something went bad (kind of long)

[DDCxj]

okay so I'm driving down the road to the mountain to snowboard in NH. All of a sudden the steering wheel jerks and pulls horribly to the left so I slid across the road in the wrong lane and finally got it straightened out right before hitting the guardrail with the drivers side. Now, for the sake of argument, this was not caused by fishtailing, it was a steering problem.

I got out and checked for body damage, and saw nothing except for a little peice taken out of the alloy wheel. I hope back in the Jeep and start driving and my allignment is way off (steering wheel is to the right when I go straight). I got to the mountain a mile later and parked it after straightening the steering wheel. I got out and checked the front end and my drivers side wheel (the one impacted) is now pointing out while the passenger side is straight. I do not know if this is from the guardrail or the cause of the crash. All the steering linkages and tie rod ends and everything else was tight and connected.
Judging by the damage on the wheel, even though I steered it straight right before impact, the wheel was still cut a little to the right. From what I understand, its pretty hard to stretch frontend parts so the wheel sticks out (as if wheel is cut to the left) and like I said everything was tigh and connected. What do I check?

thanks
Dean

 

[90NHXJ]

I'd start by checking all your front end parts (linkages). Make sure all that is tight. Doesn't sound safe to drive. Any idea what caused the wheel to jerk? I've heard wheel bearings can sieze a tire but you said you drove it after with only terrible alignment as a problem. Hard to tell with an impact what was the cause and what was the effect. Let us know. Don- Milton area.

 

[Lunatic728]

When I had a old Datsun P/U 4x4 I had the wheel bearing freeze on the passenger side at 65 that was a real joy. I could not move it after that.

Would a ball joint let go like that?

 

[DDCxj]

well the wheel bearings are a problem but on the right side, the left side is the one that turned out. It could have been cause by the impact, but the impact wasn't very hard and it would take a lot of force to stretch the front end components, it would be a different story if the wheel was turned in. Well I'm going back up to NH on monday to tow it back home and find out what caused this. Also note that that I straightened the steering wheel after I regain control and it kept goingg left into the guardrail which kind of tells me it went bad before the impact.

Dean