hornbm

Well when my 85 gs was running before I started my 89 swap, my dad drove it for a bit and said that the steering was way way way stiffer than it should be.

Now I noticed that it was stiff, but I assumed it was because of the non power recurculating ball steering.

I brought this up again with my dad saying that it probably supposed to be like that.

He said his RX-2 and RX-4 were both recurculating ball steering and were not nearly that hard to steer.

I went back and looked at some of the paper work that I got with my car, and there was a brand new steering box put in about 6 months ago.

Could the steering be not set right? Can it be adjusted or is this normall like I think it is?

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

Mine is REALLY easy to turn. Almost feels like power steering at times. I bet if your is really stiff, then there may be something wrong. I havent driven an RX-7 with steering yet. Most of them do steer rather easily if you ask me...

~T.J.

hornbm

geeze... I usually have to use both arms and some real elbow grease to get that thing to turn fast.

mabey there is somthing wrong.....

I just looked at the invoice.. and the previous owner was complaining of too much ply in the wheel.

The wheel has absolutely has like half a centimeter of play now.


Any thing I can do to loosen the thing up?

RotorMotorDriver

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if the shop charged him for a new box, but didnt put one in and just screwed with the adjustors and messed the bearings cause they did it wrong?

~T.J.

EDIT: If we meet up so I can give you your parts, you can check out my steering and compare it to yours. All 4 of the 7s that I own and have driven are the same as my car. Even the -SE with the non wokring power steering, lol.

hornbm

good god, that would make perfect sense!!!!

Just looking back through the records, the previous owener got screwed more times than I want to say.

As far as the steering that would be a great idea. It would give me an acurate idea of what I'm looking at.

How much does a new steering box run?

EDIT: here is a quote from the steering box invoice.
"steering box allready adjusted to tight test position, for optimum steering the box should be replaced and the front end should be aligned " "replaced steering box alignment, REP lacing combo seitch, and column cover"

The part ordered was a "fa54-32-110 steering gear" and just that part cost a whoping $640.

I smell BS all over this... considering 25% of all the words in the invoice were spelt wrong. The shop was Sound mazda-hyndai-suzuki of renton.

what do you guys think?

zookeeper

The only time the steering should be "tight" or difficult is when you're sitting at an absolute stand still and are turning the wheel - like when parking. Once you're rolling some, the steering should be much lighter; and once you're really rolling, the steering should only take "finger pressure". If it takes "elbow grease" while you're on the roll - you got some problems.

When your rolling down the street and you turn a tight corner - does the steering return to straight and center by itself if you let go of the wheel? It should, and if not, you got some problems.

Does the steering box look new (or rebuilt)? It should if it's only been 6 months.

The other thing I'd say's a good indicator that you have problems is... *drum roll*... your dad! I'll bet he's driven quite a few cars in his day and pretty much knows when steering's too tight or not! Whadda u think?

hornbm

I will have a look at it tomorrow... if i'm still not sure I'll even snap a few pics of it.

Also on the invoice there was a $640 charge for a "steering gear" but nowhere did it mention a new or rebuilt steering box.

I also thought that the rx2 and 4 were rack and pinion. But I'm probably wrong on that.


I do trust my dad... but I constantly make fun of his car. he has owned 4 toyota carolla's in a row, and his general opinion is manual transmissions "suck".

Dont know when he turned from a rotor head to a gas milage lover... i hope it never happens to me!

It is near inpossible to turn at standstill... thats the way every non power steering car is. However when the car is roling, it takes a lot more than finger pressure to trun that wheel. It takes some arm muscle, but not all that much, and I'm a pretty scrawnny guy.

But he still says its still tough so will see.

I'll have a follow up tomorrow.

RacerX7fb

My power steering pump blew out a few days ago...I'll be cancelling my gym membership soon With its tight turning ratio and 13" steering wheel, this bugger is STIFF

Attila the Fun

iTrader: (1)

Fixed that problem didn't they?


Take a look at this write-up on 1st gen steering:

http://www.nellump.net/peri/epi/firs...steerGear.html