defender steering frightening

Landyfox said:

I literally just replaced the drop arm, ball joint, steering damper, track rod and track rod ends before setting the tracking. This made an enormous difference to the wandering, virtually cleared up completely. I then replaced the two UJ's on the steering rack, fantastic, honestly there was only a small amount of movement but this was represented as massive amounts of play at the steering wheel prior to swapping over. Afterwards....awesome, it all made a massive difference Rob.

Quite fancy a decent steering damper, not to expensive tho.

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I've seen a few people say they're running without a damper with no adverse affects, so no point buying something to expensive anyway

I fitted a bilstien one to mine, good brand and was about £33 off ebay which didn't seem too bad, well if it was I wouldn't have bought it

Is this the 110 you're having issue on?
Check tyre pressures too rears need 48 psi
My previous 110 had 30 psi all round and with a bit of load in the back on its route home was scary, luckily I checked the tyres at a local garage and put them right to great success, the snaking disappeared completely

aaronmorris said:

I've seen a few people say they're running without a damper with no adverse affects, so no point buying something to expensive anyway

I fitted a bilstien one to mine, good brand and was about £33 off ebay which didn't seem too bad, well if it was I wouldn't have bought it

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That's not too bad mate, did you notice a difference.?!

Landyfox said:

That's not too bad mate, did you notice a difference.?!

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It's on my rebuild so, erm... nope
To be honest it was kind of an impulse buy, well yer know what eBay's like, I just can't help myself :crazy:
If not I'd have just fitted an Armstrong one for half the price, but then that isn't shiny and yellow

Galvernisednuts said:

Is this the 110 you're having issue on?
Check tyre pressures too rears need 48 psi
My previous 110 had 30 psi all round and with a bit of load in the back on its route home was scary, luckily I checked the tyres at a local garage and put them right to great success, the snaking disappeared completely

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yes on the 110,will check pressures

I'm having the same issue with my disco 2. i use a bit of steer to change lanes and the car can just fly over. having to really concentrate when driving it.

nothing seems loose on mine underneath -have jacked it up and pulled/pushed replaced a few worn ball joints, but the steering box looks hugely suspect. it's covered in gunk which seems to be from a leak, from it's self.

does the steering box just die? any way to check the box? No play in steering wheels, just veering once up to A road speed.

steering boxes wear as well as leak ,its worth checking steering is set correctly ie steering box is central when road wheels are

jamesmartin said:

steering boxes wear as well as leak ,its worth checking steering is set correctly ie steering box is central when road wheels are

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James a bit of an embarrassing question, but how do make sure the steering box is central when road wheels are.?! I didn't even realise it had to be.

Theirs a notch in the back of the drop arm then a hole in the steering box, line the 2 up and stick a suitable sized drill bit in and see where your wheels point.

Landyfox said:

James a bit of an embarrassing question, but how do make sure the steering box is central when road wheels are.?! I didn't even realise it had to be.

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input shaft has a worm which the sector shaft is closest too when box is central as you move away from center to either lock the shaft and worm become further apart giving progressively more play ,box has a center tight spot ,you either use a pin or drill bit up the slot in drop arm or count turns of steering wheel ,there should be 3 and 3/4s from lock to lock so you set wheel in the middle , i then set steering wheel by removing it or one of the ujs on the steering shaft so its correct , you now know when your steering wheel is correct steering box is central ,so if you go on a test drive iof steering wheel is running to one side road wheels arent straight when box is central , if you park up keeping steering wheel as it was when you were driving straight adjusting the drag link to realign steering wheel will set the road wheels to box , it make take a few test drives to get exactly right

Bugger....IWhen I bought the Landy the steering wheel was a little off centre, I just took the steering wheel of and realigned.