[Mgs] Fwd: How to "align" the steering wheel?

Richard Ewald richard.ewald at gmail.com
Fri May 11 22:00:23 MDT 2012


It's late, I hit reply and just sent this to Max not the list.
DOH!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Ewald <richard.ewald at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 11, 2012 at 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Mgs] How to "align" the steering wheel?
To: Max Heim <mvheim at sonic.net>


On a B the only adjustment is front toe.  The problem is if the alignment
shop just mounts the front heads, and does a set the toe and go alignment
there is an excellent chance the steering wheel won't be straight and the
car will not track straight (it might drive straight, but the rear tires
won't roll over the exact same piece of ground as the fronts, they will be
offset just a bit.
The reason for this is the rear axle is a bit off.  Over the years the axle
has shifted so one side is further forward than the other side.  This gives
a toe in condition on one side and a toe out condition on the other side.
In essence you B now has rear wheel steer.
What needs to be done is have the alignment shop mount the rear heads and
measure the thrust line and adjust from there.If the thrust line is just a
bit off, they can adjust the front to compensate, if it is way off, you
might have to mess with the axle to spring mounts, or look at the spring
mounts.  I have loosened up axle to spring mounts on both sides, massaged
both side with a hammer and re-tightened to bring a thrust line under
control.
All of the above presumes that the camber or one of the other angles is not
off on your car.
If you are in Southern California, I would be more than happy to toss it up
on my alignment rack at work.
Rick


On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Max Heim <mvheim at sonic.net> wrote:

> If it was just the steering wheel, I would remove the horn button, remove
> the big nut, pull the wheel and reset it on the splines. But this won't
> change the turn signal behavior -- the autocancel boss is on the steering
> column shaft somewhere. This fact should tell you that the shaft is not
> centered. Which might well mean that the alignment shop has one tie rod set
> longer than the other (it's hard to make them give a hoot when it is
> tracking straight regardless -- the real trick is to get it tracking
> straight WITH THE WHEEL CENTERED, but they often don't want to believe
> this). Can you compare your turning radius, righthand versus lefthand?
>
> --
>
> Max Heim
> '66 MGB GHN3L76149
> If you're near Menlo Park, CA,
> it's the primer red one with chrome wires
>
> PS: My signals have never autocancelled, so I recenter the wheel all the
> time...
>
>
> on 5/11/12 1:52 PM, Andrew B. Lundgren at lundgren at byu.net wrote:
>
> > I have a '70 B.
> >
> > As long as I have had the car, you have to hold the wheel at about 5
> > degrees to the right to go straight.  I had the front end aligned a
> > while back, and I don't think it is out.
> >
> > My turn signal auto cancel is also impacted by the wheel not pointing
> > straight when the car is going straight.
> >
> > How do you align the steering wheel so that when you hold it straight,
> > the car goes straight?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --
> > Andrew
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