Dodge Shadow Pulls When Decelerating.

Hi folks. I have a 1994 Dodge Shadow with the 3.0L V-6 engine in it. A
couple months ago, I had the two front axles replaced. After I picked
it up the car started pulling when I let off the accelerator. I mean a
quick pull like it was trying to cross into the other lane. I took it
back tothe mechanic. He replaced the ball joints and had the car
aligned. No good. Finally I took it to another repair shop that has 5
certified mechanics on duty. The mechanic replaced the front struts,
strut bushings, transmission mount and motor mounts. He replaced the
axles and realigned it. Same thing.

It's hard to explain what it's doing but I'll try. If you are going
down the road 55mph on flat road and take your foot off the gas, the
car jumps the the left really quick and only for a second. It's like
there is absolutely no feel in the steering. It reminds me of
hydroplaning. One of the mechanics says that the frame is flexing too
much, and the car is junk. His boss and I don't believe it, BUT, we are
stumped as to what is causing this. It never did it before I had the
axles replaced. Any suggestions (guesses)you might have would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

They need to check the axles. It may be that the engine needs to be
realigned in the engine bay. What is possibly happening is that the engine
is
twisted in the engine bay The engine/transmission mounts have slotted holes
for this.
This should show up on a 4 wheel alignment bench or if they measure the
distance
from the front wheels to the back wheels. Both wheels need to be the same
distance from each other.

Sounds like the alignment place they used didn't know what they were doing.

Ted

 

This is true. It is always a good idea to perform a four-wheel
alignment on a regular basis. If just the front is aligned, it will
miss these other types of problems.

-Kirk Matheson

 

That was a good first step. If the car wasn't dancing this particular jig
before the axles were replaced, it's a fairly safe bet that either the
axles themselves or something related, disturbed during the axle swap, are
causing the problem.

Erm...why did he do that instead of checking his work and the parts he
installed?

Right...that makes sense. If the car had needed ball joints and suchlike,
shouldn't he have noticed and said so before beginning the axle job?

H'm. "Certified"?

Ye gods. Sounds more like a repair shop with 5 certified shotgun
parts-changers and 0 diagnosticians, certified or otherwise. It's
*possible* all those parts needed changing, if the car has been used hard
and neglected for the last 12 years, but here again, if the front end was
such a decrepit mess, why didn't the first tech bring it to your
attention?

Again...? OK, well, it can be difficult to find _good_ "remanufactured" CV
axle assemblies, but for that reason, this is a step I might have expected
to see out of your first tech when you brought the car back.

It sounds to me as if the engine might not have been centred on its mounts
properly after the axles (and then the mounts themselves) were replaced.
This is a critical setting on these cars. Adjustment involves loosening
the engine mounts and moving the engine-transaxle assembly leftward or
rightward until a particular measurement is obtained down at the left and
right axles. Guessing isn't good enough. If the engine is all the way over
to the right or to the left, the backlash when you lift off the gas can
bind up the axle and give a push in one direction or the other. Doesn't
help if your steering rack is loose on its mountings, but generally that
kind of looseness is accompanied by a great deal of noise over rough
roads.

That one's almost as good as "It's the *computer*!".

DS

 

Great advise, Dan, just to add it could be related to the subframe shifting
under torque from decel, the mounts to the unibody could be rusted or the
frame nuts came loose in the body, I would think these guys would have seen
that though.

 

So you've been doing a halfassed job of this particular repair "4" a
number of years, then.

 

But it isn't necessary to loosen the motor mounts to replace the
half-shofts... so it isn't clear how replacing the half-shafts could
result in the motor not being centered.

 

It's a nonissue with _new_ genuine halfshafts. Those, however, are no
longer available. With reman units, measuring the engine position (via the
halfshaft dimension per FSM procedure) before and after the swap very,
very often shows significantly different results. Hence the need to
re-centre.

 

Well folks. As a last resort, the mechanic finally replaced the engine
mounts again and realigned the motor. Voila! No more pulling. Total
cost since I originally took it to the first repair shop: $983! Not bad
just have have the axles replaced, don't you think? Are there ANY
descent repair shops left out there??? Thanks for all your help guys. I
appreciate it.

Tubbsy

 

OK, wait a sec. This is now, counting the originals, the *third* set of
engine mounts. What was wrong with the first replacements?

I suspect all that was needed was the re-centering ("realignment") of the
engine on its mounts.

Ye gods. Ya got soaked, spun and hung out to dry.

There are, but you sure didn't find 'em on this adventure!

 

Ah. Guess I haven't come across any that have been out of spec yet.
Keyword yet....

 

So, did you have to tell this so-called mechanic that a bunch of
non-mechanics recommended aligning the
engine, or did he figure that out for himself?

If you had to tell him, what did he say when it worked?

Ted