Front End Bad Pull and noise
 

Ok, Well I am working a a real project in my Garage, you know one of those that the guy said "There are no problems at all with the car!" Kind of project! Well got a huge rattle in the front end passengers side, sounds like the Strut. I jacked the car up this afternoon and with the tire off the ground, I could pull up on the tire and compress the strut with little strenght. Does this mean the stut has no fluid? Can I rebuild it, or get a new one?

Also Pulls heavly to the right side, any suggestions on possible alignment that I coul do? Noticed that alot of the bushings are shot, buth that is both sides, replaced all bushings in the front end?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. God Bless, Mike
hermesbooking@yahoo.com

an '86 can take cartridges, it's a relatively cheap project. get a pair. I have a pair of housings if one or both of yours is bent.

good luck,

nate

The struts seperate from the spring are easy to compress. All they do is control bounce from the spring. Sounds more like a spring problem to me. It should not compress easily by hand with the tire off the ground. The spring should have at least 250lbs of pressure on it. So that seems like a reasonably big problem right there. Does it even have a spring on that side? lol...

New bushings on the swaybar shouldn't matter for the pulling but it may be the cause of the noise. New bushings for the control arms would make a big difference for the pulling and may cause noise as well.

Thanks for the Help Nate and John, I will check it out. I would like to get a rebuild kit for te car front end. Nate LMK what you have. Thanks Mike

Re: Front End Bad Pull and noise
 

Mike, if you can pull up on the tire and compress the strut with little strength you must be Spiderman as your avatar suggests.

Whenever I hear about front end rattles in the later cars ('85.5+) I always think of suspension failure. Check the ball joints and aluminum arms out before driving the car again.

The front sway bar bracket have been known to fail but that is a relatively easy fix.

Well, I can pull on it pretty easy, using a little strength. I am use to the 4X4 Stuff, had a 73 International Scout 2 w/ 5" Lift, so I am thinking on the need to be harder side I guess. Mike

Pull on it or push on it? Up and down or side to side?

I can pull directly unp and down, not side to side, just feels like there is nothing in the Strut, I also can not hear any fluid moving inside. I know on some you can kind of hear the flud as it is passing through, I can hear nothing on this one. Mike

What about the spring????

Spring Looks good, but I really dont know how hard it is. I know I can move it a little, but not much, dosent look broke, or warped. Decent shape.