Steering issue .?

[john hamblett]

Advice needed please 1995 4.0 chimaera does the steering normally self return on these cars as mine does not reurn very well without steering input geometry is set up properly and all balljoints etc are in good order could be this is a charecteristic of these cars as this is the first TVr I have owned
Any ideas very welcome

[Engineer1949]

castor action should centre without assistance but not snap back


john

[john hamblett]

Suspected as much it is not returning without assistance will have to delve a bit deeper as all components appear fine

[jtrinder]

Hi I had simaler problem it was the 2 ujs soaked them in wd40 and plenty of grease and all is good hope this helps
Jay

[john hamblett]

got this in bits now really frustrated all seems fine both steering ujs are fine rack seems ok feels a little rough when turning via hubs but i thinks this is normal hubs are a little stiff to turn without rack connected but not majorly
running out of options fast any ideas welcome

[john hamblett]

possibly getting somewhere now on my car as you turn the hub the top wishbone moves up and down a little checked on another car this doesnt happen

also on the other car the centre line of top wishbone is much close to centre of the shock absorber could the wishbone be upside down on my car ?

[john hamblett]

Edited by john hamblett on Tuesday 13th June 13:25

[Classic Chim]

Stop taking it apart! Mine has new bushes/ joints the lot, it still doesn't self centre exactly like a modern car especially at slower speeds. If you have play in a ball joint replace it but it's most likely rack wear.
Your pic shows what appears to be an adjustable spanner on the shock bolt, I hope that's only used for showing a line to wishbone. Your upper ball joint sits flush with the side the spanner is on and a 7 mm spacer fits in front of ball joint so giving you caster but I assume you know that.

Check your steering arm uj's are not binding and causing the steering to be stiff.

[john hamblett]

the spanner is there to show the line but the other car as shown the bar lines up more to the centre of the joint not expecting modern car standards but this is dangerous as it stands all ujs etc are fine stripped rack and all other items cannot find anything else wrong but i am fairly sure i have a castor problem now

Edited by john hamblett on Tuesday 13th June 13:44

Edited by john hamblett on Tuesday 13th June 13:45

[Classic Chim]

I've just realised that's a bar
You can't put the wrong wishbone on so it's not that.
You appear to have tubular lower wishbones with standard top ones. Could this be the issue. Does the other side look out compared to this side.

Caster can and will be effected slightly by ride height, is it sitting low at the rear.
Someone may correct me but what your seeing there is pretty standard tolerance on Tvr. What toe and camber settings were on the car.
So with wheels removed do you get any resistance or notching in the steering. Should be a very smooth operation and spin freely from lock to lock.
Might be a good idea to take some serious measurements of both sides of suspension on both cars and work it out. Suspension pick up point should be reasonably square to each other on the top rails. It wouldn't be to difficult to take measurements from say the lower chassis rails as they meets the nose as that should be accurate both sides and work along and up from there to determine various set positions wishbone points etc.

I'm minded of the need for correct geo which on cars such as these really should include corner weighting but geo setting up alone might show exactly where the problem is,,, if there is one. Is it P/s ?

[john hamblett]

it has been set up on geo by local race prep outfit just spoken to them and they say they think castor was ok
measuring on the other car the upper wishbone front arm is 5mm longer than on my car which would obviously push the hub back on the centre line
car is possibly a bit low at rear i am going to put the car back together and see how it is
really fed up now need it right

[TwinKam]

I wouldn't be happy with "...they think castor was OK..."... was there a print out?
First thing I would do is a full 4 wheel camera-based alignment check; this plots each wheel's position in space and against the others, it will show up set-back, wheel base and track width anomalies and all secondary angles (ie when steering is on lock) too.

[john hamblett]

Sorted at last bought a castor /camber gauge it had only 2 degrees castor it turned out it was indeed dodgy top wishbones both sides were identical but badly made
Fitted two replacement arms and now have 4.5 degrees castor retracked and it finally drives properly
Just a Miriad of minor niggles to sort and I will be happy with the car but more than likely will always want something doing to it