5KTQ Torque steer?

[Bernard Littau]

> The rack has been replaced has have the front springs (lower) and struts
and
> control arms plus alignment.  The front tires are starting to show
slightly
> accelerated wear on their inner most treads.

Hi Mike,

When were all of these done?  Yesterday, or in the life of the car?  I don't
mean to be nasty, but people do have a habit of forgetting how long ago
something was replaced or done.  In 1998, I looked at a '86 5ktqw; the owner
touted a bunch of stuff as having been recently replaced.  From the service
records, much of it was done 1991-1993.  But I digress...

If you are wearing the inner treads, you must have an alignment problem.  I
would check the tie-rod ball joints for looseness.  You should also check
the front wheel bearings.  It is possible they are worn enough to cause the
behavior you are describing.

The torque steer you describe is what happens on a front wheel drive system.
I assume it occurs on the AWD as well.

In a rear wheel drive car, a front wheel is forced back from the pressure of
the tire moving down the road.  If something is loose, it generally shows
toe-out on a RWD.

On a FWD, when you are decelerating, the road pressure again forces the
wheel back.  When you accelerate, however, the wheel pulls the car, so the
wheel is forced forward.  A loose tie-rod, for instance, will be at one side
of the looseness on deceleration, and will shift to the other side of the
looseness on acceleration.

Since your car jerks to the left on acceleration, I would guess your right
hand side tie-rod has a worn loose ball joint.  On deceleration, your right
wheel would be slightly back, or toe-out, pulling to the right.  When you
accelerate, the wheel will shift forward, to a toe-in state, pulling to the
left.  Again, a worn bearing, on the right hand side, can exhibit this same
behavior.

Let me know what you find.  I love it when I guess correctly, and I learn
something when I guess wrong and someone on the list slaps me around for
being presumptive :-)

Best,

Bernard Littau
Woodinville, WA
'88 5ktq