Discussion
Having spent nuch time and money rebuilding/replacing most of the components on me 86 350 SII, I require some advice on improving the hndling. The steering is heavy (I do appreciate it does not have power steering!) and gets much heavier when cornering, and I mean heavy !
I have repalced:
-steeering rack
-track rod ends
-bottom ball joints
-upgraded to rose jointed ARBs
-standard springs all round
-avo shocks all round
It recently breezed through MOT and I had the front tracking adjusted after the upgrades, and the front wheels balanced.
Before raiding the piggy bank again could someone give me advice for the next course of action.
Ie re bushing? Four wheel alignment?
I have heard the bulkhead bush can cause heavy steering but I just cant believe it would make it that extreme or the u/j's on the steering, which I have cleaned and regreased, showing no real wear.
What could be casing this heaviness under load?
I have repalced:
-steeering rack
-track rod ends
-bottom ball joints
-upgraded to rose jointed ARBs
-standard springs all round
-avo shocks all round
It recently breezed through MOT and I had the front tracking adjusted after the upgrades, and the front wheels balanced.
Before raiding the piggy bank again could someone give me advice for the next course of action.
Ie re bushing? Four wheel alignment?
I have heard the bulkhead bush can cause heavy steering but I just cant believe it would make it that extreme or the u/j's on the steering, which I have cleaned and regreased, showing no real wear.
What could be casing this heaviness under load?
I'm no expert when it comes to suspension setting up etc, and since my Wedge has power steering I've not experienced heavy steering before.
In the case of your car, I would stick a couple of jacks under the front of the car - one under each lower wishbone. Jack it up so that the wheels are an inch or so off the ground and then try the steering. The suspension angles shouldn't be too much different from when the car is on the road normally, however you can now give the steering a good testing to see if it has any stiff stops. If it is quite free moving, then check the tyre presures. I think that on the normal 350 wheels it should be around 22ish. If the tyres are low on air, this would affect the effort needed to turn the wheel when driving. Also, are the tyres wider than the standard 205 ones?
If everything adds up ok, then I'm guessing that the heaviness is normal. Perhaps one of the non power steered boys will be able to help some more.
Dan.
In the case of your car, I would stick a couple of jacks under the front of the car - one under each lower wishbone. Jack it up so that the wheels are an inch or so off the ground and then try the steering. The suspension angles shouldn't be too much different from when the car is on the road normally, however you can now give the steering a good testing to see if it has any stiff stops. If it is quite free moving, then check the tyre presures. I think that on the normal 350 wheels it should be around 22ish. If the tyres are low on air, this would affect the effort needed to turn the wheel when driving. Also, are the tyres wider than the standard 205 ones?
If everything adds up ok, then I'm guessing that the heaviness is normal. Perhaps one of the non power steered boys will be able to help some more.
Dan.
I'm afraid the steering is just heavy mainly due to the large amount of castor used. I had a couple of 'moments' when looking thru the side window thinking ' if this needs any more lock I can't get it on in time...' which led to me fitting power assist.
It was quite straightfoward to do,
2nd hand Mk V cortina power rack,
new lower steering shaft from david gerald
used a ford granada pump and hoses and made a bracket and pulley from scratch total cost about 150 quid
Since found out the rover sd1 or tr7 power pump wouild have worked and bolts stright on!
would highly reccommend it, my car is the same year as yours and the steering weighting is spot on, still pretty heavy by modern standards with plenty of feedback but no longer requires the vein-popping effort of before
Matt
PS admittedly I'm slightly weedier than I was since doing this.....
It was quite straightfoward to do,
2nd hand Mk V cortina power rack,
new lower steering shaft from david gerald
used a ford granada pump and hoses and made a bracket and pulley from scratch total cost about 150 quid
Since found out the rover sd1 or tr7 power pump wouild have worked and bolts stright on!
would highly reccommend it, my car is the same year as yours and the steering weighting is spot on, still pretty heavy by modern standards with plenty of feedback but no longer requires the vein-popping effort of before
Matt
PS admittedly I'm slightly weedier than I was since doing this.....
I think you will find that the steering is heavy for none PAS. Check the Castor angle, if that's OK then with what you have already tried then it sounds like it's normal. I have none PAS and am looking to upgrade to PAS. Not easy on on early chassis car, but I think it may be easier on later V8 chassis cars.
My unassisted 280i's steering was VERY heavy, even after being re-built at RT.
My 390s, even with wider wheels is nice and light because of the PAS.
I think we are all a bit spoilt these days with practically every vehicle on the road having power steering, but that steering system was never intended to turn such wide wheels.
I used to bit an extra couple of pounds pressure in the fronts to lighten things up a little.
My 390s, even with wider wheels is nice and light because of the PAS.
I think we are all a bit spoilt these days with practically every vehicle on the road having power steering, but that steering system was never intended to turn such wide wheels.
I used to bit an extra couple of pounds pressure in the fronts to lighten things up a little.
I suppose that makes sense, as the widest tyres they put on the production Cortinas were 185/70s.
I've put heavy Essex V6's into Cortinas on more than one occasion, and the (unassisted)steering was still pretty light. Wheels were 5 1/2J with the 185 tyres.
The 280i, with the same rack, and basically similar front suspension, has to cope with 7Js and 205s.
I've put heavy Essex V6's into Cortinas on more than one occasion, and the (unassisted)steering was still pretty light. Wheels were 5 1/2J with the 185 tyres.
The 280i, with the same rack, and basically similar front suspension, has to cope with 7Js and 205s.
My steering was impossibly heavy, but that turned out to be a combination of no power steering, seized column UJ and seized ball joints!
All rebuilt and replaced now any it's pretty light...in fact sometimes when I turn it's a lot lighter than I expect and for a brief second I have thoughts of snapped colums, blown ujs etc fly through my mind...
All rebuilt and replaced now any it's pretty light...in fact sometimes when I turn it's a lot lighter than I expect and for a brief second I have thoughts of snapped colums, blown ujs etc fly through my mind...
No PAS here but it is ok. Like in not too heavy, only during parking, but with a little movement in the car it lights up immediately. Over 20-30 mph it is like normal and light and very precise (even compared to today's cars). Over the years, and it felt very heavy when I got the car up to 40 mph: proper alignment, new tyres, right tyre pressure (not too low), new ball joinst and greasing, rebushed. It is now ok for me, and was not in the past, and not considering to upgrade to PAS.
Rob
Rob
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