76 912E floating all over the highway
 

Sitting in the train. Had to put the E back in the garage. It was like driving a car made of jello. Every little turn on the wheel felt like the car would go in to a slide. Scary.

Have replaced front shocks, ball joints and tie rods. Everithing is properly fastened and the wheel bearings are adjusted to spec.

Alignment is eye balled and "fine tuned" after trst drives. The car tracks straight and the steering wheel is centered.

My (dumb) question is. Where would you start to look?

Jeez I sound like a hack. Guess I should just take it to an alingnment shop.

Start with the alignment.

JR

Tires. Soft sidewalls. Put your leg against the side of the front and rear bumpers and work the car sideways repeatedly, and watch the bottoms of the tires move around.

Sounds like you are also running 40 year old stock bushings?

I had 40 year old bushings until recently and the 70 didn't float all over the place. I did have a real alignment, done for a budget busting $85, and I use tire pressures higher than recommended in the manual.

+1 on JW's comment about tires. Especially rear tire pressure. If that's okay, look for something loose or worn out in the rear suspension. My experience is that kind of sensation comes from something wrong in the rear or loose wheel bearings.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions guys.

Check front and rear alignment
My 70 handled worst than my min-van... until they noted and corrected the rear axle toe out
Now predictable.. it was terrible prior to alignment /same description as yours

Christian, I'm really surprised that you are having troubles with highway floating with "The Bee", considering its 35mph top speed, and so forth! It seems like you could just stick a hand out the window and calm the handling down with your Popeye arm. :)

Crappy old tires and tall sidewalls. My guess......doesn't matter if you have good tread. Sunlight kills old tires.

Does your car have forward rake ? Front should be down.