GVR4 Allignment trouble

[bastarddsm]

So i've had this 90 GGSX for a few years and it drives like shit. I finally got it on an alignment rack and heres what we found.

Right Side SAI 17.6* Camber .4* Caster 3.1*
Left Side SAI 13.6 Camber -.1* Caster 2.7*

The car steers under large suspension movment. As the power comes on and the nose rises it steers to the left I belive, and to the right on brakeing. It's not too bad. The big problem is a dip in the road at high speed it moves the wheel and the car moves around a bunch. I'm 90% sure it's caused by the large SAI on the right side, but I can't figure out why it has a large SAI. Here's what I've checked and found.

1. I think it has DSM springs and and hats. Rears are for sure. Fronts might be.
2. Front control arm bushings are good and tight. The normal rusty end has been repaired and new bushings used.
3. I am not sure if it has dsm control arms or galant arms.
4. I swapped out the right side knuckle with a dsm one that should be good, no change in handling.
5. Not positive what knuckles are on it. It has 5 lug hubs, so could have DSM stuff on it. Not sure if different.
6. Measured the control arms from several reference points, can't see a difference.
7. Car has no signs of collision damage, or anything bent.
8. Left rear sits about .25" lower than the right.
9. I paid $100 for the shell and it was hacked up bad, so who knows what has been done to it.
10. replaced both front stuts with newish good ones off my talon.

I'm thinkin that the SAI meausrement is wrong, as the strut tower would have to be in 1.5", or the balljoint out that much to create that much difference. There also doesn't seem to be a way that the SAI could be off so far and the camber be close.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

If the SAI is indeed 4* out, then I would have to guess that there is a damaged component but that doesn't allow for your scenario where all the control arms/knuckles appear to measure out fine.
If the SAI has a >1* discrepancy between sides I generally start thinking damaged components, as you did by swapping knuckles and measuring control arms. I don't know what the stock spec is for SAI on a Galant, does anyone else know?
You appear to have done your homework on it already, checking the right things, etc. I might tend to think that this is a case of an undiagnosed impact. Maybe the subframe/crossmember has been tweaked, or maybe there IS a component mismatch (galant vs dsm). Chances are good that it has DSM knuckles on it now if it has a 5 lug swap, but who knows if the PO took the easy way or separated the hubs himself. Is the rear 5 lug too? I believe you have to do a 1g subframe swap or you'll have to change out the hubs separately to get the rears done.

What are the part numbers on the knuckles (assuming they're stamped)?

 

[bastarddsm]

DSM SAI is like 14.1* and GVR4 is ~13.7 accoring to what I have seen. I thought maybe the subframe could be shifted, but that would make the left side out too, and it seems to be in spec. I have had fenders and bumper off the car and it had a minor incedent in the front left corner, but was cosmetic. The fender took most of the abuse and I straghtened it out. I worked in a body shop for several years so I kinda know what I'm looking for as far as collision goes and I can't see anything.

I just cant see how the SAI could be soo far off and the camber be in spec.

Anyone got a Galant that can measure strut to strut for me? That will definatly tell if a tower is pushed in.

As far as knuckles goes, I'd bet it does have DSM ones. This was an ABS car and there are no provisions for abs sensors on the knuckles at least on the passanger side. Wiring is cut in the fender well. As far as I know galant and dsm knuckles are the same p/n, but I'm not sure. On the rear I havn't checked anything yet as it is all in spec other than a bit of camber from being low. It does have 5 bolt hubs, and they are interchangeable. I didn't think to look for abs sensors untill now, but I don't remember seeing them. It's possible it has FWD knuckles on it, but I doubt it. I suspected it long ago and checked against my awd talon, and it looked the same, but I can't be certain because it wasn't a good side by side comparison.

Here's another thought I had. Assume the SAI number is garbage, and it is actually good on both sides. Is it possible that the steering rack could be off center enough so cause the steering issues? When I have been messing with it we set the toe at the alignment shop and tried to center the rack by making sure each side had a similar number of threads exposed at the tie rod end. I never made sure that the ends were the same length. My steering wheel is about 1/5 turn off center, and I figured someone had it out to do clutch pedal bushings and didn't put it back right..

It's gonna be something stupid when I find it, and I'm gonna feel dumb .

 

[Dsmkauai]

I can give me a bit just got to go to shop. If you want pm me and we can get numbers to txt easier.

 

[bastarddsm]

Dsmkauai measured his strut to strut for me, 42.5", mine measures that, so I'm thinking its not a SAI problem. That measurement I got from the alignment is wrong.

I went under my dash and the steering column and pedals all look untouched. I'm assuming the wheel was never disconeccted from the rack. From what I can see in the FSM, the rack is off center by about 8 turns of the tie rod.

I'm going to play with that and check out the hubs better this weekend.

 

[bastarddsm]

Turns out it had a FWD knuckle on the driver side, and a AWD one on the passanger side.

I put a fwd one on the passanger side, had it reaaligned. It improved by it still had a lot of bump steer. This car is lowered some. So I can say that the old FWD knuckles on an AWD car mod sucks.

I put a set of good AWD ones on it, and she drives like a dream.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Glad you got it sorted. What were the main differences between the fwd and awd knuckle? Height, or was it dimensionally different too?

 

[bastarddsm]

tie rod end is up 22mm and in 4mm, on an awd.
the thought was that fwd knuckles on a lowered awd would flatten out the tie rods, and limit bumpsteer, as well as make turn in more crisp. My gallant is ~1" low, and it made bump steer worse than stock.