i have seen anything from an ungodly tight(hammer it together) to slip fit.
possibly when new and no road dirt or rust have been introduced or before
the pinch portion has been "pinched", it was a relativly easy fit. but
considering the time , miles and years of wet / dry cycles it's darn amazing
it comes apart at all!
now, my saab powered H-modified sports racer uses a modified sprite steering
shaft and early style rack. the angle of the rack is a very interesting
conversation piece when viewed by most as it was very oddly mounted in order
to get the steering shaft to end up "near" the center of where the driver
sits in the car.
i suspect the shim is needed in order to eliminate the binding wich is being
experienced. umm try loosening the column after you have the shaft
reinstalled to the rack. the little bit of movement you get by loosening
and retightening might just be the little relief to get enough alignment in
order to free up the return of the steering to center when released coming
out of a corner. castor is the alignment adjustment wich induces "return "
when coming out of a corner alowing the steering to bring itself back to
center. unfortunatly castor is not an adjustable item in these cars . so
the binding you are experiencing, must be a misalignment in the geometry
between the steering wheel and the rack's pinion.
chuck.
that's my best darn guess!
-----Original Message-----
From DLancer7676 at cs.com <DLancer7676@cs.com>
To: midgetsprite@yahoogroups.com <midgetsprite@yahoogroups.com>;
spridgets@autox.team.net <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Date: Sunday, August 10, 2003 7:37 PM
Subject: Still Steering.
>I got a chance to check out my steering problems this morning. My plan was
>to loosen all the mounting bolts and pull the steering column away from the
>steering rack and reassemble it by the numbers. The manual indicated that
the
>pinch fitting would fit over the steering rack gear easily. Disassembly
>required a crow bar and a large hammer to eventually separate the column
and the
>rack. Once the column was separated from the rack, the rack seemed to move
much
>easier. I am thinking I assembled the rack and column in a bind.
> So trying to reassemble it, the pinch fitting still balks at going
onto
>the steering rack shaft. I did install (this morning) the distance piece
on
>the left (driver's) side of the rack to try to straighten everything up.
>Should the steering column be that difficult to slide over the shaft?
> The manual says to install the shaft and THEN tighten the mounting
>bolts. I plan to go that route to see if it loosens up the steering. But
I don't
>really want to hammer the pinch bolt onto the steering rack shaft if it is
>supposed to be a slide fit. Anybody have a comment on this?
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