steering/wheel alignment problem

Went out earlier today and I hit what appears to be some of the steering components of my '93 discovery on a tree stump. Following this the steering has been a bit erratic. it takes a lot of effort to keep it going in a straight line and the steering goes lumpy around the neutral position and wont drive straight. Instead it veers fairly violently off to either side.

Having had a quick look it doesn't look like anything is bent, However when you step back from the front of the car, its clear to see that one of the wheels is out at an angle from the other.

Could this simply by a case of getting the tracking seeing too or could it be something more sinister than that?

any suggestions would be much appreciated

start with the cheapest and easist being the tracking, does it look like camber at all?

no it doesnt llok like camber. when one is pointing straight ahead, the other is off to the opposite side. ie they are pointing away from each other

int much point in getting yer trackin dun.. if yer whacked a tree stump and one wheel is wonky then yer bent something. and yer need to get it changed

Have you looked at the track rod, that is the bar behind the axle. That is a common one to bend on a stump, and gives the symptoms you describe.

What he says ^^^^

I had a proper look under the car today and it was quite evident that i have smacked the tracking rod on the stump. It has managed to bend in multiple directions and folded the damper right over. Luckily its just the main tube and not the adjusters or rod ends. Ive ordered a new one along with damper so hopefully it should be arriving soon!

I would put new end on it as well, cos have took a hammering to.

if yer gonna do it yerself , count how many turns it takes to gert yer TRE's orf. that way you can bung em back on and it will be near enough correct so yer can drive to **** kwik( to get it checked) safely without the landy wandering all over the place.

thanks for all the advise guys. its sitting in my drive on axle stands at the moment so I've just got to wait for the new rod now!!

dads got a laser distance measurer at home so i should be able to get the tracking done fairly accurately myself without having to go done to kwik fit.

Howdy!

Do you guys not have wheel alignment shops in the UK? They are everywhere here and most bigger tyre shops have a bay now for doing them. Takes about 30mins all up and costs bugger all.

Just curious...

discojamz said:

thanks for all the advise guys. its sitting in my drive on axle stands at the moment so I've just got to wait for the new rod now!!

dads got a laser distance measurer at home so i should be able to get the tracking done fairly accurately myself without having to go done to kwik fit.

Click to expand...

septic alert.. course we have garages that do tracking and stuff, where'd y'awl think we is? montana?

nzoliver said:

Howdy!

Do you guys not have wheel alignment shops in the UK? They are everywhere here and most bigger tyre shops have a bay now for doing them. Takes about 30mins all up and costs bugger all.

Just curious...

Click to expand...

yeah we do but why pay for something when you can do it yourself? especially when you spend all your money on the excessively priced fuel we have over here

use ye old method with some yarn.........
tie a length to yer tow ball or exhauste or somthing, the back wheels should be perfectly tracked, run the yard so its just touchin the outer wall of the tyre, straitned yer steering wheel and the string should touch the rear and front of the tyre wall on the front wheel, e.i if it touches the rear of they front tyre and without bending the angle of the string it doenst touch the front then yer know yer front wheel is towing in, there for yer know how much to adjust yer tracking by, do this both sides and hey presto yer tracking is spot on and no fooking around with equipment!

ok the new tracking rod arrived today so i'll be hopefully sorting out this whole thing when i get home from work tonight

RAZ - considering i cant quite visualise what on earth that means, i'll just stick to my original method if you dont mind

RAZ8550TDI said:

use ye old method with some yarn.........
tie a length to yer tow ball or exhauste or somthing, the back wheels should be perfectly tracked, run the yard so its just touchin the outer wall of the tyre, straitned yer steering wheel and the string should touch the rear and front of the tyre wall on the front wheel, e.i if it touches the rear of they front tyre and without bending the angle of the string it doenst touch the front then yer know yer front wheel is towing in, there for yer know how much to adjust yer tracking by, do this both sides and hey presto yer tracking is spot on and no fooking around with equipment!

Click to expand...

course this only works if yer front and rear track in the same.

that aswell slob but at leaste someone knew what i meant, could yer explain it better for discojamz?

run a string paralle to the side of the car, preferable so it touches the rear of the front wheel. if your wheels int buckled, all yer bushes are ok and yer wheel bearings are sorted. you then measure the distance between the string and the rear most part of the wheel RIM, do the same with the front most edge of the RIM. the difference will give you the toe in for that side.

do the same on the other side and add the two together for the total amount

some vehicles like the series landy have only one adjustment, the track rod so after you unlock the lock nuts you only got one thing to adjust.

car and the like usually need to have both sides adjusted for reasons i int going into. if yer still dint understand say so and we'll try again