911 wants to go right

Just got a 84 carrera, when driving on a totally lavel road it goes straight, but any bump or crown on the road and it wants to go right. Under heavy braking it steers right and if I grip the top of the right front wheel and move it in and out I can detect a minute amount of play. The steering is nice and tight with no noises or bnormal tire wear. My question is - is anything major wrong here (expensive?) or is this just a car that needs an alignment or NOT EXPENSIVE work?

Do you know if the car has been lowered? Mine does the same thing on roads with a slight crown or rut. And every once in a while when I brake it pulls suddenly either way. I don't really know but I suspect it may be a result of lowering the car. I just had a 4 wheel alignment about 3 months ago as well.

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Leland Pate

___79 SC Targa

It does sound like sound like an alignment problem, but there is no such thing as a 'simple' alignment for ANY 911! It is sometimes hard to find a shop that has a technician that even COMPREHENDS that there is more to alignment than front-wheel toe-in and camber!!!

The first step in checking a 911 alignment is checking the ride height at all four corners. The factory 'spec' is for the Difference between the center of the torsion bars (at the front it is the rear center, near the height adjuster) and the center of the axles. Your can make that check yourself, with a couple of machinist rules, a 6" rule for the tosion bar measurement, and a 12" rule for the axle center measurements. The factory specs allow a deviation of 5 mm side-to-side, but you can adjust it closer, to within 2-3 mm in my experience. Just be sure tire pressures are identical side-to-side when you check, and close to factory specs, or your usual 'running' pressures.

The ride height check at the rear is made at the end of the swing arm torsion bar cap. Side-to-side deviation is 8 mm allowable, but again 2-3 mm is possible with careful adjustment on my Sway-A-way adjustable arms.

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

No, it hasn't been lowered, I had a euro one once and this one sits as high as any normal US spec 911. Looking at tire wear, there seems to be even wear , if there was a miniscule wear difference it would be on the inside of the front wheels, but that would be picking hairs. I assume from the replies so far that I don't have an expensive fix here, I hope.

Looseness is not okay. jack up that wheel, remove the dust cap (big channel lock works for this) without denting it, and see if the washer under the big nut in the center can move back and forth. There should be virtually no detectable play in the wheel, but not so tight you cannot move the washer fairly easily. Leland, if you're reading this you might check yours too since you have unpredictable pulling during braking. There should be NO looseness. This goes for anywhere in the suspension system.

Warren is right about alignment technicians. They all know how to operate the computerized equipment, but only a few actually 'grok' the essence of alignment.

Crowned roads very well may just give your car the urge to wander (to the right almost always). My car has a bit more negative camber than most in the rear, which makes it a bit 'darty.' Crowned roads affect it. that's okay.

Pulling during braking is NOT okay.

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'83 SC