Which steering column splines are finest?
Discussion
In the 10 years of owning my car I would say that at least 8/10 services have resulted in my steering wheel being slightly off-centre upon collection, which I have always had "corrected" by adjustment on the track rods, however I can then feel that the rack is slightly off-centre as left to right response feels subtly different (I'm sensitive to these things, clearly).
Rather than "correcting" at the track rods for the next 10 years I thought it might be time to get the rack and wheel aligned but think that the splines at the wheel boss will be too coarse and I will need to split the column elsewhere.
I seem to recall the spline count being different at each point of the column so was wondering:
A - which splines are finest to give me the best chance of achieving alignment?
B - where is the column easiest to split (regardless of if at finest splines)?
Any help much appreciated as the weekend may give me the opportunity to try and resolve this.
Rather than "correcting" at the track rods for the next 10 years I thought it might be time to get the rack and wheel aligned but think that the splines at the wheel boss will be too coarse and I will need to split the column elsewhere.
I seem to recall the spline count being different at each point of the column so was wondering:
A - which splines are finest to give me the best chance of achieving alignment?
B - where is the column easiest to split (regardless of if at finest splines)?
Any help much appreciated as the weekend may give me the opportunity to try and resolve this.
Simple. Align your steering wheel until it is completely straight and then set the tracking.
If you haven't got any equipment for this then it can be done at your local garage.
Ideally go to someone like Mat Smith racing for a full four wheel alignment.
After rebuilding my steering system at short notice I went to my local Kwik Fit on a Sunday morning. They aligned my steering wheel and set up the front wheels as requested by me using their laser gizmo and the steering wheel was perfectly straight, cost £20.
If you haven't got any equipment for this then it can be done at your local garage.
Ideally go to someone like Mat Smith racing for a full four wheel alignment.
After rebuilding my steering system at short notice I went to my local Kwik Fit on a Sunday morning. They aligned my steering wheel and set up the front wheels as requested by me using their laser gizmo and the steering wheel was perfectly straight, cost £20.
I know how easy it is to do via the trackrods but that means that "straight ahead" on the wheel is actually 10 degrees to the right on the rack and I get a different rate of response when turning left and right because I'm not starting from the centre of the rack. I'm sensitive to steering feel and the different feel niggles me almost as much as a misaligned steering wheel hence me wanting to properly fix the issue, not just cover it up again.
There are two ways to align the tow, adjust one side only or adjust both sides. Nasty backstreet garages align one side only because it's easier but it always results in steering wheel misalignment. If your service garage is cutting corners on wheel alignment then you ought to wonder where else they're cutting corners. I would strongly suggest you either find out why they are cutting corners or just go somewhere else from now on
phazed 11.83 said:
I suggest pulling back the bellows on the rack ends and centring the rack visually.
Remove and replace steering wheel in the correct position.
Adjust the track rods until your wheels are visually straight ahead and then go to a reputable garage for the tracking.
Centring the rack visually is exactly what the TVR service places appear to do each time I have the car serviced, which is spot on Remove and replace steering wheel in the correct position.
Adjust the track rods until your wheels are visually straight ahead and then go to a reputable garage for the tracking.
The issue is that the number of degrees between splines at the steering wheel is too great and will probably result in a wheel offset to the other side, hence me wanting to know where finer adjustment in the column lies to take the difference out but keep the rack central.
I'd park the car on level ground with the steering wheel positioned in its natural centre position i.e. No power assistance
My p/s rack I can feel the power assistance slightly kicking in when it's not been centred properly.
Your steering wheel will be say sat at 2 o'clock position (as an example)
Re position steering wheel by removing lower steering uj off rack, turning until steering wheel is central and re connecting making sure road wheels have stayed in the original position. Make plenty of marks for reference
re track the car and now it should be all straight together with no feel of p/s assistsnce when driving in a straight line
Sounds easy enough
Once you've removed o/s front wheel make marks on top and bottom steering uj onto the rack and the bearing it comes through at the top. In this case as long as you keep both front wheels in their original positions all your doing is re connecting the steering wheel in its correct central position so not needing the marks but if after doing this it's still say one spline out when set up it's now much easier to see how far you've moved it around on the splines when trying sgsin.
The issue is natural wear and play in the steering rack which makes getting it set correctly a slight guess, it's this play that can be the problem.
You will note that if your uj's are mounted correctly both bolts that nip them to steering shaft will be 90 deg to the shaft and sort of flat and level. This is so no pressure is applied to the joints when it's running straight lines so important to have them set correctly imho.
Someone will tell me that's nonsense but I'll still do it that way.
There is a correct orientation is my point
To get the lower uj off steering rack I found its best to loosen uj's at rack and column end, grip steering shaft with grips or similar, and tap the uj's up towards steering wheel as much as possible, it gives you a few extra needed mm. Then loosen the shaft bolts too and tap that up and into the upper uj as far as poss, I removed the bolt in that uj to allow a bit more movement
I found I then needed to loosen rack retaining bolts out about 8 mm and pushed rack forwards as I then pulled uj back and off rack shaft. Use plenty of lube on splines to ease movement.
It's a game but proper scribed marks will make it far more accurate.
My p/s rack I can feel the power assistance slightly kicking in when it's not been centred properly.
Your steering wheel will be say sat at 2 o'clock position (as an example)
Re position steering wheel by removing lower steering uj off rack, turning until steering wheel is central and re connecting making sure road wheels have stayed in the original position. Make plenty of marks for reference
re track the car and now it should be all straight together with no feel of p/s assistsnce when driving in a straight line
Sounds easy enough
Once you've removed o/s front wheel make marks on top and bottom steering uj onto the rack and the bearing it comes through at the top. In this case as long as you keep both front wheels in their original positions all your doing is re connecting the steering wheel in its correct central position so not needing the marks but if after doing this it's still say one spline out when set up it's now much easier to see how far you've moved it around on the splines when trying sgsin.
The issue is natural wear and play in the steering rack which makes getting it set correctly a slight guess, it's this play that can be the problem.
You will note that if your uj's are mounted correctly both bolts that nip them to steering shaft will be 90 deg to the shaft and sort of flat and level. This is so no pressure is applied to the joints when it's running straight lines so important to have them set correctly imho.
Someone will tell me that's nonsense but I'll still do it that way.
There is a correct orientation is my point
To get the lower uj off steering rack I found its best to loosen uj's at rack and column end, grip steering shaft with grips or similar, and tap the uj's up towards steering wheel as much as possible, it gives you a few extra needed mm. Then loosen the shaft bolts too and tap that up and into the upper uj as far as poss, I removed the bolt in that uj to allow a bit more movement
I found I then needed to loosen rack retaining bolts out about 8 mm and pushed rack forwards as I then pulled uj back and off rack shaft. Use plenty of lube on splines to ease movement.
It's a game but proper scribed marks will make it far more accurate.
Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 26th May 15:12
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