2004 caravan sxt pulling to the left

[homefree]

OK guy's here's a good one for you. Kinda long.

First question is. When you have a new rack installed is there like a neutral or a center spot in the rack for alinging it so that when you go down the road the power steering don't always try to correct it if it wasn't aligned correctly in the neutral or center spot???

I brought my van in to my dealer for some warranty work on the front end and they replaced the rack and both tie rod ends, they also had it aligned but now for some reason the van pulls hard to the left. Any ideas?

This is how it drives... OK I live in Northern Minnesota were the roads get slippery and when you are driving holding the steering wheel to the right to try and correct the pulling to the left and when you hit a slippery spot on the road the van will pull hard to the right until you get over that slippery spot, so it kind of feels like the van is dog walking down the road. I did follow the van one day in my car and it looks like it's going down the road straight..??
Now I have a friend that has a auto shop and I had him put it on his alignment rack and every thing checked ok.

This is what I've tried so far, checked the ball joints, 4 new tires and checked to see if the brakes were dragging and they weren't.
No obvious wearing problems with the new or old tires.

This is all the warranty stuff that’s been done to the van ever since I bought it.
New master cylinder
New back brakes and drums
Installed a power steering cooler
New plug wires
New power window motor
New sway bar bushings

Any Ideas?? Thanks for you're time, Dave

[Scrapper]

sounds like a tire pull i know you said you got new tires but you can get a bad one....is your sterring wheel strait across when driving?? also could be bent strut or because if it pulls it can only be toe out can make it pull,camber and caster are pulling angles and toe out....but if you try front switching tires right to left and it pulls the other way you got a bad new tire..or they never aligned it right..good luck....

scrapper...

[RIP]

The rack, as far as I know, is installed at a fixed point. There is no way to adjust it "to center it". Just put it in position, install the bolts, done.

Start the van, straighten the wheels, now watch the wheels closely as you turn off the van. If they move I would suspect the new rack has an internal problem.

You should have taken the van back to the dealer when you first noticed it and stood on somebodies desk till it was fixed. I would still try.

[homefree]

The steering wheel is straight across when going down the road.
I understand that the rack would just bolt up in the same spot as the other one but my question is, after the rack is installed is there a center spot were the power steering pump don't keep trying to correct the rack if it was out of adjustment? I'm thinking this maybe whats going on?? I'm going to try to change the tires around and give that a try. I'll keep everybody up dated. Thanks for you're help.

[doratheexplorer]

Originally Posted by homefree

I'm going to try to change the tires around and give that a try.

The engine placement may be mounted too far to the left.

Kind of an unusual problem since most mounts are done too far to the right and symptomatic of right steer pull.

[homefree]

I swaped the tires around and the pull is gone. I just can't beleave that new tires would do that! The van never shook like a tire was out of balance so I guess I never thought that it would have been the tires.

But thanks for the tip, it's some thing that I'll never forget next time I have this type of trouble.

[Scrapper]

ok good deal...now take the tire back that pulled and get a new one because your going to have troubles down the line with that tire they have to take it back if there brand new..