A year ago I noticed the steering wheel spoke having gone out of its horizontal position when driving staight ahead. It had moved 5 fingers to the left. So I had the front axle adjusted diligently.
Now, 500 mls driven, the spoke again leans leftward 5 fingers!
One mechanic says, he suspects the worm to have advanced one tooth on the roller with the time. He will check Wednesday.
I cannot imagine how the roller could advance one tooth while letting me completely unsuspisious? I wasn?t aware of anything that could have been a jump.
Question: can the worm / roller meshing change slowly?
can adjustment of worm / roller be done? Is the cross arm adjusting skrew for this meshing depth?
Where may I find a good NOS gearset plus column? Still didn?t begin to search.
Thanks! Go
Sorry, Go
The only experience I've had involving steering was changing tie rod ends on a '50 Chevy in high school and replacing the front stabilizer link on a '98 Ford Ranger recently.
Good luck with your situation; I hope that it is nothing serious.
Pat O'Connor
Go, this condition is somewhat alarming as it implies that something in the steering mechanism is bending . It is not possible for the worm and sector to "advance a notch"
However, before you get alarmed, look first at the mounting of the steering box to the frame. It is held in by three bolts and isolated by rubber. Should this be loose or if the rubber has deteriorated it could cause the box to move relative to the frame, and the driver would have to compensate by steering the car a few degrees harder to the right or left in order to compensate.
If there has been no collision and there is no significant mechanical wear then this rubber insulator is the only point where this change could tale place.
There are three bolts and a triangular metal plate facing outward, behind that is a rubber biscuit, then three metal tubes which travel through the hollow part of the frame, followed by another rubber biscuit, then the steering box itself. It is not necessary to remove the steering box from the car, nor is it necessary to disconnect any linkages to service this part. dp
Thank You both!
As far as I understand, a one- groove worm makes one teeth advance in one turn.
Let it be a double groove worm, one turn makes half a tooth.
That would really be a full or half steering wheel turn. So, 5 fingers is not one tooth worth!
Am I right? Tomorrow we will look after the rubber pads and frame -to gear bolts. We put
new ones in 2008. I will let You konw the results!
Greetings from D?sseldorf! Go
i agree with David there is no way the worm and sector can advance by a notch , but they can wear out , have you tried adjusting you r steering box, on the top there is a screw with a lock nut , i assume you have a manual for your car , the process will be in that .
after thoroughly measuring with a digital hell - equipment, we only had to re adjust the right (= long) rod. Steering wheel was ok afterwards.
The balance of variables was in perfect order. This mechanic says, one good hit with a stone or kurb can be sufficient to disturb the alignments.
Well - when speaking of one groove advance, he didn?t refer to the worm, but to the threads of the rod! (He is russian, served 25 years in their army, his german is rough, buthe likes to work for the class enemy)
And thanks David: iI too suapected it could have become a safety issue for sure!
Thanks to all from Plymouth weather here! Go
The old method of fixing the rear axle only in the spring shackles too may move the axle for a fraction of a mm. It may not go back becaues of mechanical stiffness.Thus the steering wheel may have forced to lean to one side a bit while going straight ahead. My rear was ok. The russian mechanic had this condition even in army trucks, but nobody cared.
Hi, Go,
Congratulations........I'm glad to hear that you took your Plymouth to a specialist mechanic for inspection, and had the tie-rod re-adjusted as needed.
Thats the sort of problem I won't comment on, without seeing the car for myself.
There are several possibilities of part damage or failure which could cause such a problem, some of which could make the car dangerous to drive.
Mit Kalifornien Gruss
Carla