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Took the car for a last thrash today, and while I know it is a 454 with injection and has a few horses it keeps catching me out - everytime I put my foot down the back pulls REALLY badly to the left.
I am going to to get it on a lift and look to see if anything is broken, I was wondering if this is a common issue or if anyone has come across this before and there is something I should be focusing on.
Took the car for a last thrash today, and while I know it is a 454 with injection and has a few horses it keeps catching me out - everytime I put my foot down the back pulls REALLY badly to the left.
I am going to to get it on a lift and look to see if anything is broken, I was wondering if this is a common issue or if anyone has come across this before and there is something I should be focusing on.
Thanks
Steve
check for a thrust angle
if it doesnt have one, perhaps align it so it has one in the OPPOSITE way its pulling
You really need to have someone that understands C4 suspension, the way it ties together, etc look at the car. From your prior posts someone put a 454 in it and did some other, in places, shall we say, not the best work. You need to look under the car, see what transmission is under there, if it has been tied to the rear correctly, which rear (D36/D44) is under there, if something is broken etc.
Everyone here can speculate, but you need some eyes on, to figure it out before it kills you or someone else. The fact that it is a non stock, a very non stock car demands you have someone that knows check it over.
I have a mechanic who has some experience of Corvettes putting it on a lift, I am getting the factory instructions next week so I can check all the tolerences... and as you said there has been some good work done and some rough work! when I removed the oversized scoop it turns out it was some type of glue used to secure(?) it the side that was broken away was still soft (unset!) and it was only held on by filler!
There have been a few other little things that were rough but easy to fix (wiring mainly - and that is my grown up job during the day)..
The car is coming off the road for winter and I will remedy this issue - as you say before it harms anybody...
Just looking to find out if there is a common problem to look for and repair before I get it alligned.
I wasn't trying to be a d-bag saying what I did. If you look at the design of the C4 rear suspension, there are lots of parts that can wear out, break, be on the verge of breaking, be bent, be assembled not the best, be loose.
There are bushings that can get hard.
Here is a good place to start. Notice there are 3 parts. Read through looking at what they are doing and you will be able to see all the places that need to be checked before just doing an alignment
Sight from the rear on the outer edge of the rear tires and measure the distance this imaginary line is from the front tire on each side. This distance should be the same. Use a toe gauge to measure the toe. It's not hard to do. Just have to think about it.
In my experience, when a C4 pulls only when on the throttle and then returns to straight-ahead when you let off the gas, it's caused by a bad halfshaft U-joint. On a C4, that halfshaft serves double duty as your upper lateral control arm. When a joint in it goes bad, it typically gets cockeyed when on the gas and you effectively change camber and toe because the "upper arm" gets shorter. Then you let off the gas and it unwinds and goes back to the correct length again. I wouldn't drive anymore until you check and fix it. If that U-joint fails all the way your rear wheel could flop around and do damage. Even if it doesn't, if the needle bearing cup on one pole of the U-joint fails completely, it could tear up that hole in your fancy aluminum yoke, and you'll have to replace the whole shaft.
I bought some extra C5 Z06 wheels off Craigslist to put dedicated autocross tires on. They had mismatched (same size different brand and age) tires on the rear ones. Being a cheap bastard I decided to run the miles out of them just driving back and forth to work. Whoa! Big mistake, car is dangerous under hard acceleration. I know this is Captain Obvious stuff, but how are you tires?
I bought some extra C5 Z06 wheels off Craigslist to put dedicated autocross tires on. They had mismatched (same size different brand and age) tires on the rear ones. Being a cheap bastard I decided to run the miles out of them just driving back and forth to work. Whoa! Big mistake, car is dangerous under hard acceleration. I know this is Captain Obvious stuff, but how are you tires?
I used to race with M&H Racemasters. Put a new set on the car and headed out to the track. Every launch, the car was going right. Measured the tires and the circumference was different by almost an inch.
I used to race with M&H Racemasters. Put a new set on the car and headed out to the track. Every launch, the car was going right. Measured the tires and the circumference was different by almost an inch.
Race masters, maybe. Measurement masters? Not so much... Damn!
Last edited by MatthewMiller; Nov 24, 2020 at 04:47 PM.
Check your suspension bushes, they can get real bad especially the inner strut rod bushes.
they are mainly hidden , you won't know the condition unless to remove the strut rod.
The dog bone bushes don't wear much, I got 170,000 miles on my C4, the strut rod bushes were terrible in pieces. The dog bone bushes could have gone many thousand more miles.
With good bushes and alignment your corvette should not pull one way on acceleration, should go dead straight. My 85 does.
When I get hard tire spin, the tail slides out to the right and the car goes hard left.
My prior '88, with a good shift kit, always wagged the tail (quick right wag) on even a moderate 1-2 upshift, on GY Eagle all seasons.
Loved it and it wasn't an issue at those speeds.
Since yours wags left it could well be a mechanical issue.
Of course some very sticky tires might help.
Hi All, thanks for the replies. Everything looks ok BUT I am going to change all the rear bushes and get it re tracked when the snow has gone!
Steve
You know you can't buy new rubber bushings, right? And I recommend against using regular poly bushings (like Energy Suspension, Prothane, etc). I think most people's best bet is the SuperPro bushings, which are a softer type of urethane shouldn't cause worse bind than stock rubber. But we should know more about your engine and drivetrain, first. By 454 do you mean it's BBC shoehorned in there? How much real power is it making? If it's really a bunch (like 600hp or more) you might want to look at links with spherical bearings, like Banski or After Dark Speed.
Yup this is a big block crammed in there - headers, fuel injection and very little room!
I have already picked up SuperPro bushes once I get them fitted I will get it re-tracked, I will look into the spherical bearings! Thanks for the info...
C4 Pulling to left on acceleration
