Gary Gilbert
Member
Hi guy's,
Been a while... my wife and I are in Patagonia now after over 1000 days on the road and after many thousand kms on dirt and gravel we have been driving on paved roads for long stretches at which point I noticed this strange behavior. I am pretty sure I know what it is but figured a 2nd, 3rd or 20th opinion couldn't hurt.
The problem: on a straightaway driving at about 90 I take my foot off the peddle and the landy suddenly pulls to the left I correct and when I once again press the accelerator it pulls right. I repeated this a few times and also tried with the clutch simultaneously dropping into neutral without it pulling so strongly..
I inspected the mounting bushing on the front and rear links and notice one of the rear rubber mounts (stc618) had micro cracks and was severely compressed when comparing it to the other side (both are only 2 months old!) Almost 1cm difference, meaning on one side of the vehicle the axel was 1 cm shorter or more forward than the other... I can imagine at 90km that a sudden change of 1cm toward the front or rear could cause this steering behavior? There is also a dull clunk or thudding noise when depressing the accelerator or taking my foot oof of it as well as when changing gears which I assume is the play in the bush and or in the diff/drive members (which are also relatively new 20k kms)
And just for those witty guys no, it's not the famed Patagonian wind blowing in from the west.. I even turned around and did my driving test and it still pulled the same direction
I've already started looking for new bushings but should I not be able to get any could I have a replacement set made from polyurethane if I found someone willing or capable? Any advice in this direction would also be helpful.. it's a bit disconcerting to have to wrestle with the steering wheel at 90 kms to keep it going straight should I have to break suddenly.
Oh and in case it's not what I think I would be very grateful for your input.
Thanks in advance!
Gary
Been a while... my wife and I are in Patagonia now after over 1000 days on the road and after many thousand kms on dirt and gravel we have been driving on paved roads for long stretches at which point I noticed this strange behavior. I am pretty sure I know what it is but figured a 2nd, 3rd or 20th opinion couldn't hurt.
The problem: on a straightaway driving at about 90 I take my foot off the peddle and the landy suddenly pulls to the left I correct and when I once again press the accelerator it pulls right. I repeated this a few times and also tried with the clutch simultaneously dropping into neutral without it pulling so strongly..
I inspected the mounting bushing on the front and rear links and notice one of the rear rubber mounts (stc618) had micro cracks and was severely compressed when comparing it to the other side (both are only 2 months old!) Almost 1cm difference, meaning on one side of the vehicle the axel was 1 cm shorter or more forward than the other... I can imagine at 90km that a sudden change of 1cm toward the front or rear could cause this steering behavior? There is also a dull clunk or thudding noise when depressing the accelerator or taking my foot oof of it as well as when changing gears which I assume is the play in the bush and or in the diff/drive members (which are also relatively new 20k kms)
And just for those witty guys no, it's not the famed Patagonian wind blowing in from the west.. I even turned around and did my driving test and it still pulled the same direction
I've already started looking for new bushings but should I not be able to get any could I have a replacement set made from polyurethane if I found someone willing or capable? Any advice in this direction would also be helpful.. it's a bit disconcerting to have to wrestle with the steering wheel at 90 kms to keep it going straight should I have to break suddenly.
Oh and in case it's not what I think I would be very grateful for your input.
Thanks in advance!
Gary
Axel bushing
