Sorry to ask here, but I figure someone has run into a similiar problem and can hopefully shed some light on my sitiation.

Okay guys I have done hundreds of alignments on all sorts of stock and lowered Hondas, and I've NEVER had a comeback for any pulling, steering wheel off, etc. except for once and it was easily fixed.

Well on my own car about a month ago I took a shrp turn and heard a "pop" from the left side of the car in the wheel area and since then the car has pulled funny.

I thought it might be the diff or rack, so I checked the rack for play and the diff for spec with a beam type torque wrench via the ITR service manual and it's fine.

I also replaced both axles and determined that not to be the problem. I took both axles completely apart and there was no triple tree inner joint damage like I thought there might have been.

I've been babying the car ever since and it exhibited a strange pull which seemed worse under acceleration.

So I bought new wheels and tires last week, but I wanted to align the car first. I also added SPC rear toe links for ease of rear toe adjustment and those pieces kick ***.

Anyways I'll get to the point.

I did the alignment on the Hunter machine that I've used a hundred times and the specs were all dead-on.

Front toe was at 0 per specs and the rear toe was set at .08 per specs being dead center.

Front camber was set at -.6 for both sides, and the rear was set at -1.1 and -1.

Well I drive the car and immediately notice it's pulling to the left. I put the car back on the alignment rack the next day and my left side toe is toe gone to **** at .33. The camber also moved out to -.2 from -.6.

So I reset the camber and make sure they it doesn't slip by torquing the bolts hard (Skunk2 upper A arms) and I even marked them to see if they slip.

I set the toe at 0 again and guess what?

The car still pulls to the left.

I cannot feel any play in the tie rod ends or upper or lower balljoints, so this is really pissing me off.

I've even checked the brakes for drag, and they are fine.

I am due to put my new wheels and Azenis on the car by the end of this week, but there's no way I want to shred the left front tire because of some strange toe problem.

What would cause one side of the front toe to not stay in spec?

TIA.

 

bushings? just have to start a checklist and go through process of elimination... only the left front is going out of spec?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GhettoRacer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bushings? just have to start a checklist and go through process of elimination... only the left front is going out of spec?
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all Energy Sus bushings. I should have mentioned that.

Yhe left front toe is out, and it will not stay. I don't notice anything funny when locking down the toe adjustment up front either. I thought maybe the locknut might be slipping, but it's on tight when I go to break it loose.

 

so after you set it to what you want, jump up and down on the susp to make sure it is settled, it will stay the same, but if u drive it around some it changes?! ball joints sometimes needs to be checked really closely to notice the wear. in remix my right front BJ has like 1/4" play and that causes my car to pull to one side. i need to replace it soon. i still tracked the car tho heheh, ran 2:14.x at thunderhill full track with "active suspension". 2:17.x @ buttonwillow #1 ccw.

 

Well at this point I guess i'll just have to play process of elimination.

I'll just start with brand new O.E Honda inner and outer tie rod ends for both sides and realign.

They cost me about $120.00 for all 4, and if that fixes it then great. If not then oh well, new tie rod ends couldn't hurt.

Before I go chipping away at this problem, anyone else have some insight from experience possibly?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C5-EH2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my left side toe is toe gone to **** at .33. The camber also moved out to -.2 from -.6.</TD></TR></TABLE>

it has to be a ball joint tom. if just the toe was changing, it could be a tie rod/rack issue, but you mentioned both toe and camber change. toe does not affect camber, wheras camber affect toe. in that case, it has to be a ball joint, most likely upper. do you have the old skunk balljoints (shiny, polished balljoint base) or the new (gunmetal balljoint base) ones? i had bad luck with the old style shiny ones, as they had a circlip holding the ball joint in place. the new ones are pressed in. worth a look. i highly doubt that chaging the tie rods will fix this

 

Maybe that's the "pop" I heard the eh?

Where did you get your replacement upper balljoints for the Skunk2 arms?

Hell this would solve that problem of being worried about the Skunk2 upper joints breaking like I've read about here on H-T too.

I'll double check to se which ones I have, but they're probably the old style ones seeing as how these were purchased well over a year ago.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C5-EH2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Where did you get your replacement upper balljoints for the Skunk2 arms?

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i bought mine from a local skunk2 distributor, but there was someone selling them a couple links down https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=585361 for $55 a set.

 

Did you not feel any looseness when prying on the upper joints though?

These *seem* tight whenever we tried to move the upper a-arms where the balljoints are.

Is it damaged such that I could not tell without taking the joints completely apart?