VP Problems!! Please help!

[nathanhrv]

Hey guys my missus' car is not having the best of days. Originally my missus' was doing a u-turn and hit the gutter slightly which apparantly fkd the rack and pinion up or something. We got quoted $1000 to get it fixed properly but a guy that was a friend of a friend said he could do it for $400, bit suss but we did it anyway. Turns out he did what he had to do and only adjusted the rack and pinion and changed the struts and strut towers. We took the car to get a wheel allignment straight afterwards and the guy there said they cant do a wheel allignment as the strut towers havnt been adjusted and the allignment would do nothing as a result.

Does anyone know how this can be done and if its an easy job?
Also is it pretty involved to change the whole rack and pinion?

And one last problem haha is that the fuel tank is leaking on the car from the upper seal, apparantly we gotta drop the tank and reseal the top and itl be all good, has anyone done this before??

Thanks for any replies they are all helpful,

Cheers guys, Nath

[Morton]

I'm not sure what they mean when they say that the "strut towers haven't been adjusted".

I assume they mean that the strut top bearing plates have been improperly installed? You can essentially install the bearing plates one of three ways, for bias towards camber, castor or nuteral (very roughly speaking). Perhaps these don't match from side to side, and as such they can't use the tie rod ends to properly dial out any discrepancy between the two.

There's not really an awful lot to a front end alignment - even if you want to change the alignment of the strut top bearing plates, it's only three bolts and five minutes for a good mechanic.

Apart from that, you can't dial in any castor through the castor arms, and you can't dial in any camber through the lower control arms. It's basically strut tops and tie rod ends.

Maybe there's something else wrong that they're failling to communicate properly?


As for the fuel tank, I wasn't aware that they had a "top seal". There are three ways fuel can get out:

1) filler neck
2) fuel sender unit flange
3) breather hoses

This "upper seal" you speak of will be one of those three things (I hope), and they're all relitavely easy to service. IF you know which one is causing the problem.

[Morton]

Whoops, missed one question there.

The steering rack (complete unit) is an easy replacement if you're handy with a spanner.

1) remove wheels
2) undo tie rod ends and hammer out the end joints
3) undo high pressure and return fluid lines from the steering rack unit
4) remove starter motor and exhaust ONLY if they interfere with removal of the complete rack unit
5) undo the lower clamp bolt holding the intermediate shaft to the pinion shaft
6) remove two through-bolts to the k-frame and slide the rack out toward the back of the car

On some cars I have found it necessary to unbolt the steering column from the dashboard of the car in order to wiggle it free of the steering rack. There isn't always enough vertical play in the steering rack to get it loose, or conversely to reinstall it.

If you need to remove the steering column, there should be two bright zinc 13mm nuts clamping it UP on either side of the column, and another one holding it BACK against the firewall. It should then wiggle free enough (with removal of wiring, venting etc) to slide it back from the steering rack.

[nathanhrv]

Hey mate thanks a lot for the help sounds ok but still not 100% confident. Have you done this type of job a lot? Ill find out exactly what the diagnosis as soon as i can as i wasnt actually with my partner when she got told what was wrong with it so she only told me what she remembered. So ill get the diagnosis and then let ya know mate. Where abouts are you located in melbourne mate? im western suburbs myself, thanks again for the advice

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

I'm also not sure about the "struts not being adjusted". During a wheel alignment, the strut tops are adjusted if they need to be, that is part of the alignment.

They have three positions as Morton has said, but they are positive caster/positive camber, neutral caster/negative camber, and negative caster/positive camber (in relation to each position).

There are different levels of wheel aligners, people who can read and adjust to specifications, and people who can work out what a problem is and adjust what is necessary to fix it.

[nathanhrv]

yeah ive now been told that the strut plates need to be adjusted, does that make more sense?? or still jibberish ha

[spirto]

if you take the car to a suspension place that does wheel alignments you'll have more luck, most tyre places yell out "too hard basket" and tell the customer to take it to a pedders shop etc etc, if you find a decent wheel alignment place they can sort all of this out. in regards to petrol tank all leaks are easy enough to fix, simply find where it's leaking and either tighten it up, replace the hoses/ hose clamps, or replace the seal. you should be able to do all work on the car. all the best

[Morton]

The strut plates need adjusting? That should take five minutes. Find a wheel aligner who will do it as part of the regular alignment, it's not that complex

[nathanhrv]

ok thanks guys ill let yas know how i go, thanks for all the help and tips ill get back to yas

[sapeter]

also one other thing is that if your missus hit the gutter hard enough the crossmember might be slightly bent also.

I brought a vp wagon and the owner told me that he accidently hit the gutter before i brought the car, drove it home
and it was pulling to the left when braking and when turning to the right the driver front wheel would rub on backwall.

I manage to replace the crossmember (other people use another name) and the front end is all good now.

[Warranty Void]

I'm a bit late with this mate, hope it helps anyway, if you need a knowledgable commodore mechanic in eastern suburbs you should go and see Shane and Aaron at commodore frenzy in kalman drive boronia, call 97298126. You should be able to get the rack replaced if it needs it, they'll tell you if it's ok or not and the fuel tank replaced with perfectly good used items much cheaper than you will find elsewhere. I use them for all the jobs I can't do myself and wouldn't bother going anywhere else for commodore stuff now.
They wreck all commodores themselves and as a result can provide used parts for their customers cars at an excellent price, just guessing but I reckon you'd get sorted out (parts and labour) for the price of the parts anywhere else. I know I'm going on a bit but my car wouldn't be on the road without these guys.