self inflicted steering problem - any ideas?

Yesterday I succeeded in balancing my series 3 on the apex of a steepish
limestone hill. One wheel on the ground. I got rather annoyed after 15
minutes of jumping up and down to unbalance the car with the hand
throttle engaged and wheels spinning in the air. Then as things were
getting good I turned the steering wheel violently to correct things
just as I was getting traction. Anyway I turned too hard and heard like
a screech noise somewhere from the steering side of things. Now its
seems the steering wheel is not centred properly and I have minimised my
left turning circle. Apart from that everything is fine and it drives
fine(apart from hardish left turns). Any ideas before I interrogate the
Haynes tommorrow? Maybe Ive jammed a branch between a stop lock?
Help much appreciated.

Coops

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:40:08 GMT, Coops <[email protected]> wrote:

>Yesterday I succeeded in balancing my series 3 on the apex of a steepish
>limestone hill. One wheel on the ground. I got rather annoyed after 15
>minutes of jumping up and down to unbalance the car with the hand
>throttle engaged and wheels spinning in the air. Then as things were
>getting good I turned the steering wheel violently to correct things
>just as I was getting traction. Anyway I turned too hard and heard like
>a screech noise somewhere from the steering side of things. Now its
>seems the steering wheel is not centred properly and I have minimised my
>left turning circle. Apart from that everything is fine and it drives
>fine(apart from hardish left turns). Any ideas before I interrogate the
>Haynes tommorrow? Maybe Ive jammed a branch between a stop lock?
>Help much appreciated.
>

Check for obstructions in the steering gear first. And while you're
under there, check to see if the drag link or the track rod is bent as
well. Assuming both these are fine, your problem is likely to be the
steering box itself.

Check the number of turns of the wheel lock-to-lock against the specs
in the haynes book, it's possible you've damaged the steering box.
Have a close look at it, if there's been internal damage, then it's
quite possible that the lid will have forced itself off as well. You
should also get both wheels off the ground, and see if the action is
smooth from lock to lock, and stiffness or dragging should be
investigated.

If you don't find anything wrong, keep looking and checking things,
something could be about to fail, and you shouldn't really be driving
it before you're fully satisfied.

Alex

Coops wrote:

> Yesterday I succeeded in balancing my series 3 on the apex of a steepish
> limestone hill. One wheel on the ground. I got rather annoyed after 15
> minutes of jumping up and down to unbalance the car with the hand
> throttle engaged and wheels spinning in the air. Then as things were
> getting good I turned the steering wheel violently to correct things
> just as I was getting traction. Anyway I turned too hard and heard like
> a screech noise somewhere from the steering side of things. Now its
> seems the steering wheel is not centred properly and I have minimised my
> left turning circle. Apart from that everything is fine and it drives
> fine(apart from hardish left turns). Any ideas before I interrogate the
> Haynes tommorrow? Maybe Ive jammed a branch between a stop lock?
> Help much appreciated.
>
> Coops

If the steering wheel centring changed in the circumstances you describe,
then you would appear to have "done something". I would look for either a
broken centre bolt, a bent track rod or drag link (either side of the
relay) and failing that I would suspect that one of the arms on the top or
bottom of the steering relay has skipped a tooth on the spline - if this is
the case you may have to replace both the arm and the shaft. Other
possibilities include the steering wheel having moved on the shaft - the
spline on this is not necessarily tight, and the drive should be taken on
the taper, so it could have turned by the slack in the spline. Other long
shots include a loose steering arm, ball joint shifted in its tube, broken
spring, steering box or its support moved. The screech was probably the
tyre hitting something, such as a spring or the body.
Thinking about it, I expect that a broken centre bolt is the most likely, as
it is the only one that would allow the wheel to hit the spring or body,
although your steering stops may be wrongly adjusted, allowing the contact
to be made in extreme conditions.
JD

In message <[email protected]>
Coops <[email protected]> wrote:

> Yesterday I succeeded in balancing my series 3 on the apex of a steepish
> limestone hill. One wheel on the ground. I got rather annoyed after 15
> minutes of jumping up and down to unbalance the car with the hand
> throttle engaged and wheels spinning in the air. Then as things were
> getting good I turned the steering wheel violently to correct things
> just as I was getting traction. Anyway I turned too hard and heard like
> a screech noise somewhere from the steering side of things. Now its
> seems the steering wheel is not centred properly and I have minimised my
> left turning circle. Apart from that everything is fine and it drives
> fine(apart from hardish left turns). Any ideas before I interrogate the
> Haynes tommorrow? Maybe Ive jammed a branch between a stop lock?
> Help much appreciated.
>
> Coops

Assuming there's no obvious external damage, the it could well
be that one of the half-shaft uj's has broken up and one
or more cups has fallen into the bottom of the swivel housing.
This will then prevent that swivel ball turning properly.

One way to check, though not as good as having a look inside,
is to turn the steering towards the affected side as far as you
can while stationary. If you can then "wind up" the steering,
such that the wheel whips back through your hands (mind those
fingers) then that can indicate a uj problem.

Cheers
Richard
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