Draglink issue

Hi all, today's issue is the steering drag link on my 110 200tdi. I replaced the drop arm last night as it had worked loose. So I centered the steering box with the drop arm pointing dead ahead. But my drag link would not fit, back on until I turned the drop arm to the 1 o clock position pointing out to the offside wheel. Is this normal?

I still have full lock both ways, but on the nearside when you turn full lock there is a noticeable thud from the ball joint and the swivel housing seems to jolt at the same time.

I have measured the drag link and from centre to centre it is 924mm give or take a mm.

I suspect all my ball joints are done in so New are on order for replacement, do I shorten the drag link bar and straighten the steering box?

Cheers all!

get underneath, back of drop arm has a notch which lines up with box, use a drillbit/screw driver. it is offset.

once that is lined up, center steering wheel.

then adjust drag for your wheels.

trax said:

get underneath, back of drop arm has a notch which lines up with box, use a drillbit/screw driver. it is offset.

once that is lined up, center steering wheel.

then adjust drag for your wheels.

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Cheers. I have just done the string test to check alignment of the wheels and my off side front is toe out by about 5mm, near side is fine.

Can you adjust one wheel only?

whut? think you are confused, go google

tracking is done with wheel straight a must be ok before you tackle steering alignment, its not the case that 1 wheels out but both a little you just happen to have one straight and all the error on the other, tracking is checking the 2 wheels are parallel to each other nothing else

Confused I am! So in order to correct do I disconnect the drag link and track rod, re-centre, the steering box and adjust and connect up the track rod and drag link to the new wheel and drop link positions.
Sounds easy......but I bet it isn't!

forget about draglink etc till you have set the 2 wheels parallel by adjusting the track rod (rear of axle), then you set steering box central ,set steering wheel to now centered box ,then have a drive and set drag link to ensure steering wheel is running correct when your driving straight, ie if when driving the steering wheel runs offset to the left ,when you get back leave the steering wheel in that position and lengthen the drag link till steering wheel is centered again, the retest

as above, unless you didn't touch the trackrod and it was all fine before you did the drop arm work.

then i'd presume it was correct and you've just parked it up with one straight which would be around 2mm toe out, which is correct (0-2mm toe out)

jamesmartin said:

forget about draglink etc till you have set the 2 wheels parallel by adjusting the track rod (rear of axle), then you set steering box central ,set steering wheel to now centered box ,then have a drive and set drag link to ensure steering wheel is running correct when your driving straight, ie if when driving the steering wheel runs offset to the left ,when you get back leave the steering wheel in that position and lengthen the drag link till steering wheel is centered again, the retest

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Cheers James & Trax, I will get into it this weekend and hopefully chalk these jobs off my list.

Track rod ends, drop arm ball joint done, wheels adjusted and all in line. Thanks for your help and also to discomania! Pinion bearings next!