Good Evening All,
Does your MR2 roadster steering move the wheels out to exactly the same degree/amount on both sides?
I've recently had to undo my steering rack at the knuckle and the two mount bolts then move it back to get to the metal mount underneath and paint it. When I put it back I was careful to make sure the knuckle went back in exactly the same tooth/place (marked it with paint) but now my steering wheel isn't central.
If I move the wheels to straighten them up they are both in line, so not sure why the steering wheel is no longer straight however I noticed something a little stranger than this...
If I steer all the way to the right until I hit the bump stop I see half of the width of the tire tread if I look directly down on it above the wing, but if I steer all the way to the left bump stop I can see the entire width of the tyre tread when I look directly down. So it appears the rack moves move left than right.
Anyone else noticed this on their cars? Is this normal? Or perhaps this is a sign something is massively out on mine now lol
The steering wheel is slightly more right than it should be, so I think if I get it in for alignment/tracking they would adjust the tie rod ends more left to bring the steering wheel straight which 'may' correct this but its one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Steering isn't really my area of expertise so I'm a little stunned by this.
It looks like you moved the rack while it was unbolted.
The tyres should be equally exposed at full lock.
Did you brace the steering wheel in position when you disconnected the uj from the rack?
Quote from: Call the midlife! on January 22, 2023, 17:51Did you brace the steering wheel in position when you disconnected the uj from the rack?
Yep. And I painted it so It's gone back in 100% the same place.
Quote from: Carolyn on January 22, 2023, 16:53It looks like you moved the rack while it was unbolted.
The tyres should be equally exposed at full lock.
Yes I did move the rack while it was unbolted. But the steering is 100% back in the same place.
Really weird.
Cheers all. Will take it in for a full alignment after i've done all the new suspension and get them to centre the rack for me at the same time.
I suspect that the splines on the rack are 360 degrees off.
I've figured it out :) and its actually a really simple and stupid mistake.
I watched back some video from earlier this week and I see the issue...
(https://i.ibb.co/GpMPpQC/Screen-Shot-2023-01-22-at-20-25-21.png) (https://ibb.co/GpMPpQC)
The rack has a normal circular bush on the passenger side (which is basically impossible to get wrong) and on the drivers side there is a D shaped bush that the rack just sits on... as we can see from the photo this isn't sat correctly so the rack is probably about 1cm too higher on the drivers side. So instead of pushing completely horizontally is pushing at an angle which is reducing the travel of the wheel. That would also explain why the steering wheel is no longer straight even though I know 100% its connected back up in the same place.
So all I should need to do is undo the rack bolts and the UJ and tap the rack down until its sat correctly on that funny bush. That should then increase the travel on the drivers side to match how far the wheel turns on the passenger side.
So tried to reseat the rack today... turns out it doesn't have a D shaped bush like the MK2 on one side and its the mount that is actually broken so need a whole new steering rack! No way to repair that :(