MartinM 0 Posted July 10, 2006 (edited) Did an event Sat. night. Have a small piece of white tape on steering wheel at 12 o'clock to show straight on (previous owner, honest!). New AB Motorsports rack 500 miles ago/50 competitive miles ago... All fine, then went down a pretty rough white at speed 'probably too fast'. Came out at end with white mark having to be 40 degrees clockwise to drive in a straight line. Handling normal, braking normal - just an offset steering wheel. Quick look at petrol - no wheels pointing awry, nothing obvious bent or stuck in steering. 15 miles after petrol steering started to stiffen. Within 10 miles it was so stiff I could set the car pointing in any direction, take hands of steering wheel and it would just continue in that direction. Thought about having to retire Went down another white. Hit a transverse concrete gulley at speed 'probably too fast' again. Big impact on front suspension. IMMEDIATELY after this, like 15 yards, steering was back to straight on, white tape back to 12 o'clock and all stiffness disappeared. Honest Drives straight, handling fine, braking fine. Had a quick look tonight at lower joint going into rack - it's a square pinion, the pinch bolt is lock-wired and hasn't moved and there's no witness marks that the clamp has moved 90 degrees and then returned. A virtual beer as a prize to tell me what's happened....Obviously need to check the splines at the steering wheel end of the column, but haven't had time to do that yet....but chances of wheel moving one way on splines on one impact and then back the same amount on another seems pretty slim Edited July 10, 2006 by MartinM Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonah 1 Posted July 10, 2006 Very strange Can't think of any one fault that would cause that. Sounds pretty unlikely as you say that the splined coupling would have moved one way and then back again (let alone the square coupling on the rack!). From my experience with rough whites, the first thing to bend is the bottom end of the struts where they go into the hub carrier. This results in toe-in which would explain the steering offset, and some negative camber. So my best guess is that you bent the o/s strut on the first white, and the n/s one on the second which evened out the steering again! Steering stiffness could be unrelated... Maybe the subframe moving about or the steering rack mounting bolts loose? Could put a lot of strain through the column and cause the UJ or pinion bearings to tighten up. Cracked steering rack casing even?? Failing that a problem with a strut top mount bearing or one of the balljoints seizing up. Gotta be one of those things so do I win the virtual beer? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
C_W 3 1 Cars Posted July 10, 2006 Maybe a spring dislodged and relodged itself!?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hengti 2 Posted July 11, 2006 i've had bother with intermittently stiff/loose stering on mine, which i traced to the lower column u/j the one i took off moved fine in one direction, but was extremely stiff in the other (very difficult to move by hand!) worth checking out - not difficult to disconnect the square pinion from the rack and just feel for stiffness in either direction by hand Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
