Handling - Won't keep straight!

[Campervanman]

Hi all.

I'm after some advice about my buses handling at speed.

Finally picked it up from the mechanic after being awarded it's MOT and was told that he had a lot of trouble trying to free up the steering to get it through the MOT. Stiff ball joints etc.

So I finally make my first trip home after the two year resto only to find it pulling left and right quite sharply at speed and really struggling to keep it straight. Only got a couple of miles up the road and now I'm put off driving it. I have asked a friend to look at it tomorrow if I can summon up the courage to drive it there.

Could it be the tracking or something more sinister? Any thoughts might help my friend tomorrow.

Oh, had the door mirror fall off too! Nice to see the aftermarket parts are up to the job :x

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a holiday planned in the bus starting next week and really want to take the bus.

Thanks all.

Alasdair

 

[Paul Weeding]

Have you had new ball joints fitted??

The suppliers are now supplying oversized ones as standard to combat worn trailing arms! Worn due to ball joints being pressed in and out over the life of the vehicle...

Unfortunately this now means that there are quite a few people who have excessively tight joints due to the ones on their vans either never being changed, or only being changed a couple of times in the vehicles life up to present!!

It will get better.. you just need to clock up 500 to 1000 miles on your van to loosen them off

 

[Campervanman]

Thanks for the reply Paul.

They were stiff, so it just needs running then. Can I do anything to reduce the weaving left and right at speed (well VW speed of 30 plus!) or is it just a case of gently does it for the first 500 miles or so?

Regards.

Alasdair

 

[Dirty Harry]

I fitted new febi bilstein ball joints 3 years ago, it was very dangerous to drive now they are a little bit better but still to stiff, i even got some grease nipples fitted but with very little result!
Found some NOS ball joints so the upper shite febis are going to get binned very soon.
Try to move a ball joint out of the box of any make with your bare hands..... you just can't!!!!
With the NOS ones, no problem!!!
Search thesamba for stiff ball joints

 

[Campervanman]

Thanks for the suggestion of NOS ball joints. Can anyone suggest where I can possibly pick some up?

 

[Dirty Harry]

Thanks for the suggestion of NOS ball joints. Can anyone suggest where I can possibly pick some up?

Very hard to find, took me 3 years!

 

[68_early_bay]

Wow this isn't filling me with confidence about changing mine this winter :lol:

 

[ozziedog]

One other thing that may be worth a look at, if anyone has overtightened the adjustment on the steering box, could have similar effects. Is your bus stock height etc etc ?? And have you checked your steering box for oil or steering lube, it is possible to have all leaked out if it hasn`t been used too much, and lastly have you checked your tyres for condition and air pressure as that is often overlooked, if none of the above then it`s back to ball joints I`m afraid.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,, It is put back together correctly right ????

 

[Trikky2]

The way to diagnose the problem is to jack up the front and turn the steering looking for tight spots. If the tight spot is in the straight ahead position then the first thing to check is the steering box adjustment.

If still not sure then pop the track rod end joints off and check each wheels movement individually, which will show up any problem with ball joints.

If all of that checks out then it may be the idler.