Steering alignment.

Fitting 2nd hand steering bars with new track rod ends/ball joints but old ones are bent to point cannot get old rod ends out to count how many turns to fit new ones. Can anybody help? Cheers chaps.

track rod you can only set by eye then get it tracked ,drag link must be set with pas box in center position

Measure the distance between the tyres at the leading side of the sidewall and again at the trailing side -

Fit the replacements and set up as the measurements - take it to get the tracking checked as JM says ...

Was thinking along those lines. Measure insides of front and back of leading tyres and run string lines along rear tyres to front and line up. Done it before with the motorbike and seemed to work. Game on then. Cheers fellas.

I use a straight piece of wood and hold it against the front wheel, keep adjusting the track rod until both wheels point in line with the rear wheels. Then you can adjust the front Bar on the steering box by keeping the front wheels in line with back wheels and turning the bar allowing it to turn the steering wheel until it is straight.

Cheers mark

Yea that's what I'm going to do. Just spoke to me ald fella he's always done the same on his 109. Easy peasy aye?! (Famous last words) haha

Did the same thing to my Disco over the weekend. The counting turns thing is only for when you'll be putting the old balljoints back into the trackrod/draglink, you need a tape measure and a steel rule when you put new ones in.

To get old ones out, a couple of hammers to thwack around the trackrod (to split any rust),half a can of WD40, a bench vice and a bar over the balljoint taper threads will do the trick. My breaker bar has a hangy hole drilled through the end just right for slotting over. It WILL be graft though.

Refitting new ones isn't reverse of removal...

Wind the Adjustment bar out of the trackrod clean all the threads.

Fit the balljoints to the trackrod and adjustment bar so the the centre of the balljoint is 28.5mm to the trackrod/adjuster end.

Wind the adjuster bar in so the shoulder of the bar is 9mm from the end of the trackrod.

Adjust things so the balljoints are inline with each other, the distance centre to centre is 1230mm and the angle between the balljoints and the steering damper bracket is 43° +- 10° - by eye is good enough on that tolerance.

Copper ease helps the job immensely. A bench vice to hold the trackrod ends upright and a Stilson wrench to turn the trackrod/adjuster was invaluable too. I happened that gripping the trackrod and turning the balljoint may damage it.

Fit to your landy, torque setting is 40Nm - if you don't have a t-wrench, 40Nm is a lot less than you think.

Check the 1230mm distance. I used a half decent tape measure mole gripped to the retaining nut nearside, had to wind the adjuster slightly to get it cock on.

Mr Haynes-Manual has all those measurements and a slightly less well written how to in psalm 11:6 (I think).

YOur making it sound terrifyingly difficult now! Ha

DiscoNickY said:

Was thinking along those lines. Measure insides of front and back of leading tyres and run string lines along rear tyres to front and line up. Done it before with the motorbike and seemed to work. Game on then. Cheers fellas.

Click to expand...

Well, at least one of us is a girl ... , but I will forgive you ...

take old one off. place a plank on the floor. Place old steering arm on it. Then at each end nail a bit of wood thicker than the trackrod end. to each of the sides. remove the steering arm. place the new one on the plank and adjust the trackrod ends so that its a snug fit. Then fit on car. It's easier than that sounds. But works a treat as long as tracking was ok in the first place.

That would work except old ones bent ya see. Straiught edge and string this weekend, ill sort it. How hard can it be?! Ha