Chevy & GMC Vans

Hey guys, got some questions about the lock on Ol' Stinky.

It's a 1993 2wd EXT. On full right lock, it'll pull the wheels right round 'till the tire touches the sway bar, but on left lock I get like one turn of the steering wheel and the rod end touches the A arm.
It also seems to really scrub the tyres on full lock. The passenger side upright assy. where the track rod end fixes seems to point in towards the centre of the van more than the driver's side?

I'm sure this isn't normal !!

Cheers

Neil

Anybody? ......Any ideas?

Are there differences in the uprights on different years? The passenger side definately curves inwards more than the driver side does.
Took a couple of pics so you can hopefully see what I'm babbling about....
You can see the mark on the passenger side wishbone where the rod end is touching on full lock and the mark on the sway bar on the driver side where the tire touches on the other lock.

Passenger Side:


Driver Side:


Any help would be greatly appreciated....

I don't know of any differences but then again I am not familiar with the older vans. Looks like the passenger side was either bent in somehow or the knuckle was swapped. We'll have to wait for others to chime in.

The only differences I can think of would be that the newer knuckle might be set up for wheel speed sensors for ABS? Other than that I bet they're the same between the early 2WD vans. You could go down to the dealer and ask the parts department to look up part numbers for a couple of old vans. That should tell you.

Either way I agree with Lifted, something is either bent or waaaaayyyy out of alignment for one side to run the tire into the sway bar and the other to run the tie rod into the control arm.

Is the camber out of whack, or Is the camera just tilted?

From the pictures it definitely looks like the tierod and steering knuckle are bent.

Would the knuckle bend? It looks like a cast piece, I thought it would just break if it had been whacked that hard.

timelessbeing wrote:Is the camber out of whack, or Is the camera just tilted?

She does have a bit of negative camber, but not much, I figured it was normal.

6spd_monte wrote: You could go down to the dealer and ask the parts department to look up part numbers for a couple of old vans. That should tell you.

Unfortunately, we don't have any dealers over here....

Why would negative camber be normal when they could be straght? It means things are not aligned. At least your tires will wear more evenly.

Yes, the steering knuckle can bend. It's not a casting. It's a forging.

Didn't know it was forged. Trying to work out how it would have got bent. Must have had a serious whack with a previous set of wheels on otherwise I would notice the square wheel on that side.
There's a guy breaking one the same year as mine with a fried engine a couple of hours from me, I'm going to go take a look, maybe pull the whole front clip out of it.
I'm trying to get the whole van if i can. It'll make things a lot easier in the long run.

Can you get a couple more pics of the steering linkage? Something doesnt look right onthe passenger side tie-rod.. Maybe its just the picture, but the inner joint looks too close to the control arm.. Is that where you mean its hitting?

Scott