brandons94lt1

Ok so here's the deal, where I formerly worked, they had a policy that under no circumstances were you able to work on your own car. Not even change the oil, so I was very busy and had a bunch of upgrades I wanted to get done on my firebird. So I paid a guy that was supposed to be a reputable mechanic to do the work instead. Well long story short, everything he touched is having to be redone, and he even screwed up stuff he didn't work on, I suspect to try to get me to keep coming back, or he's just a bigger idiot than I previously thought. So one of the mods he did was the install of my adj lower control arms, and the adj panhard rod. Well if I had done the install I would've don't the control arms 1 @ a time, and adjusted the new ones to the same lenght as the stock unit, center hole to center of hole. Idk if he did, and my rearend feels to me like the passenger side is back farther than the drivers side, ok next up, the car is lowered(eibach pro kit) so when installing the panhard rod I would've shortened the adj unit half an inch, connected it and lowered the car for the suspension to compress and find out where it was in relation to actual center by putting a piece of tape dead center of the car, the checking to find the actual center of the rearend, adjust as necessary. So since I'm sure that the rearend is misaligned on both of these adjustments, how should I go about finding the true center again? I don't want to kill my u joints and driveline, or drive down the street dog walking. Thanx, all help appreciated.


Update: I got an idea after using what more or less can be described as a poor mans ride height check, and using a laser level for hanging things straight on ur wall(the one that projects the line around corners) and more or less weight that is balanced and hung from dead center with a point on the end, I found that my car had the rearend pushed left close to 2 inches, and the chassis had a bunch of preload on it in the rearend. So I put the car up, let the rearend hang, but still somewhat supported by a jack, shortened the panhard rod, after unbolting the diff mounted side, by about 3/4 in, used my leg to push the rearend to the right by pushing on the pass side wheel from underneath(had it supported with stands not just a jack) and bolted it up. Droped the car and it's nearly perfectly centered. A lot of vibration has gone away, the cars rebound problems are gone(this had to be due to the preload on the rearend from being too far to the left) and I found that some of my canister lines were unattached from dryrott so I fixed those while I had it up.. I also checked the length of the adj lca's and they're both @ the same length, but I'm not sure that necessarily makes the rearend square, that's tonights project, so wish me luck.

Injuneer

You could have a shop check the rear alignment for thrust angle. You could pull the LCA's and measure them to insure they are both the same length. Then there's the issue, if you have welded LCA brackets, of whether he positioned them carefully around the stock brackets. You could measure from the axle wheel flanges to a fixed symetrical point on the chassis (subframes?), on both sides to make sure the measurements are identical.

brandons94lt1

Man I think I need u on speed dial, ok that makes great sense. Oh the brackets should be stock, as the lower control arms are stock location, but here's another issue, the lca's are of the race variety and don't have the poly bushings, infact they are metal to metal, the car was never supposed to get driven as much as it is now(tranny in monte carlo is going out) and I drove the bird tonight, nicely, and I didn't hear any thing other than the normal vibration and sound transfer through the car, but the car has a very uneasy feeling, unstable. It kinda feels like the rearend might be changing geometry. It's way late but I have to get out there and try to find out if that's indeed the case. Don't want to head to class and be in a hurry and lose the rearend @ 80. It could be an adjustment got lose, the nut or something. I'm hopin it's not a busted bracket @ the rearend or something. Think I'm gonna replace the adj lca's with a street set with more manners. But man the guy I had work on the car has messed a lot of stuff up. It makes the car seem like a pile, but I know it's not the car or the way I treat it, cause I don't rod the crap out of it. But it's the idiot that worked on it. Oh as far as the rearend, I haven't hit, or ran over anything. I stay away from pot holes @ all costs, big bumps of any kind. Chassis is very stiff from the mods done to it. Now my only thing is I habe to find a shop that I can trust. That's easier said than done down here. Lots of lazy rip off artists from what I have seen and heard. Any further input would be greatly appreciated, and I'll let u know if I find anything in the rearend. Hope I find the problem before something gets busted or let's go.

brandons94lt1

Ok, well I started by simply finding the center point of the car, the panhard rod does need to be shortened, the rearend is not centered, it's like approx 1.5 inches to the left. But yet another problem, the car has all of a sudden started to feel like it's got rear steer. The adj lca's are spherical, no bushings to speak of, just metal and the have grease fittings, the torque arm has a new bushing too, it's the only part of my rearend assembly that's non adjustable. I think if I remember correctly it may even be stock, just a new bushing from energy suspensions. The springs and shocks are very new, less than 5000 miles on each. The sway bar bushings appear to be fine. But I did find that firestone had left the jam nuts loose on my outer tie rod ends when they alligned the car, or @ least that's what I think, so I called them and I'm bringing it back. And by loose I mean half an inch away. So I guess I'm wanting to know can the front end give u a feeling like the rearend is wandering? If not what am I missing? A failure in the rearend? Like a bearing chewing through an axle, complete failure? Really need a clue here