car pulls to the left hard November 26, 2009, 11:34:46 PM Ok, here's a trivia question. Starting from a dead stop, no hands on the wheel, put in drive, wheel pulls to the left. Stop, put in reverse, wheel pulls back to the right. Repeat several times. Forward=left, reverse=right. What would be the cause? Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #1 – November 27, 2009, 12:25:31 AM A wheel alignment being out of whack for one.Hit a curb recently? Maybe have a tire worn unevenly on the inside or outside? Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #2 – November 27, 2009, 12:29:28 AM even wear, though they're pretty old. I'll criss cross them tomorrow to see if it pulls the other way. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #3 – November 27, 2009, 12:51:26 AM If it's an alignment issue I sincerely doubt criss-crossing the tires will do anything, but some people have had good results from it. I'm not one of them.....How's the front end mechanically? Bushings and tie rod ends and whatnot? Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #4 – November 27, 2009, 01:02:38 AM seems solid. Used to jerk the wheel side to side before I moved the rear wheel to the front and vice versa. Only balanced the one tire that ended up on the rear to save money. Ever since then it didn't jerk, just pulled. That was before I left for deer season 2 weeks ago. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #5 – November 27, 2009, 01:49:12 AM sound like a bad tire. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #6 – November 27, 2009, 03:30:51 PM Quote from: rancheronut;300309sound like a bad tire.Bingo! Swapping tires on each side caused the pull to go the other way. A simple test to see if it's wheels/tires or suspension/steering. Like I said, the tires were old. You can estimate the cause of a problem by swapping tires around. I'm sure everyone on this site is more capable than the average joe, but figured I'd share the wife's dilemma with everyone anyway.What I did was installed new brakes and rotated the tires front to back before leaving for deer camp. I come home and she told me about the pull, but said she's used to it. Well, she don't like driving in the dark, and leaving home from my parent's for Thanksgiving, I realized what kind of pull she was talking about. I wouldn't say it's something you want to get used to, lol. So I said we need to fix this. We seldom ever drive each other's vehicles. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #7 – November 27, 2009, 06:35:12 PM I'm betting it's probably massive tread belt separation.Happened to the Caprice a year ago, made it pull horribly bad to one side. The whole tread looked like a Top Fuel dragster's tire when at at full throttle. It was ballooned out the whole cirspoogeference of the tire. Took me less time than it takes to tell it to deflate the thing before it blew out on me. Oh well, needed new fronts on it anyway lol.Hope it's an easy fix for you as well. :D Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #8 – November 27, 2009, 07:08:42 PM Like I said I personally have never seen any change from doing that. I swap tires earlier than the average person though. Glad it worked out for you Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #9 – November 28, 2009, 10:42:19 AM I'm sure you checked the air pressure. sometimes it's the simple things. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #10 – November 28, 2009, 06:01:57 PM Quote from: FordTruckFreeek;300347I'm betting it's probably massive tread belt separation.Happened to the Caprice a year ago, made it pull horribly bad to one side. The whole tread looked like a Top Fuel dragster's tire when at at full throttle. It was ballooned out the whole cirspoogeference of the tire. Took me less time than it takes to tell it to deflate the thing before it blew out on me. Oh well, needed new fronts on it anyway lol.Hope it's an easy fix for you as well. :DI would much rather blow a rear on these cars. I have blown 3 rears now, and I can't even tell when they blow. Last week I was driving on the freeway in some snow, blew a tire. I thought I was just lightly fishtailing. Didn't make any weird noise till I tried to hit the break.Just got my full set of new tires on the car, and it is a night and day difference. I think it may be something I have to do from now one. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #11 – November 29, 2009, 12:07:28 AM Quote from: Kitz Kat;300417I'm sure you checked the air pressure. sometimes it's the simple things.I did, and ironically the tire with the slow leak was on the opposite side of the pull. Looking closer, you can see a slight "ripple" on the side wall in one spot about 4" long.I've blown tires before, and lucky for me it's always been on the back, except one time the entire wheel came off my '78 Bronco and ground down the rotor an inch and a half, lol. I kept it to hang on the wall someday. I was going 65 mph, too. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #12 – November 30, 2009, 07:08:57 AM I'd bet that tire is about to go...If you ever get any "bubbles" or ripples or dry rotting, its time to look for a new tire. Better safe then sorry. Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #13 – November 30, 2009, 07:52:54 AM Agreed. We're budgeting for a new set right now. AKA card. :( Quote Selected
car pulls to the left hard Reply #14 – November 30, 2009, 06:01:39 PM You could always do what I did, don't drive on the freeway. Sucks when you drive 100 miles or so a day. Quote Selected
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