steering travel

[QSM1994]

Is it just my 72 opel gt or do most have a tendency for the steering to following what ever change in the surface of the road there is pretty much at any speed.definitely keeps me on edge when driving . Front suspension seems fairly tight otherwise, what is the fix if any.

[Aardvaark]

If I understand what your describing, it's known as "tramlining" when the tires tend to follow ridges and lines in the road that run parallel to the road.
Tires are usually the culprit in that wider then stock tend to do this more, but it's not always the case. Most better tires have this undesirable tendency designed out of them. So, if you have wide, off brand tires, it's more likely they were put on the market with price as a major concern. A switch to
tires known not to do this would be my suggestion.
The term originates from the trolley(tram) tracks that used to go down the center of many streets and the old bias tires would tend to follow
the tracks and would be hard to steer out of them.
As I said. It can still be a problem with wider and cheaper tires.

Wikipedia (Links)

Tramlining

[SpringGT]

Originally Posted by QSM1994 Is it just my 72 opel gt or do most have a tendency for the steering to following what ever change in the surface of the road there is pretty much at any speed.definitely keeps me on edge when driving . Front suspension seems fairly tight otherwise, what is the fix if any.

One of the things that I really liked about my GT when it was new was how well it held the road compared to other cars of the day, so roadwalking is not a natural feature of these cars. Since the road is controlling your car, I'd check a number of things:
1.) Look for wear/slack in the steering shaft joints, the steering rack, the inner and outer tie rod ends, ball joints and suspension bushings.
2.) Check to see that your wheel offset has not been radically altered, such that the tire no longer pivots on the proper point, but swings in an arc outside the normal pivot point.
3.) Overly wide front tires can sometimes magnify the forces that road imperfections exert on steering.
4.) Make sure that alignment, caster and camber are within specs.

Do the alignment after you have checked everything else, as it won't help much if other things are still amiss.
HTH
Bob

[Paul]

A "Toe-Out" condition will cause this as well.

[QSM1994]

For now i'm inclined to go with Aardvaark, i bought the car about 3 months ago with obviously wider tires than factory (not sure what factory actually is) on all 4 corners. Never guess, the guy that owned it for 17 yrs was a euro mechanic.

Thanks for the help.

north of the border.

[trlmr]

Of course, check the toe, tires, etc..... But caster has the greatest effect on the tendency of the wheels to return to a center line track when the steering wheel is released. Positive caster increases this tendency (king pin angle tilted back) negative caster decreases this tendency (king pin angle more vertical or tilted forward). positive also increases the effort it takes to steer. you might want to take a peek at your suspension and see how the washers are placed on you top a-arm. Just a thought.


Tom.

[P.J. Romano]

The tramlining effect is very intense when the aftermarket rims with a high positive offset (ET 35 or more) are installed on the GT. Check your rims if the P.O. replaced the original ones, they might be from the FWD car.