Hi guys,

Disclaimer: I'm not very experienced with cars, but I'm not a complete idiot either.

My '67 122S is pitching slightly to the right when I brake. I generally have to be going reasonably fast. 50 km/h or faster. It's bugging me because I'm taking this car on a 3 day drive through BC for this event called the Spring Thaw at the end of the month and I don't want to have brake issues on mountain roads.

The Haynes guide gives 5 or 6 suggestions for this problem, so I took the front wheels off to see what I could see. There's a pretty big notch where the front left shock is bolted at the top. The picture is pretty clear I think. I suspect the left front shock is swimming around in there when I brake. Or it's totally unrelated to my 'pitch to the right' issue, but it still looks ugly.

This issue started all at once. I've been driving the car a few times a week, and I just noticed it yesterday.

I'm taking the car to Paul at Bert and Jack's tomorrow because if I pull it apart it might not be back together again by the end of the month and I've been looking forward to this Spring Thaw rally for a while.

Anyway, opinions welcome.

That doesn't look nice. Could be the caster is way out to lunch and causing the pull under braking. Do you have any bump steer?

I'd say they're unrelated, but boy that doesn't look good. Easy enough to fix, but what the hell happened? How long has it been since you've looked in this area? (No, I don't look at my shock mounts once a week, so don't think I'm accusing you of anything...) Was it loose when you found it?

Does it pull all the time or just when you're braking? It could be any number of things: stuck piston in a caliper, leaky piston and contaminated pads, or contaminated pads from wheel bearing grease, failing wheel bearings, suspension bushings, ball joints, tie rods, drag link, idler arm, crossmember mounts, upper control arm pivot, or any of the bolts in any of these areas. It could even be in the rear suspension or brakes, or a tire with belt damage.

I hate to say it, but that is a known weak spot on the 122/140 suspension. The usual repair involves welding in a thicker plate into that spot - other issues are covered.

Carry on.

Interesting to hear that it's a known weak spot.

To answer a few questions:
- I drove the car downtown today. No bump steer. It's not a violent pull either.
- I don't look under there too often, truthfully. I wish I had more often so I could have known if this is the cause. I yanked on everything I could find, and the suspension seems pretty solid and in order. I'm guessing brakes.
- It only pulls to the right when braking. If I gear down hard it's fine, and I have to be going at slightly higher speeds. It doesn't pull much.

Thanks for the responses and interest. I'll let you know what comes out of it.

Dustin

Here's a good website describing the repair and general issues with this design.
http://www.1800philes.com/suspension_reinforcement.html

I'd say you have a dragging caliper/pads or such. I just had an xc90 that pulled violently left while braking, the unfortunate thing is that I changed 3 things while in there so i'm not too sure what the problem was but one of the things I did was take the calipers off and relube the caliper slides and pads. I'm 90% sure that was the problem but oh well i'm rambling now. Anywho, check the brakes and I would check the suspension and bushings maybe somethings loose or a bushing is torn causing excessive movement under braking.

Hi guys,

Thanks a ton for the replies. It turns out the problem is that the suspension was loose where the a-frame attaches to the inside of the engine compartment. Paul at Bert and Jack's showed me it, and said it's most likely that someone did an alignment and didn't tighten it up properly and it slowly loosened over time. I shook everything I could get my hands on when I had the wheels off, but I didn't even know to check those bolts inside the engine compartment there.

I want to send a huge thanks to Paul. Someone could have really taken me for a ride and I wouldn't have known, but he had his guy there tighten it up and he proposed a very fair and cheap form of compensation.

So thanks to Bert and Jack's, and to you all for putting your thinking caps on for me.

Dustin

That's a GREAT warning for me as I begin to put my whole suspension - front and rear - back together.

I'm getting that when you say A-frame you are talking about the upper control-arm (they both look like A's). As I remember, when taking that mount off it was pretty awkward getting at those bolts!!

I'm assuming you got that cross-member welded too....

James