foxbody4

well i recently bought an 88gt in great condition and put over 6000 in the engine and supsension. i replaced everything in the supspension that i could - all bushings, front/rear shocks,eibach lowering springs, adjustable lower rear control arms that i think im going to replace, new power steering pump and rack. the problem i have is the steering is absolutely crap, i mean it was loose and old before but now it is to a point where it is dangerous to drive. first, when centered the turning radius travels too far to the left where the wheels rubs the a arm and not enough to the right; then it sometimes pulls the to right and the rest of the time it is just all over the road and when in a turn you cant keep the wheel held still and you have to constantly correct it or you will go off the road. i've put two new(recondition from advanced) power steering racks on and the problem persits....... you know its really discouraging when you spend that much money on a car and it doesnt ever seem to be finshed.....does anyone have any ideas

nmerrill

yet another double post.... well at least this is a free bump for ya

93 LX FiveO

couple of things to think about....

-offset bushings
-alignment
-steering arm, shaft, and joints
-bad tires
-pump

samseed101

Have you checked / replaced the tie rods? I didn't see that on your list and that would cause steering issues if they are bad.

mattdel

you need to replace your steering rack bushings with an offset design, they must be ordered to the I.D. specs of the original bushing. Pg 189 of the Mustangs Unlimited catalog contains what you need.

foxbody4

ya, new rack came with tie rods and new bushings, also i for i bought new ball joints and wheel bearings

foxbody4

why would i need offset bushing if i didnt have them before , they woudlnt help anyway the difference in turning radius im talking about ,it's extreme, there is a few inches difference in thread lenght of tie rods to get the steering centered...it makes no sense and no one seems to know why

mattdel

doesn't matter about the new bushings. your lowering kit screwed up your geometry and you need to offset the rack to bring it down where it should be. 10 degrees change will render a steering column almost useless. that kit is specifically for lowered mustangs.

mattdel

ohhhhhhh you know what
i ran into this at my shop once. some guy replaced his own steering box or something and he put his pitman arm on way wrong. if your tie rods are adjusted way off, i'd bet thats what it is. pull your pitman arm off, recenter the wheels and tie rods as best you can with your eye, then reinstall the pitman arm. voila.

mattdel

the outer tie rods generally should be turned 17-25 whole turns from the beginning of the first thread, dependant upon the car.