Hello Tim,
You explained about the steering assembly a while back and I
wanted to ask a few more questions.
It ends up that my turn signal-cancelling mechanism is not
centered. What can I remove to make this adjustment.
My rack and pinion is centered. It looks like I can remove the
flexible universal joint. Then loosen the bolt at the lower universal
joint and pull it off the spline to the rack. Turn to adjust (with the
wheels straight) and put back in.
It looks like the other joints have flats on the shaft so that they can
not be rotated.
Is this so? or is there a better way?
Alan
On 19 Oct 2002 at 9:03, Timothy Holbrook wrote:
> As long as the steering wheel was not removed from the shaft, and the
> steering shaft was not removed from the rack, the relative position of
> your steering wheel to the rack will not have changed.
>
> However, you must make sure you bolt the rack back to the chassis such
> that it is centrally positioned, otherwise your steering wheel will be
> crooked when the wheels are pointed dead ahead. You can make sure the
> rack is centrally mounted on the chassis by measuring using reference
> points on both sides (I use the distance from those metal "feet" on
> each side of the steering rack to the outer edge of the steering rack
> mounting area of the chassis). Bolt it down, now you know the steering
> rack itself it centralized on the chassis.
>
> As long as everything was dead center when you took the rack mounts off
> originally, you should now be in good shape. However, if something is
> a bit off, I would suggest you follow the step-by-step process I am
> about to lay out. I went through this after taking my steering system
> apart (wheel off shaft, shaft disconnected from rack, rack removed from
> car, etc) several years ago.
>
> You've got the rack centrally mounted on the chassis. Next step is to
> centralize the internal rack mechanism itself. Turn the steering wheel
> all the way to one lock. Then count the turns to the other lock.
> Halfway between the two is center. As a double check, you can remove
> the steering lubrication plug on the rack. If you put a thin Phillips
> screwdriver down there and you should feel a recessed "dot" at the
> center point of the rack. Now you know the steering rack is fully
> centralized. If the wheels aren't pointing straight ahead, you need an
> alignment to get the toe set properly.
>
> Now, if you've done step one and two, and the steering wheel isn't
> centered, you've got more work to do. There are two reasons why this
> could be. A) The steering shaft is not connected in the right position
> relative to the rack. B) The steering wheel is not properly
> positioned on the shaft.
>
> You can check A by removing the turn signal and headlight escutcheons
> and seeing if the cam mechanism on the steering shaft (the one used to
> turn off the turn signals when you turn the wheel back) is central.
> You want to make sure that when you turn on either turn signal, the
> distance (fraction of a turn on the steering wheel) to engage the
> signal-cancelling mechanism, is equal for both left and right turns.
>
> Let me digress for a second to explain what I mean by "engaging the
> turn signal-cancelling mechanism". If you turn the right turn signal
> on, and start turning the wheel to the right, you'll hear a faint
> "click" when the turn signal-cancelling mechanism engages. It is now
> engaged, such that when you turn the wheel back to the left, the turn
> signal will be turned off by the mechanism. The distance from the
> starting point (straight ahead) to the engagement ("click") of the turn
> signal ,mechanism must be equal for both left and right turns. If this
> is not so, you need to disconnect the steering shaft from the rack,
> turn the wheel until the shaft is centralized according to the turn
> signal canceller cam, and then reconnect the shaft to the rack. At
> this point, your rack is physically centered on the chassis, the
> internal rack mechanism is centered, and the shaft is properly
> positioned on the rack.
>
> Now, if the steering wheel is not pointed straight, you need to pull
> the wheel off the shaft and put it back on the shaft such that it's
> straight.
>
> Now everything is dead centered. As mentioned previously, if your
> wheels aren't pointing in the right direction, it's time to head down
> to the local alignment shop.
>
> Tim Holbrook
> 1971 TR6
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Alan & Debbie Lindner
theedge@cts.com
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