'62 T-bird poor handling

5

57jake

Junior Member
My '62 T-bird has new tires, all the front suspension parts are tight and look to be in good condition. When I drive down a straight road the car wanders a bit. When I turn left, like to pass another car, it wants to kind off lock into the turn. The right front will dive down. When I straighten up the wheel and turn right it does the same thing, and the left front will dive down. It's very scary to drive and I don't know what to do about it.

Lyle
 
does the front sway bar (anti roll bar) look to be in good cond,
and is it hooked up correctly on both sides ?









.
 
It sounds exactly like what mine was doing! The inner lower control arm bushings are shot. Common failure item, readily available, easy to replace and then do an alignment.
 
Another place to look is a frozen lower ball joint. Remove the tie rod end where it bolts to the spindle and make sure the wheels turn freely in the ball joints.
 
I think I found my problem. I replaced the sway bar with a 1 1/8" bar several years ago, and it's in good condition.
I removed the tie rod ends. They and the ball joints move freely with no play and are in good condition. The bushing are all in good condition. Thinking know It's an alignment problem I installed the wheels.

While turning the wheels I noticed the inside of the tire was rubbing on the lower A arm. I never noticed this before.

I just bought new tires. 215/75/R14. The old tires were 205/75/R14 that I never had a problem with. So the new tires are wider then the old ones.

The wheels that I have now are probably the original wheels for bias tires. The offset is 3 1/2". What should the offset be for radials? So now I need to by new wheels or should I buy wheel spacers for the front. Would 1/2" spacers work?

Lyle
 
The steering box will limit how far the wheels turn. With the tie rods unhooked you don't have that limit so it's possible for them to rub and you normally don't turn them to the extreme ends whils passing a car. If you haven't had an alignment done, do so. You may have difficulty finding a shop familiar with the older style suspension systems. Don't expect these older cars to handle the same as the newer cars do. They'll all roll over a bit when turning.
 
The inner lower conrol arm bushing can not be checked out with the wheels off the ground. The car needs to be on a lift or an alignment table so the load is on the upper ball joint. A large pry bar can check for wear, an alignment shop can tell you right now if there is a problem. Your wheels should be OK, I put radials on mine, no issues what ever. Improved the ride and drivability greatly.
 
215/75R14 is the closest metric-sized radial match to the original 800x14 bias-ply tires, so these should not be the issue. I strongly suspect your steering gear box may be in need of attention - suddenly pulling to one side is a symptom of a nicked or scored piston/seal, which '61-'62s are know for all the way back to when new. There are several discussions related to the steering gear boxes on '61-'62 'Birds on the Vintage Thunderbird Club International's message board at www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net you may want to check out. This is nothing to DIY or fool around with - boxes should be professionally rebuilt. T-bird parts houses can supply a rebuilt box on an exchange basis, or you can go direct to a rebuilder such as Lares (sp?) in Minnesota, for instance.
 
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