OK, I thought that we had very little activity here these days, so I
thought I'd let you in on my current project with my 2000 MKII Pre face
lift...
The steering has become "strange" lately. I experienced poor directional
stability and my car was quite uncomfortable to drive. And this weekend, it
started to rattle like hell, when going straight at high speed.... So, I
thought, I have to investigate this....
Jacked up the car, removed road wheels. Seemed to be some slack at the
steering rack balljoint on the right side (left side if you have a right
hand drive), and after sliding the gaiter off the joint, I found that there
is some slack between the tube casing and the rack itself, and this brings
me to my first point. In the rack housing on the opposite side of the
pinion (that is on the left side for right hand drive), there is a small
hole. If my memory serves me well, this hole is situated underneath the
bush, on top of the case. And further, I think there should be a small
plastic cylinder here pressing the rack towards the bottom of the casing.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is this a part that should be
renewed if there is slack between the casing and the rack? Maybe fitting an
oversize part would remove the slack? What is this small cylinder made of?
Any ideas on this?
Well, anyway, the slack I found here obviously couldn't cause the kind of
vibration and direction instability I have been experiencing, so I looked
for other causes. The suspension arm bushes were dissolved, I discovered...
I could rock the suspension arms almost 2 cms on the right side, and almost
1 cm on the left side. Without any effort on my behalf. The bushes were
simply eaten away. No wonder the steering was feeling strange, because the
terrible slack at this bush causes havoc with camber and toe-in (especially
toe-in!). I bought reconditioned suspension arms from Rimmer brothers last
summer, and they are now ruined after only 9 month's use... The bushes were
not of the PolyUrethane type, regrettably. And I can't see what I have been
doing wrongly, I made sure that the bushes were "at ease" in the laden
position so that no constant torque is applied to the bushes (I let the car
stand on it's wheels before tightening the bolt and nut)... To no avail...
Seems like inferior quality to me.
So, bringing me to my second and final point, I will now install new
polyurethane bushes to my suspension arms. I think that this bush is quite
important for steering and road holding, using anything else than
polyurethane bushes seems like false economy/safety... The same goes with
the drag strut, the poly urethane bushes really are superior in every
respect (harder, longer lasting and prettier (yes, that yellow colour is
great! Hehe)), your car's handling will improve with these. Preparing a
triumph for racing should include installing polyurethane bushes all
around, I think. Does anyone have any bad experiences with polyurethane
bushes??? I think not.
To change these particular bushes I'll need a bush press, but most garages
have this piece of equipment, and they usually lend it (at least here in
norway) for a few quid if anything at all.
Well, that was a long story, I hope that you are still awake and at good
spirit...
Anyway, we should use this forum a little more actively, I think. At least
I won't have a high threshold for what to post here...
---Asgeir---
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