I'd guess it a problem with your brake caliper. Check both your right hand and left hand calipers for proper operation.

 

I'd guess it a problem with your brake caliper. Check both your right hand and left hand calipers for proper operation.

Hi John,

I've had the front rotors machined, disc pad's replaced and brakes calibrated.
Someone told me that the left side of the axle is out of place toward the rear and the solution is to get the left side of the axle pulled out towards the front by some sort of jack, so both the wheels align perfectly but this would mean that the castor angle is out. I've just had every thing aligned, it doesn't make sense. Right?

Thanks
Sherwan

 

It doesn't make sense if you had a full alignment done correctly. Maybe time for a second opinion from another shop.

 

It doesn't make sense if you had a full alignment done correctly. Maybe time for a second opinion from another shop.

Good idea, will do.

 

A bad shock absorber can cause your car to pull hard when braking and if its not supporting the car it will allow the car to get pulled.

 

Hi John,

I've had the front rotors machined, disc pad's replaced and brakes calibrated.
Someone told me that the left side of the axle is out of place toward the rear and the solution is to get the left side of the axle pulled out towards the front by some sort of jack, so both the wheels align perfectly but this would mean that the castor angle is out. I've just had every thing aligned, it doesn't make sense. Right?

Thanks
Sherwan

Could be your left hand caliper piston starting to sieze up and not retracting properly. Jack it up and spin the front wheels by hand. If the left hand wont free spin your calipers are grabbing or your wheel bearing is way too tight.
I agree the front axle could be out of alignment. If the bolt holes on the diff brackets for the front arms are worn and elongated the whole axle can be out of alignment. Cant see how that would affect the castor enough to make it pull though. Measure front to rear axle on both sides to check and front axle to a reliable chassis point forward of the diff on both sides.
Also check the amount of toe in. Might need a bit more because of the cambers on our roads. Nothing much you can do about camber adjusment on Patrols, there isnt any.
cheers, sudso

 

Check ya tyre pressure

 

bent diff housing?

 

A bad shock absorber can cause your car to pull hard when braking and if its not supporting the car it will allow the car to get pulled.

all 4 shocks are good. Had them checked.

 

Could be your left hand caliper piston starting to sieze up and not retracting properly. Jack it up and spin the front wheels by hand. If the left hand wont free spin your calipers are grabbing or your wheel bearing is way too tight.
I agree the front axle could be out of alignment. If the bolt holes on the diff brackets for the front arms are worn and elongated the whole axle can be out of alignment. Cant see how that would affect the castor enough to make it pull though. Measure front to rear axle on both sides to check and front axle to a reliable chassis point forward of the diff on both sides.
Also check the amount of toe in. Might need a bit more because of the cambers on our roads. Nothing much you can do about camber adjusment on Patrols, there isnt any.
cheers, sudso

Thanks Sudso for the help.

Brake calipers are fine, did as you said, the wheel spins free. Bearings are newly installed, just about a week ago, Plus it pulled to left before the replacement bearings.

the only logical explanation is the axle being out of place.

 

Check ya tyre pressure

Tyre pressure is at 30psi for all four. Just had them replaced with new one's a week ago.

 

bent diff housing?

I think that might be the problem. I'll get it checked.

Thanks
Sherwan

 

I think that might be the problem. I'll get it checked.

Thanks
Sherwan

Do you have the wheel aliment info? (print out)
If so post up the cambers & casters for left & right(from the after adjustment measurements)
If the diff is bent it should show up here.

Also whats the tire wear like?

 

Hi all, another thing you could try is to swap the front wheels from left to right, i used to be a wheel aligner and sometimes had cars that would pull for no reason, would swap front wheels from left to right and it mostly fixed the problem, we called it a radial pull. Also if the rear axle is out it could also make the car steer one way, but it would have top be a long way out, but pulling under brakes realy sounds like a suspension issue,but if you have alignment specs post them up, good luck.

 

I had exactly the same problem. And I tried everything mentioned in above posts, but none of them worked. Finally, I had my front axle replaced, and everything came back normal now.

 

Sorry guyz, i dont have wheel alignment info. The guy who worked the alignment has digital equipment but doesn't have the print facility.

I've also just had my tires replaced, new rims, if you're thinking that its the rims and tires, i had this problem before replacing them, as i've mentioned in my previous posts. Since the tires are new, there is no tread wear at all for now. I've spent $4000 on suspension and wheels for this baby, but somehow the problem does not go away.

I think i will try the tire swapping, or the end solution is replacing the axle, as Latakia did.

Will do some further extensive reasearch when i get under the vehicle.

Thanks for the help guyz.
Much appreciated.

Sherwan

 

Get a wheel alignment with print out & post it up...
with out one you are shooting blind!!!

 

Been having same problem with my troll for last few years.
Brakes rebuilt in front, tyre moved many times over, new pushes etc.
Had many wheel alignments many times over.

Just wondering If I could adjust the drag link (front steering arm) shorter to pull wheels in a bit??
have thought maybe its the steering box, which came out of a leafy troll ute and had arm from my origanl box put on it, do have a replacement box which I will try first, but also had the other idea, cheers.

Will admit it may be a bent diff, but tyres do seem to be wearing evenly.

 

Steering damper might be problem also. I had exactly the same situation when I lifted patrol.

I bought Koni shocks and OME springs. After replacement I noticed unusual pool to the left side. We tried everything without success. Finally found steering damper was gas filed like any normal shock and grows till the end.

This is the message to koni from my slovenian distributor:

Subject: hi


last time we bought some application for stearing wheel for NISSAN PATROL 2,8 Y60 [only appl. ever that we bought]
now, this client has experienced unusual pool to the left side whenever he draw the car.
he went to the garage and they dismounted koni device he bought and all was ok after that?

can you check the application if it feets and if there are any specific things maybe were missed
at the monuting it self in the first place. Or can you help us defining the problem. It was said from
some mechanic there that gas device is not ment to be fitted,... but standard oil ,.. something

can you help me here, are there any other info you need to do that

thank you
regards
Tom

And answer from Koni

Dear David,

I’ve checked this with our technicians and you are correct. We’ve also checked our stocks on this O26-1635 but they seem to be ok. It could be, that the damper you received, had a gas pressure which was to high on its pressure. Normally these dampers have a low pressure gas filling. We don’t have this steering damper with only oil in it, just with the low pressure gas filling.

I hope I’ve informed you to your satisfaction.

With kind regards / Mit freundlichen Grußen / Met vriendelijke groeten,

Richard Kwak.

Account Manager.


Finally I throw away koni damper and buy OME one. No pulling any more..

 

Might take mine off and see if it stops pulling to left

 

Tie rod ends may be stuffed? A loose tie rod will cause this.

 

I've already tried that too, no seems to be able to fix it.

 

This is a typical patrol problem and really anything with a solid front axel, as the roads they were designed for arn't like the ones we drive on!!!! Like all the other members have been saying a print out of the caster angles would be great but if you dont have that oh well!! What your aiming for is about half a degree to three quarters of a degree difference, the higher being on the LH side as a vehicle will always pull to the lower caster. There is one trick you could try without puting in caster correction bearings in and thats to measure the setback of the front axel ie you have to measure that off the front tyres or preferably off the diff housings back to the rear diff housing if the LH measurement is smaller then it will always pull to that side, if this is the case you could put a spacer behind the first washer on the leading arm to extend the LH side of the diff housing forward thus increasing it's wheel base on that side the vehicle will want to pull back to the shorter wheel base hopefully driving nice and straight......


Hope this helps a bit.

 

Hi mate,

I know you said you have checked your tie rod ends but also check the castle nut. I had this issue and it went on for months with at least 6 wheel alignments and balances and everything, had the tyre guys check all the tyres for radial pull etc... Went to pro-axle and in a couple of minutes they came out and said "someone put the wrong castle nut on the left hand side"... It was slightly too small and allowed a tiny bit of movement in the tie rod, this resulted in massive pull to the left, especially when braking...

Best of luck though!

 

Have you had a truck wheel alignment place look at it? I have no faith in tyre dealers anymore...

BTW in my case, the actual tie rod ends were fine and are still on there.

 

Mine decided to pull to the left several months ago local mech said try a return to centre steering damper which fixed the problem but he said still keep an eye for tyre wear if I have any it will be the king pins all good for now though.. just one other thing 30psi in your tyres seems a bit low if your driving on the road it would create a bit of drag and not good for the tyres when cornering either