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[Spridgets] Front suspension causing car to have mind of its

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Subject: [Spridgets] Front suspension causing car to have mind of its
From: "Richard Ball" <richb@u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:53:50 -0700
Hey Chris

I'm probably not your first choice for help on these as I have not yet had the
pleasure of working on the suspension on our Midget, but I am just north of
you in Everett.  If no one else with greater knowledge is available let me
know.  I'm sure we can at least do a little more troubleshooting and narrow
things down a bit.  Then back to the list for more insight.

Rich Ball
'76 Midget
Everett, WA

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First off, hello - have been lurking here for a few weeks reading about holy
sprites, but I've now bolstered up courage to ask something.

I have recently become the proud owner of a '65 Sprite. I have no idea what
I'm doing. I've never lifted a finger to repair my own car before, and so far
this has been a genuinely interesting exercise in doing things not quite the
right way. I've managed to fix up a few obvious things that are wrong and am
in the process of stopping it from overheating (bah), but now I have a
question that I don't even know where to start with.

The car has a habit of rather violently leaping in some random direction
(well, actually, come to think of it it's always to the right) whilst zooming
down the freeway. Well, I say zooming, but it's probably about 50mph. It's a
reasonably unsettling manoeuvre - I am 100% sure that it's not a steering
problem and is some sort of issue with the way in which the wheels are
connected to the body, or with the suspension. The nearest thing I can equate
it to is that it feels much like a giant hand has come down and given the
nose
of my car a shove to the right.

Any ideas? I've done the moron diagnosis of waggling the tires and peering to
see if anything has fallen off, but there's nothing obvious. Also they appear
to have forgotten to put shocks on the car in the factory, because I can't
see
where they are?! Are they in the strange magic box that's at the top of one
of
the arms?

Any help much appreciated,

Chris (Seattle, WA right now, but formerly Edinburgh, UK)
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