(early?) Tuscan Steering Shaft

(early?) Tuscan Steering Shaft

Author
Discussion

Sagi Badger

590 posts

193 months

Monday 25th June 2018
quotequote all
The bottom joints are jag, be careful as the taper can vary ever so slightly in size. The hardened washer may not be thick enough if the taper you get is undersize.

Doesn’t help me as I fitted new everything and it has never given me feed back through the wheel. Anyway I am Saggin’ it at the mo as I am building another engine.... may need a mapping service sometime


J

spitfire4v8

Original Poster:

3,992 posts

181 months

Tuesday 26th June 2018
quotequote all
I still have a bit of springiness to the feel at the steering wheel rim around straight ahead, like taking up a bit of play in bushes, but to be honest the steering is so far removed from the awfulness of where I started from that I'm just happy to leave it alone for now .. but will try and re-visit the bushes at a later date to see if they make a difference (they made a huge difference on my old V8S which had much of the same springiness around straight ahead position)

MPETT

965 posts

206 months

Friday 29th June 2018
quotequote all
I have an early tuscan and I think I have accidentally recreated your issue? When trying to remove the slack in the steering wheel, and minimise tramlining on rough roads, I tightened up the rack. This resulted in heavy steering, sometime going really heavy, no self centring and just bloody aweful. I wondered if the previous owner tightened the rack too much like I’ve just done?

Basil Brush

5,083 posts

263 months

Saturday 30th June 2018
quotequote all
MPETT said:
I have an early tuscan and I think I have accidentally recreated your issue? When trying to remove the slack in the steering wheel, and minimise tramlining on rough roads, I tightened up the rack. This resulted in heavy steering, sometime going really heavy, no self centring and just bloody aweful. I wondered if the previous owner tightened the rack too much like I’ve just done?
If you've got play in the rack I think it's more likely to be the pinion torsion shaft assembly than the pinion to rack preload. I went down the same path with my original rack.

spitfire4v8

Original Poster:

3,992 posts

181 months

Sunday 1st July 2018
quotequote all
Hi yes I did wind the adjuster off to see if that made a difference to the perceived stiffness in the system and sadly it didn't change in my case .. replacing the picked-up bottom ball joint has transformed the steering though.

It's still not great, but is at least acceptable and if I'd bought the car with the steering as it is at the moment I would probably have left it alone, but I'm on a mission now and at some point I will try and investigate further.
The engine has to come out again in the winter because of a porous or cracked head so will probably try something else at that time.

Incidently, I've seen 2 mk3 tuscans recently with short top arms and mk1 uprights and they drove superbly, featherlight accurate steering that was a joy. Were tvr fitting any old parts to cars at the end and mixing up steering and suspension components? I wonder if any cars have one short and one long top arm lmao ?

MPETT

965 posts

206 months

Sunday 1st July 2018
quotequote all
If its of interest, here is my steering column. As the pictures indicate, my steering column points towards the hole in the bulkhead, but the sliding section appears too long, so it kinks away from the intended line. There certainly is enough space, so why wasn't the shaft shortened, allowing a straighter column. Is this crash protection to save the column punching you the face? Isn't that what the slidy thing is for?


MPETT

965 posts

206 months

Sunday 1st July 2018
quotequote all
Basil Brush said:
If you've got play in the rack I think it's more likely to be the pinion torsion shaft assembly than the pinion to rack preload. I went down the same path with my original rack.
What did you end up doing in the end? Full rack rebuild? Seems nuts that a rack can need rebuilding after 31K miles!

Basil Brush

5,083 posts

263 months

Sunday 1st July 2018
quotequote all
MPETT said:
What did you end up doing in the end? Full rack rebuild? Seems nuts that a rack can need rebuilding after 31K miles!
I bought a new late Mk1 rack as I swapped to the later set up.

dvs_dave

8,633 posts

225 months

Saturday 30th March
quotequote all
Thread resurrection;

Stealing the pic from the OP.

One of my column UJ’s needs tightening on the shaft as there’s some play present. But what sort of bolt head is this? I want to make sure I have the correct socket as it needs to done up really tight. It’s some sort of star shaped head.

Seems it’s a Land Rover part. But still none the wiser as to the socket type needed. Female M8 torx?






Edited by dvs_dave on Saturday 30th March 19:54

Basil Brush

5,083 posts

263 months

Tuesday 2nd April
quotequote all
dvs_dave said:
Thread resurrection;

Stealing the pic from the OP.

One of my column UJ’s needs tightening on the shaft as there’s some play present. But what sort of bolt head is this? I want to make sure I have the correct socket as it needs to done up really tight. It’s some sort of star shaped head.

Seems it’s a Land Rover part. But still none the wiser as to the socket type needed. Female M8 torx?






Edited by dvs_dave on Saturday 30th March 19:54
The sliding column part is vauxhall if that's the bit you mean. The bolts on it are torx t50.

dvs_dave

8,633 posts

225 months

Sunday 14th April
quotequote all
A T10 female Torx bit was the right one for that pinch bolt. However I traced the play to the UJ just past the bulkhead that’s of course inaccessible without getting the car up in the air.