Hello all,

Well, I finally got to put some miles on the hatchback I've been working on for the last month or two. And I noticed something that may or may not be a problem. After driving down the highway about 10 miles, I pulled onto a gravel road and put it 4wd (hi and lo) and kind of got on it a little bit to see if it did anything unexpected (that is, pulled left or right, etc). Everything works great, except the rear end of this car is real easy to get sliding. I mean, I had a couple of really nice power slides through the gentle S turns on this newly graveled road, and I was only running about 15 to 20 mph. But it only takes a quick turn on the wheel to get the rear end to want to come around. Now is this normal for these cars? I'm thinking it might be due to the short wheelbase and light rear-end, but I know this car was in an accident at some point and may have been up-side down as well..... But going down the road it doesn't feel twitchy or want to wander. And under hard or soft braking, it doesn't pull. And nothing looks bent or out of alignment in the rear. So is this normal or should I be looking to fix something? If it is normal, I can't wait to get it out on some nice dirt roads or go play in the snow!

Thanks,

NV

Is everything still stock? It could be tire selection too. Skinny tires, or underinflated tires might make it more squirelly on corners. But the Hatches do tend to be that way a little.

The hatch I used to have got squirely pretty easy.Like said earlier may have something to do with tires.

Actually, my wagons tend to be a little more loose than my hatch is.

I haven't gotten wild in either of my hatches, but my turbo wagon get tail happy with a little provication on wet roads. Its awesome!!! Lift throttle, turn in and she'll slide all day!

its normal and predictable. My 88 would do it on command was a blast. If you dont want it to happen add some bags of sand in the back, and a better tire.

 

 

 

nipper

Make sure all 4 tires are the same. If you have larger/smaller tires in the rear then it would be abnormally easy to get the rear end to swing out.

 

Also, if the rear diff wasnt matched to the tranny... same thing.

 

-Brian

Thanks for the input guys. Yes, it is (basically) stock. All the tires are the same. Same air pressure, etc. Sounds like it's just a quirk of the car. No biggee.

I thought it was supposed to be all squirly like that...

Yep, my wagon does that too. Was a real gas in traffic on US 50, around Cave Rock about 20 min. ago (very snowy). I let some air out of the rears (snows all around), it seemed to help some. Strange, sometimes leaving it in FWD is actually better (I said sometimes:) ).

 

Just my 2 bucks

I thought it was supposed to be all squirly like that...

 

haha, so did i.