are rear driven cars! It's true that Fieros do have a bit of torque PULL, more so on manuals but also with autos (the long housing that houses the planetary gearsets makes up some of the extrta length on autos) that makes the rear end want to pull to one side, but not very much. It does amplify the effect of bad suspension components, as you've noticed. So to answer your question, yes, the condition is real (on FWD cars), and it's a non repairable design flaw, but they obviously know nothing about Fieros.