UJ Spline Vs Steering wheel

[Wildfire]

Like a fool, I have managed to mis align my steering by fitting the UJ one tooth out. Now I believe that I can just remove the steering wheel and move it across one spline, but whenever I try to do this it over compensates.

Am I moving 2 splines or do I have to remove the UJ again! (Please God no!) to get straight steering?

[barreti]

Been there, done that, still got the out of alignment steering wheel !
I'm fairly sure you need to undo the UJ. Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.

[GreenV8S]

You will have to work out which spline is wrong, and correct it there. For example if you have an 18 spline joint you can only adjust it in multiples of 1/18 of a turn. If you're really *really* unlucky and did something evil in an earlier life then you'll find you need to adjust more than one spline e.g. 1/18 forward and 1/24 back. At that point you will probably decide to say sod it and correct it on the track rod ends.

[talkwrench]

GreenV8S said:

You will have to work out which spline is wrong, and correct it there. For example if you have an 18 spline joint you can only adjust it in multiples of 1/18 of a turn. If you're really *really* unlucky and did something evil in an earlier life then you'll find you need to adjust more than one spline e.g. 1/18 forward and 1/24 back. At that point you will probably decide to say sod it and correct it on the track rod ends.

which will, of course, throw the geometry out and probably induce bump steer.....
Unequal track rod lengths - never a good plan.

[the gazman]

talkwrench said:

GreenV8S said:

You will have to work out which spline is wrong, and correct it there. For example if you have an 18 spline joint you can only adjust it in multiples of 1/18 of a turn. If you're really *really* unlucky and did something evil in an earlier life then you'll find you need to adjust more than one spline e.g. 1/18 forward and 1/24 back. At that point you will probably decide to say sod it and correct it on the track rod ends.

which will, of course, throw the geometry out and probably induce bump steer.....
Unequal track rod lengths - never a good plan.

Thats what I've got after a main dealer fitted a new rack, nightmare

[Wildfire]

what everybody said said:

Stuff

Ae!!

[spend]

There should be an central alignment dot on the rack input shaft - I double checked mine to make sure it was accurate. I assumed it was original & all racks..

Its good character building cleaning UJ's and fitting gaitors anyway

Dave

[GreenV8S]

talkwrench said:

which will, of course, throw the geometry out and probably induce bump steer.....
Unequal track rod lengths - never a good plan.

True, although if you work out the impact of a few mil difference from side to side it's really very small indeed. Not saying it's the *right* way to do it, but I suspect that quite a few people would find this an acceptable compromise after they've spent a few hours fighting with splined connectors.

[dnb]

There's bigger things that affect the geometry than half a turn on a track rod end...

[that daddy]

Spot on guys a turn or two will not upset the central position(damping)of the rack its large amounts that cause the problems,normally noticable after a Kwikfit tracking job(seen plenty of those and pissed steering wheels)but you guys know that alreadygod im missing my chim

[Wildfire]

spend said:

There should be an central alignment dot on the rack input shaft - I double checked mine to make sure it was accurate. I assumed it was original & all racks..

Its good character building cleaning UJ's and fitting gaitors anyway

Dave

Is that the one that comes out of the rack or the one between the two UJs?

I think it was the steering column that moved anyhow.

When you put the steering lock on, is the steering wheel supposed to be central? If it is this will help me a lot, as mine was off centre to start with.

[GreenV8S]

Wildfire said:

When you put the steering lock on, is the steering wheel supposed to be central? If it is this will help me a lot, as mine was off centre to start with.

The wheel should be central when the rack is in the middle of its travel. The lock on the steering column is not something you can reference the position from.

[Wildfire]

Ah well never mind. I guess if I want satifaction it'll be another few hours work and trial and error.

[spend]

I had a dot on the steering rack spline and a line on the casting ~ it was hard enough just following down the line of a spline to line up... you seem to get snow blind with the splines. That just positioned the steering rack in its central position. The rest I did carefully, and kept checking before fully pushing home & tightening up the UJs. Mine was a little out before but subsequently perfect. Then the tracking was foobarred - but I guess it had been adjusted several times & poss when the UJ's had'nt been aligned properly.

Dave

[Wildfire]

Ah pants! Well I guess that I know what I will be doing next Sunday then!