Cant find the Alignment/Steering problem on a 4ksq after a curb impact.

[Tyson Varosyan]

Car: '86 4KCSQ

Just bought the car last week. One of the existing issues was that the
previous owner ran the car into a curb last winter while going around a
corner. The steering wheel was not straight. In my previous experience, this
is a matter of a simple $50-60 trip to an alignment shop.

This time, I went to the shop (I HATE SHOPS, DO ALL THE WORK MYSELF WHEN I
CAN!). Asked for alignment, the guy took my key and told me to come back in
2 hours. Normally, I would NEVER leave my car at a shop like that, but this
time I really had to go, so I trusted them. I told the guy to call me and
leave the car on the lift if there are any problems so that he could show
them to me.

I get a call an hour later. "Yea we cant align your car, something is messed
up." I come to the shop, my car is in the lot already and the guy takes me
to some generic diagram of a front suspension system. He tells me that the
driver side wheel (where the impact was) is lose and wobbles around where
they cant get alignment on it... I says that it feels like something is
broken or lose at the top of the shock absorber. He said there is a mount in
there or something...

I have done brakes, pulled engines, rebuilt trannys, done clutch jobs,
exhaust headers, turbos and much other stuff on my cars. I have never messed
with any suspension components, so this is alien technology to me.

Luckily, I have a full non-running (fuel distributor shot) spare '85 4ksq
for parts. So I go home and jacked up the car to see what the hell he is
talking about. While jacking, I do notice the driver side wheel sag a bit
more than the passenger but shaking and moving things around seems pretty
solid to me. With the car lifted, the only movement I can feel is when I
lift up the wheel by hand, there is some considerable play with the whole
wheel assembly and the strut going up and down. This is true on both sides,
perhaps a bit more on the driver side, but I am not sure. This I think is
normal though, because the car is off the ground. Looking under the car,
under the hood etc, I don't see anything bent or out of whack, so I am
getting even more confused as to what the problem is.

Another symptom that I found is that the front tires are not toe adjusted at
all. While the passenger tire is straight, the driver side is taking a
noticeable left turn. This is leading to seriously messed up tire wear...

When I lowered my car, I could visually see the strut mount under the hood
move up about 1/4". This does not seem right, but both driver and passanger
side are doing it. Is this normal?

I began to take the strut assembly off of my donor car, and discovered the
absolutely retarded 1-nut system that this car has. All other cars I have
worked on, use a 2 or 3 bolt upper bracket. This thing wants a socket around
the nut and an Allen wrench in the center of it. Add a little rust and I am
stuck... Thing is currently soaking in WD40, not sure if I will be able to
break it lose...

However, having the new car up in the air, I cannot really see how a broken
bracket at the top of the shock could cause a problem like this... Any help
on the matter would be much appreciated.

Also, I have not got my hands on the Bentley Manual, I cannot seem to find
them anywhere and right now do not want to wait a week for one to ship. Is
there anyone that can take some scans of the pages on the front suspension?
It would be a great help.

Thanks,

Tyson Varosyan
Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
tyson at up-times.com
www.up-times.com
206-715-TECH (8324)

UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime