[Spridgets] Tight Steering

Guy Weller guy.weller at tiscali.co.uk
Sat May 3 02:33:52 MDT 2008


Marc,

The tightness of the kingpins should have nothing to do with how tight or
loose the nut on the top is.  There are shims in under the top trunnion that
set the clearance for the king pin. The nut is then put on tight - or to the
torque figure if you have one. It sounds like they have never been set up
properly since being replaced.

Your stiff steering could be due to misalignment between the steering rack
and the steering column.  The short splined stub of the pinion in the rack
needs to point exactly in line with the steering column.  If the rack has
been removed it could be rotated upwards or downwards by a few degrees
instead of pointing directly at the centre of the steering wheel.

To correct this, slacken the rack to bracket clamps and spin the steering
wheel loco to lock a few times before re-tightening them.

Another problem with the rack alignment could be with the positioning of the
shims between the rack clamps and the chassis rail.  Or the stiffness could
be in the column itself if it has got bent or if the bushes are not right.

Guy


-----Original Message-----
From: spridgets-bounces+guy.weller=tiscali.co.uk at autox.team.net
[mailto:spridgets-bounces+guy.weller=tiscali.co.uk at autox.team.net]On Behalf
Of Marc
Sent: 03 May 2008 06:55
To: Spridgets
Subject: [Spridgets] Tight Steering

I need  some advice to work out the tight steering issue with my 73
midget. The car had sat for at least 5 years before I got it. Maybe
more... I got a bunch of receipts with it, someone spent a lotta bucks
on it.

Among the items were rebuilt kingpins, which clearly have been installed
in the car. I have no idea who rebuilt them, but they look nice anyway...

With the front wheels off the ground, it took much force to spin the
steering wheel. I spent a while (hours!) flushing out the rack, and
refilled it. Now you can turn it from lock to lock with one finger. It
moves smoothly.

When driving, it still feels tight, and will not self-center. The wheel
will just stay in a turn. A while ago, someone  mentioned that sometimes
a washer or bushing is left out of the kingpins, and I should loosen up
the kingpin nut to see if that helps.

I went to do that and found the kingput nuts were already loose. Way
loose, actually. There's no way that they should be that loose.

I was also told to check/loosen the large nut on the rack, and also to
check the shims. This I could use a little guidance with.

But it seems to me that if the steering is still tight with the kingpin
nuts so loose, maybe it's not a kingpin problem. So I'm going to torque
those nuts to spec (40 ft/lbs I think).

--

Marc
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