My 72B's wandering is almost gone. Anyway, I wrote in about a week ago
about the car's front end wandering. A front end alignment had cut the
wandering down considerably but it was still there, at least enough to be
annoying. Lawrie mentioned that a proper front end alignment, when done
properly, should mention any looseness. The technician had noted a slight
looseness in the left kingpin. But this I did not believe and in checking
the wheels, I noticed that there was a looseness. But only in rotating the
left wheel at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions, there was freeplay of maybe
1/4" or so.
It seemed somewhat obvious to me that the looseness would have to be in the
rack and pinion despite what the service technician said. But I am only an
amateur. However, Lawrie also confirmed my thoughts. I had never
disassembled a rack and pinion before, and my Moss catalog indicates a lot
of parts are not available. But I did have two spare rack and pinions - the
leaky one from my old 71BGT and the original one from my 72B that did not
turn very well. The one that was in my 72B was a "like new" special off of
Ebay - the one that was nice and shiney but the boots were cracked and I
had to replace them.
So yesterday, I took the two old rack and pinions apart. The rack was
actually bent on the 72 so I used its case and used most of the other parts
from the 71 to get one decent leak resistant rack and pinion. By then, I
knew how it all worked. Then on the 72B itself, I drained the oil from the
rack and pinion, pulled back the rubber boot so I could see the inner tie
rod. I rotated the wheel again at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and sure
enough, I could see the looseness in the inner tie rod. It wouldn't tighten
on an initial try so I said the hell with it. I removed the whole rack and
pinion, measured the tie rod ends carefully and put them on the rack I had
just rebuilt and put that on the car. I think the whole process of making
the one rack and then replacing the one in the car took most of the afternoon.
I still haven't taken the removed rack apart but when moving the tie rod,
it moves with what appears to be the correct tension but there is a rough
spot in there. It may be the inner tie rod end or that metal wafer it
rotates on.
But a test drive today at speeds up to 70 mph, the car rode very well. The
wandering is there but is barely noticeable. And that could be the tires at
this point - I still have two rims to paint and then I'll be putting on two
new tires on the front. Sure beats my 67BGT now - it has somewhat of a
shake at around 70 mph but it also has wire wheels that are not quite true.
But I'll be getting back to the 67BGT after I'm done with the 72B. My next
projects are to figure out why the wipers don't work and why the lowbeam is
out on one of the front headlights. And I need to adjust the doors to close
a bit smoother....
David Councill
67 BGT original and worn
72 B almost new
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|