Thread: Why does our Td5 110 pull left under acceleration, then swerve hard right?

Most likely trailing arm bushes or the bolts that go through the back ones. Also check that the bolt holes in the axle housing bracket are not elongated. Front ones are also a possibility.

I had this on an old77 RRC.
It was the bushes on the A frame where they attach to the crossmember.
Regards PhilipA

As above. Most likely the bushes on the trailing arms at the back, but possibly the front radius arms. Or as suggested, the holes elongated. In my experience it has always been the bush on the front of the trailing arms at the back, but any of the links that locate either front or rear axle are suspect.

Mine had the same problem. It was unnerving and tiring. I particularly remember driving home with the family.. on a dark rainy night.. and then a truck comes around a bend coming the other way. I back off because I can't see and the car takes a dive for the truck. On dirt roads it was really difficult to drive.

Anyway MR replaced the swivel balls and reset everything. Not a cheap service but it was coming. Too much time on fraser.

It's still no sports car but it's probably as good now as it ever was.

I remember a very similar issue on an old FIAT I once owned. It was actually bloody scary when it did it ( it was Italian. Unpredictable by nature ). I chased the issue all over the suspension until I had replaced pretty much everything. It occurred to me that replacing everything is what I should have done in the first place, given that everything was about the same age as everything else.

Yeah, I know, it's a lot of work and a lot of $$$, especially on a Deefer, but the car would be transformed. And no, I don't practice what I preach. I would though, if the budget allowed.

Changing direction with power on or power off can only be because one of the axles is free to move back and forth and is moving more on one side, causing the axle to swivel relative to the car, and hence steering it. If the trailing links and radius arms have no free play, this cannot happen. Of course, the effect is exaggerated if other steering issues such as tie rod ends, swivels, panhard bushes etc make it harder to correct for the self steering.

Thanks for the replies everyone! You've pretty much validated my train of thought, that is bushes, or associated bits. Swivels were mentioned - I rebuilt those about a year ago, so unless I messed up badly they should be fine. (and I was careful).
Replacing everything... it feels a bit like I'm halfway there sometimes already...

Doing all my own maintenance, in the past I've found its quite difficult to get the required torque on suspension bolts - and if you're just doing them up to the "hard as I can with the ratchet or ROE spanner, plus a small fart" like many people - they likely won't be tight enough.
Then if you're driving on any sort of rough or corrugated roads, they can go pretty quickly from not quite tight, to loose, to reasonably flogged out.
Run around all the nuts/bolts on the suspension with a decent breaker bar or similar. If you find any that are less than bloody tight its probably a good place to start looking for worn bolts and elongated holes etc. Tightening up the offending bolt and then taking it for a test drive to see if the behaviour has changed might help find the cause if that's the case.

I've got a little bit of the torque steering thing happening on the county at the moment that I haven't had a chance to look into - but pretty confident it will be bushes or something loose as it hasn't had any suspension love since our 2019 trip through the GRR and back down the Tanami.

I'm not sure if you have a Pedders suspension place in your area, but they will do a $28 Suspension, Steering and Safety check. Basically they throw it on the hoist, jam a pry bar in all the suspension joints looking for movement, check brake pads etc - then give you a quote for what they would charge to fix it all for you.
Not suggesting you get them to do the fixing, but I think the inspection is good value for money (particularly if you don't have a hoist yourself), and you can typically find out which bits were most worn or require the most urgent attention.

Steve