HI
when the wheather started to get cold my pickup started pulling to the left making the steering wheel cocked off to the right to correct for it. Is this normal for a Dodge to do? My thoughts were that it is happening because the left side is what turns the spider gears and since it is cold the 90w in the pumpkin is thick therefore making it harder to turn the spider gears, making it pull to the left, and making the steering wheel have to be cocked off to the right to keep a straight line. Is this a reasonable thought or not? I have looked at the tires and there is no cupping so it is not out of alignment, track bar and tierod ends are all good, what could it be? do they just do this when it gets cold?

 

Have you checked the air pressures in the tires to see that they are equal?

 

When my trackbar wore out it pulled to the left.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but will a worn trackbar affect tire wear? My right front is wearing on the outside and it pulled to the right, yet when I took it in for a alignment it was off only a very small amount. My steering feels good, no DW or wandering.

 

Usually outer wear is toe-in. / \ <--- top view

or positive camber \ / <-- front view

or perhaps a little of both.

 

If you have a dial indicator and a mag base, check all the joints in the steering from the tie-rod end to the arm to the steering box. A little in every joint adds up to alot on each end of the front steering. I have replaced 95% of the joints and set the alignment manually by watching tire wear. Castor and Chamber adjusments require alot of force to mess up, its usually wear to the steering components.

 

Lil Dog, thanks for the reply, but when you say "check all joints...." am I checking for play, movement or what? I assume that if there is any play in the system, then the items are worn.

 

Thats the problem, I don't know what tolerance to go with on the joints.. I put the front end on a jack, one side at a time, and used some umph on the tire to pull and push on the steering system. I usually got less than about 0.008" movement, which isn't even visible.. A few joints were over 0.010 or 0.015, so I replaced them. Seemed to work.. Talking to steering shops they are subjective on what "worn" is and just bulk replace things until they get repeatable alignment specs...

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot, can't hurt. You would think that the alignment shop would have done something like this, but they probably just set the specs and let it go at that. I did specifically ask the shop to look at the right front. The old saying comes to mind....... if you want to do the job right, you gotta do it yourself.

 

Could your caliper be sticking or a bad rotor? I had a pull to right and my front right tire was wearing out new tires in a couple of months. Went to a frame alignment shop and truck was in alignment..barely. The front end guy said the spec is so wide that it could be in alignment but still have problems.

They replaced an offset cylinder in the right front knuckle to proovide more negative camber on the right and it fixed my problem. I was still fighting "death wobble" at the time and after but the right tire wear was gone.

Here are the alignment spec's the shop took before and after the camber change:

Before:
Camber: Left= +0.0 deg Right=+0.2 deg
Caster: Left= +3.5 Right=+4.2
Toe: Left=+1/16" Right=+2/16"

After:
Camber: Left=+0.0 deg Right= -0.5 deg
Caster: Left= +3.5 Right=+4.1
Toe: Left=+0/16" Right=+0/16"

They said some year Dodge's have the offset adjustment and some don't.

 

Also check your ball joints in the knuckle, my friend had some loose ones on his old chevy and he was wearing hard on the outside of the tire.

 

So does anybody have any other suggestions about my problem? it is really starting to get annoying and i would like to get it fixed if infact it is a problem.

 

Anyone...?!?!?!?

 

Sounds funny, but check your rear brakes... One of mine hung up on me and it started pulling hard to the right. The right adjuster was siezed up and made the right rear drag. Just a thought..

 

I will look into it, I already checked my rear brakes and the drums came off easily but who knows i could have overlooked something! Thanks for all the input!