Spider handling and steering questions!!!

["Timothy Andrews" <halogenbulb@domain.elided>]

This is a general response to some posters' questions about spider handling 
and vague steering.

I have owned 3 spiders so far, and they ALL exhibited an interesting 
occurrence.  It seems that about every 60K miles (this can be significantly 
less or more if it has sat a long time or driven excessivly hard 
respectively) ALL the suspension bushings, control arms and tie-rod ends 
need to be replaced in spiders.
    If you have a spider and it seems shaky at speed on the highway, the 
steering feels a bit vague or it just squeeks a lot then you need to replace 
these parts!

The tie-rod ends wear out over time and develope some slack in them which 
leads to a vague or loose steering feeling.  This feeling can also be 
increased by worn upper control arms and worn trailing arm bushings in the 
rear.   These parts when worn also make the car feel unstable at speed on 
the highway and actually make the car more suseptable to wind shakes at 
higher speeds.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you replace the upper control arms with some 
adjustable ones (I got a set at a very good price from Centerline parts in 
Boulder CO)!  You may also want to replace the rest of the bushings with 
polyurethane ones (available from Alfa Bill).  The polyurethane ones are a 
bit stiffer so you'll feel the road a bit more, but they will make your car 
a bit tighter and longer lasting as well.

Another point of interest,  if your steering wheel doesn't have any slop in 
it but just feels loose you can actually tighten the action by adjusting the 
screw (very carefully as a small bit of tightening produces a lot of 
results!!!) on the top of the steering box.  Do not do this if you just have 
slop because you will only be hiding a more serious problem, probably the 
tie-rod ends.

If your car exhibits these problems and you fix them, your car will feel 
like a brand new and incredibly tight car.

Tim Annett
1994 164 Q
Cincinnati

(1987 Spider Quadrifoglio Verde for Sale!  Email me at tim6@domain.elided!!)

Thanks!!  Sorry about the ranting . . .
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