uneven steering lock

[doddze]

On an airfield day today I noticed that the steering wheel has one half turn more to achieve right lock from the centre as opposed to left lock from the centre......

Steering is fine apart from this... any thoughts or comments.... it it an easy fix when iot is next serviced?


thanks

[bridgdav]

There is a worm gear linkage inside the steering rack which drives the steering ROD left to right which in turn turns the wheels via the track rod ends....

This rod has the gear form cut into it..



I wouldn't have thought that there couldn't be a 1/2 turn misalignment left to right, in fact I cannot see how...

There is a very small amount of adjustment at each end of this ROD where it attaches to the track rod but again I would find that a 1/2 turn error would not be seen...



The worm and drive gear are in rack body so any work to align something in there would involve a complete removal...

I would suggest that there is something wrong or out of adjustment with the lock limit... Rather than the central alignment & left to right lock...

I'm not sure what stops the left to right lock....(mine is usually the tyres scraping the inner arch...)

I'm not sure if this is helping you much, but these are my ramblings and my honest thoughts based on my rack removal experience....

Anybody else...?

Dave

[z_chromozone]

Agree with Dave about the lock limit. My tyres do not scrape on the arch, so there must be some kind of stop. Perhaps you have lost one.

Z

[peter m]

It should be straight forward to centre the steering rack. Jack up the front of the car, wind the rack lock to lock, and count the number of turns, then wind back to the mid point. Now the tricky bit, you will have to adjust the track rod ends to correctly align each wheel dead ahead. You will need to get the tracking set up correctly afterwards.

[NicBowman]

Hi, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It would be a bit unusual if the track rod ends were set that unevenly, but not impossible. To check, measure the length of projecting thread beyond the end of the track rod end. If this is very different on either side, then you can correct by screwing one in and one out, then put the sterring wheel on straight. Doing the tracking yourself is actually dead easy, you need a 'gauge' which you make from soem 4x2 plank, and a tape measure. Nic

[clive f]

I`m in the process of working on the front end of the car at the moment, and with the wheels straight ahead I have one and a half turns to either lock, if there is a stop I can only assume that its inside the rack itself, and like the other guys have said it must be something to do with the track rod ends.

[Trefhead]

Is it possible that the rack was installed not centred. Can it be corrected by disconnecting the steering, centering the rack and steering and seeing where you are. With the front of my car jacked up my rack is also 1 1/2 turns either side of centre and there is no visible stop.

[doddze]

Had a look tonight and hetre is the outcome...

turning to left lock 1 and 3/8ths of a turn

turning to right lock 1 and 5/8ths of a turn

total 3 turns lock to lock as it should be....

thread showing on rod end longer on the right than the left... obvious to the eye.

When it goes for a service in May I will get them to centre it and it needs some minor tracking work now so that will just wait until aafter they have done the steering. Never caused me a problem ... in fact hadn't even noticed it until yesterday