Steering problem

[MonkeyBoy]

Apologies in advance for the rambling girth of this post……

 

I was coming home from work the other day and noticed that the steering wheel wasn’t dead central as it usually is i.e. instead of holding it straight, I had to turn to the right slightly to drive straight. This sounds similar to the sympotms described here

 

When I got home I had a look - nothing seems loose but when I looked at it, one wheel is straight but the other is turned outwards slightly.

 

Also, a guy reversed into my in the car park last week, only a minor scrape but he did scratch up the nose cone. I didn’t notice anything wrong straight afterwards and this steering problem only appeared three days later but it does seem awfully coincidental.

 

Anyway, at some point I’m going to take the car to Caterham so they can sort a new nose cone and I’ll get them to look at this as well.

 

So, after all the rambling above, my question is, is it safe to drive as it is ? In particular to do a 100+ mile journey from Oxford to Caterham ? Or can I easily adjust the tracking ( 🤔 ) so it’s good enough to drive around on until I get it properly looked at ?

 

Thanks for listening!

Alistair

 

[Normans_Ghost]

Sounds like he may have moved the rack slightly on it's mountings.

 

I take it the car isn't pulling to one side and it's just the steering wheel isn't straight when your going straight

 

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[sjmmarsh]

Alastair

 

1. Are you sure that it isn't just the camber of the road that is doing this? Most cars tend to pull to the left if you drive 'hands free'. Try straddling the crown of the road (having first made sure that the road is clear in both directions!) and see if the problem goes away. It may be that it always did this but since the bump you are more aware.

 

2. You describe what sounds like toe-out, which increases the tendency of a car to follow the camber - and if one wheel was knocked it is possible that this has happened (it would need a fairly hefty knock though at parking speeds). The nose cone does make wheels look as if they toe-out even when they are parallel though.

 

Will the car go in a straight line if you take your hands off the wheel once you are going straight, or does it immediately pull to the left?

 

Steve

[Myles]

Check the clearance of the end of the steering-arm from the face of the brake disc - both sides.

 

If the toe has changed due to a bump - something basically has to have bent with the current rack - it can't slide in the mounts.

 

After my Anglesey accident (which destroyed the rack by yanking it violently past the stops), the rack-bridge (the bit of chassis that the rack sits on) had visibly been deformed - the rack hadn't moved relative to the bridge.

 

Several months after the rebuild - while complaining to another local about the car pulling to the left on m-ways etc., the chap suggested checking the steering arm (he'd suffered a similar accident).

 

Sho'nuff, the gap between the nearside (left) arm and disc was large enough to get a finger between the two. The offside (the one that didn't take the hit) had a much smaller gap.

 

Is the column-clamp (just inside the engine-bay between the pedal box and the firewall - it clamps the upper column to the lower...) OK/loose/twisted.

 

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---

[MonkeyBoy]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated

 

I went home last night and had another look, the Caterham steering rack is solidly mounted the frame and seems ok, another root around and everything else seems ok.

 

On the journey home i tried the 'hands off wheel in centre of the road' test on a couple of different stretches of road. It doesn't pull either way and drives straight but the steering wheel is offset. If you put the steering wheel 'straight' then the car definately turns to the left, but if you let go of the wheel it pulls back to driving straight with the wheel offset.

 

I'll take another look at the steering arms tonight and see if there's a difference, i didn't notice anything but i'll have a proper look tonight.

 

Looking at it, to adjust the steering wheel back so it's straight, the places seem to be...

the splined input to the steering rack

the splined end of the universal joint to the steering column

the column clamp just after the pedal box

 

But don't know which one is best to adjust ?

 

Cheers

Alistair

[Dickie Normuss]

Al, if it's only slight and adjustment in the areas you mention are likely to take it too far the other way, probably need to adjust the track rod ends

 

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[Unclefester]

Why not just get the tracking checked, then set with the steering wheel held in the straight ahead position?

 

Then it'll be right even if the Parking King did slightly bend something....

 

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