suspension help...

[maverick1]

I was running some canyon roads today and hit some gravel and slid off the road onto the shoulder on the passenger side of the Atom.
The shoulder was not too bad, a little bumpy. I was going pretty slow, around 10mph as I was approaching a tight turn.
When I got home I noticed that the steering wheel was a little out of alignment.
I checked out the car from top to bottom, the pushrods, bell cranks, rod ends, upper and lower a-arms, shocks, tires, everything looks good, straight and tight.
The car tracks straight as an arrow. I got it up to 100mph and it felt fine, no shakes.
Does the miss-aligned steering wheel necessarily indicate that something is wrong with the suspension/alignment?

[DarthChicken]

yes

[maverick1]

[quote="DarthChicken"]
yes
[/quote]
Ok, can you elaborate on that.
Does it mean something is bent (couldn't see anything)or could I  just re-align the car?

[DarthChicken]

Not really (elaborate).  I mean.. you bumped it, and the tires aren't pointed the right direction anymore.  Could be something minor, could be something slightly more than minor. 

[RichardR]

I had something similar on a nearly new car a couple of years ago following a day of drift training.

Ariel checked everything and couldn't find anything out of alignment. They had never seen it happen before, and were baffled as to the cause. I think the only explanation mentioned was that the steering wheel spline may have somehow slipped around under heavy forces. They loosened the steering wheel clamp and straightened the wheel. Never had any more issues.

[maverick1]

[quote="RichardR"]

I had something similar on a nearly new car a couple of years ago following a day of drift training.

Ariel checked everything and couldn't find anything out of alignment. They had never seen it happen before, and were baffled as to the cause. I think the only explanation mentioned was that the steering wheel spline may have somehow slipped around under heavy forces. They loosened the steering wheel clamp and straightened the wheel. Never had any more issues.
[/quote]
Thanks for mentioning this Richard.
I've checked every possible thing on the car and cannot find anything out of the ordinary. Nothing bent or loose.
Once I pull the polls and string out and check the alignment...camber, toe etc,  I'll have a better idea, but eye balling it, nothing looks amiss.
I mentioned to a friend if a hit could cause something in the steering rack to get miss aligned or jump a spline, but he didn't think so.

[wasp]

I had the same as Richard once. It was an old Mark 2 Escort which was being pushed a little harder than it liked . Did the same thing and the car was fine.

Cheers,

Stuart

[John Scherrer]

There's no smoke without fire !

John

[DarthChicken]

Mav, when you say you've checked every possible thing, what does that mean?  I'd start with rod ends, make sure none of them are bent.  Ie take them off and roll them across a flat surface, to see if there is any wobble.  Same thing on pushrods.  And figure out a way to check to make sure your A-arms are flat and true as well. 

Something got tweaked, and you need to know what it was, because its probably been weakened.

[positron]

My beer says it's canted to the right.. either way check the side it's pointing to, that's the side that something is short.

Splines jumping, highly unlikely. Splines be their nature don't jump.

[Heywood-Yablowme]

How much out of alignment are we talking? If the wheel was perfectly centered before the incident,how many degrees to the left/right is it now? 2-3 degrees?20? 100?
I agree about slipping splines...almost a non issue.However,those wimpy steering link ends could easily tweak,and you will want to replace them if one did bend. I am going to try to use  the Palatov Motorsports front pushrods in place of my stock steering links as I do believe they will bolt right on.

[bodnet]

When my steering wheel was off-centre after an impact, it was because the upright was twisted - effectively increasing the toe-out.

However the handling was noticeably affected.


Bod

[Kempo]

If there is nothing bent take a look at the clamps that hold the steering rack. Although it's not likely to have happened the impact may have slipped the rack inside the clamps.

[maverick1]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
I went over to Calscots place and we aligned my Atom.
There was nothing bent or twisted, yet the steering was off.
It's back to normal now.

[positron]

I'm lost.. so what was changed that needed to be unchanged to get back to normal?