85 760 Turbo wandering in corners (help)

May 03, 2005 7 Replies

my 85 760 turbo has had, new tyres, new strut inserts, disks machined, bearings re-packed and a wheel alignment. All in an effort to cure unstable high speed driving, it has worked. But now it has (and may have always but hard to detect with other loose elements in the front end) a tendency to wander whilst in the midst of left hand bend in the road. After the previous work it did seem to tighten up and there doesn't seem to be any play in the system.



Is it possible that the wheel alignment, wasn't and something has been missed by my mechanic? Does this sound like too much toe out?



Thanks.


You don't mention anything about bushings, but assuming they're ok, then your alignment or one of the new strut inserts is suspect. And problems could exist in the rear suspension too.

I just bought a 92 960 with 180K miles on it, and it handles poorly in corners. In discussing the problem with a Volvo mechanic, he recommended that I plan on replacing (among other things that you've already dealt with on your rig) the control arm strut bushings. This is the little strut on the control arm that positions your wheel fore and aft. He told me to do this test: Have someone drive the car at walking speed, and walk along beside it, watching the front tire. Have the driver hit the brakes suddenly. He said that if those bushings are worn, you'll be able to see the front tires move back as the brakes are applied. I'll go ahead and do the controll arm bushings, the ball joints, and all the sway bar bushings while I have mine apart.

Cheers, Walt

How're the bushings in the torque rods in the rear of the car? Mine are getting really sloppy and the car has some weird handling characteristics, I was checking everything in the front end when I noticed just how visibly bad the torque rod bearings are, feels like a front end problem but it's the rear axel alignment changing.

Thanks

I will give this a try....

I just hope my wife doesn't run me over doing it

Paul

Is there a simple test rear end problems or just visual

Well if they're really bad you can see it, otherwise if they've never been replaced and the car has over 100k on it, you may as well replace them.

This item ( strut arm bushings) can also make it seem like a brake problem, I found out.

When I brought my old 84 760T in for clicking/clunking noises from the brakes, a local chain store mechanic/screw artist informed me that both rotors, calipers, pads, etc. needed to be replaced at over

800$....

when I jumped away quickly to someone else for a second opinion, it was merely those bushings, which were under 200$ for the pair, rather than over 800$ for a non-essential brake job deluxe.

I would have been really really pissed had I paid the first clowns that kind of money, only to have the same problems afterwards!

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