Re: Bad's steering

["Steven Stegmann" <s_stegmann@domain.elided>]

Dan,

I've had a couple situations that might help.  First inspect ball 
joints, tie rod ends, drag link, steering box, rag joint and the 
unversal joint in the steering shaft.  If there is play in any of these 
it *could* cause what you describe.  

Road conditions, amount & shape of crown, tilt of the lane you're in, 
wind, etc can cause mild pulling to one side or the other.  Since Scouts 
don't have any caster, they will react to these forces if there is some 
slop and you are not staying ahead of it.

If all is tight, then check the toe-in.  I had one car which had 3/8 
inch toe-out.  I found this out driving home from work on a highway with 
patchy ice.  When the left wheel was on ice the car darted right, when 
the right wheel was on ice it darted left.  It took 5 miles for me to 
figure out what was wrong.  I also had one other data point.  My from 
tires were wearing on the inside edges of both tires.  Alignment cured 
the problem.

Excessive toe-in would cause the same problem, except that the car would 
dart in the opposite direction.

Steve

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