My wife and I recently purchased our 91 Rx7 off Ebay, and went to get the inspection done, and failed in part to the steering being stiff, the problem i believe more then anything is that while turning/after turning, the wheel does not want to return to center at all. I've spent a good bit of time searching the forum and havn't been able to find anything that would help, likewise the FAQ doesn't talk much about the Power steering, I have seen a lot of threads about removign the power steering and am wondering if this response is normal after PS has been removed...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

How do your tires look? its hard to say whats wrong but sometimes it can be caused by the alignment mainly not enough caster... stiff ball joints can cause it, highly unlikey but can. try flushing out the power steering fluid see if that helps, it could also be the rack and pinion. the power steering pump itself will not cause this issue... try taking the wheels off then take the tie rod end off the knuckle and see how easy it turns if its easy put it back together then try turning it again if its little stiff but not bad get the alignment checked out...

 

I researched this just now and found a lot of possible problems: bad struts, wheel bearings, motor mounts, etc. but the most realistic possibility that I found was a bad steering rack. Most likely it hasnt been replaced since 1991, you should have the rack inspected for leaks or unusual noises.

 

The tires look good, they all have tread and when driving there doesn't seem to be any problems with the alignment,....

On the inspection results they said there was a wheel bearing that was loose, I will follow up with that and see if that resolves anything as well as getting the rack checked out.


Thank you for your responses....

 

Check the tie rod ends and ball joints. If they have a lot of play, the centering action will be impeded.

 

It appears to be related to the steering wheel, There was an aftermarket steeringwheel on the car when we received it with no horn button, so we purchased a new steering wheel(still aftermarket) rather then rigging up a horn button. There is a slight improvement in the steering but it squeeks a lot and is still fairly stiff and doesn't return completely but there is improvement.