Noticed the last few times i drove the P38 that it was acting a little oddly. Its hard to describe, but its related to road camber and unevenness i think.

Essentially you'll be driving along, and suddenly it will pull to one side meaning you need to apply a bit of counter steer. Then just as suddenly it can "flip" to the other side, and you need to steer back the other way. Its all very slight, and i suspect the steering input is exaggerated due to the steering boxes typical dead zone.

Since i've had the car i've replaced most of the front suspension, it had new shocks, new steering damper, new tie rod and track rod, new balljoints and a new wheel bearing. Panhard rod bushes have been replaced, and its also had a replacement UJ on the steering column.

It just doesnt feel particularly sure footed, and often you feel your weaving the steering wheel around like some 1960's Routemaster on a comedy TV sketch.

Most of the time its most noticable round town and on more twisty roads. It'll generally sit quite happily on the motorway at 70+ without issue. Town driving is usually OK but the odd bit of uneven road can upset it. A twisty back road can be verging towards scary at times.

Perhaps related, perhaps not, but when i was under it the other day fitting the new CPS, i noticed the steering damper on the front axle seems to have been bashing the sump. Theres a clean area and all the oil and dirt has rubbed off, so its clearly a recent thing too. That suggests the axle is not staying central, yet thats the job of the panhard rod and its freshly rebushed...

Any ideas?

Huh? The steering damper is right at the front, in front of the axle and below the radiator. How can it get anywhere near the sump? Or do you mean the harmonic balancer, the big round lump of cast iron? That should be well away from the sump.

When ours was wandering, I found changing the radius arm bushes to make the biggest difference in making the car feel sure footed.

David.

No 2 on radius arm bushes to cure wandering. Mine seemed OK just, the odd wander, so I was surprised how much changing the bushes and the big rubber buffer thingies on the back tightened things up. Probably best to do the job with everything jacked up square. I got 4 big axle stands so I could put two under the chassis and two under the axle before undoing anything to be sure everything stayed in line. At least we don't have to deal with that L322 nonsense of dropping it back onto its wheels, letting the bushes settle to their neutral position and then tightening them up.

Might be worth checking the suspension sensor joints. Pins in the radius arms on mine were well corroded so the linkage movement was "less than smooth". I imagine jerky potentiometer outputs could upset suspension action. Especially in roll. Mine got swanky new stainless steel pins. Back end bushes are on this years job list.

Clive.

Mine did that when I first got it and ended up being old tyres. How old are the tyres?

Mine was having fits of pulling left or right, a short sharp jerk of the wheel normally sorted it, ive narrowed it down to radius arm bushes

Hmm, maybe we need a "Spring Camp" with Radius Arm Bushes on the agenda!

Thanks guys, I guess those are the only bushes still original! So kinda makes sense. And yeah I meant the harmonic balancer thingy. Any ideas on why that might be interfering and/or downsides of simply removing it?

Hi all.
Mine also has a tendency to wander. Any opinion on using poly bushes when doing the job.
Rob.

There’s no reason that poly bushes don’t work, just a lot more money than original bushes.
Don’t even look at britpart kits. We’re fitted to parts of mine, panard arm ect, lasted 6 months,,

Mine's got the good quality orange poly bushes and I think they are starting to signs of wear. Still handles fine and no wandering around but it just doesn't quite feel as tight as it has. They've been there for the best part of 100,000 miles though but if there's a Radius Arm bush changing Spring Camp then sign me up for it and I'll have a set of cheaper, better, OE bushes pressed in.

Looks like its time I got off my ass, cleaned up and repainted the spare set I have so we can sort out a round robin exchange service with OEM standard bushes.

Gremlins and life in general permitting maybe sometime in week after next. (Would'a been done by now if poxy weeds would stop growing. 12 hours of quality lifetime gone pulling unwanted green stuff out over the last week or so.)

clive

Once your up for doing them, I’ll happily bung you some dollars to put new in mine, It’s got crap poly bushes at the minute.

any ideas on the axle damper bashing the sump? Can i just remove it?

I wouldn’t remove it, find out why it’s hitting, I’m trying to work out why it would hit ?...

I don't know about Marty's availability but if anyone can handle the trek to Yorkshire... we could host some driveway maintenance shenanigans outside my house. The garage is full of crap but there's power, light and my neighbour is a total petrol head so he won't mind.

What tools would we need?

Would this be enough of an excuse to buy a baby compressor? :)

no10chris wrote:

I wouldn’t remove it, find out why it’s hitting, I’m trying to work out why it would hit ?...

Yeh not sure either. It looks like a lump of steel attached to a bracket with a large rubber mount. Perhaps the mount has gone soggy?
Alternatively the axle itself has been moving around under the car, but thats controlled by the panhard rod, which was fixed within the last year.

the axle will move if the radius bushes are worn, sounds like the problem to me, I’m gonna get under mine in a minute and see how far away my steering damper is, only other thing otherwise is engine mounts ?

Morat wrote:

I don't know about Marty's availability but if anyone can handle the trek to Yorkshire... we could host some driveway maintenance shenanigans outside my house. The garage is full of crap but there's power, light and my neighbour is a total petrol head so he won't mind.

What tools would we need?

Would this be enough of an excuse to buy a baby compressor? :)

If it happens at yours, I’ll bring you a baby compressor (25 Ltr) , it’s just sitting doing nothing.

\o/