Hi Guys,

Just a question about peoples steering. I know my steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car but i'm pretty sure that is not the cause of the problem

Basically my steering is very free- if i hit bumps in the road, my steering wheel turns and I have to 'catch it' and steer the car back on course. Is it supposed to work like this?

I just drove a mates rx7 tonight and his steering felt good however it didnt react so much to the road. We have very similar wheel/tyre/suspension setups.

Is part of the steering system supposed to stop the wheels from turning the steering wheel too easily?

any ideas would be great,

cheers,

Paul.

 

I can't offer much help, 'cause I didn't really troubleshoot mine as much as I replaced it.

In my mind, there were only 2 parts to my steering system. The steering box itself, and the linkage.

So I did the entire linkage at once:

Inner and Outer Tie Rods
Adjusting Sleeves with Nuts
Idler Arm
Pitman Arm
Ball Joints
Control Arm Bushings

and I did the Sway Bar end links and bushings for good measure.

This really firmed up the steering quite a bit, since at almost every point there are rubber bushings, and rubber has a pretty consistant failure rate (ie: all the rubber on my car was old enough to need replacing, no matter what it was!).

I know it's not cheap to do the whole linkage, but in a way it doesn't make sense to only do part of it. All of it wears pretty much evenly, and just replacing parts doesn't really fix the problem because of the consistancy of the wear across the whole linkage.

And if that doesn't do it, the only other things I could possibly think of would be to get a quality shop to do an alignment for you, and adjust your steering box.

Good Luck

Jon

 

hmm do you know what the adjustment bolt on our steering box actually does?

I have done the following to my steering so far:
- New tie rod end boots
- New lower suspension arms
- New front sway bar bushings
- Regreased left idler arm, and switched bottom and top bushes

i was thinking perhaps is there some sort of friction device in the steering collumn between wheel and steering box?

theres also a bit of freeplay in the middle when tracking straight, but my steering is also a lot easier to turn than my friends...

 

check for play in your idler arm and pitman. mine had alot of bump steer untill i replaced my idler arm but the gear box can also have alot to do with it. raise the front end of the car and have some one shake the wheels back and forth while you look for play.

 

be careful when adjusting the steering box. too much can cause all sorts of problems. definatly check the idler arm and check your tie rod sleevs for any bending. also check for loose components.

 

Steering box prob. needs adjustment. Its a very common problem. Theres a write up somewhere, do a search on it. Its not an easy task but very rewarding.

 

your steering is gonna be free. its part of the design of that car. quote victoria british " Rear-Trailing arms were dropped 20mm to provide roll understeer."

84-85

You can probally tighten it up to a point, but it will always have slack in it.

 

Did you replace just the tie rod boots or the tie rods too? Alignment can have a lot to do with the light/heavy feel of the wheel, particularly the caster. Take it in to the alignment shop and sees what it needs.

 

first check the allignment angles: Caster or Steering Axis Inclination (if wrecked before)
the Worm gear on the recirculating steering box may need adjustment, as mentioned before. that also takes 2 people. One to turn the wheel slightly back and forth and another to make the adjustment on the worm gear.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...steering+grind