20 replies to this topic

[dansalter]

Hey guys, just driven back to uni (in swansea) from birmingham and car was going great all the way (except for a slight pull to the left) to about 10 miles away from the student village were i notised i had huge play in the steering wheel and a clicking noise when i turned sharply right, like going around a roundabout or such thing.

nursed it back and am just a little worryed about driving to uni tomorrow.

any ideas of what it could be??

oh and its probibly worth saying that i changed my engine about 200 miles ago so there is a chanse i may have done something wrong with the steering rack when revurbing the brakes??

cheers guys!
Danny.

[Dan]

Have you fitted a steering rack drop bracket recently?

[Boycie]

Straight away, check the nut and bolt at the bottom of the column, which holds the column to the rack spline.

[dansalter]

Have you fitted a steering rack drop bracket recently?

i have fitted one yes but it wsnt recently. i may have adjusted it recently

Straight away, check the nut and bolt at the bottom of the column, which holds the column to the rack spline.

is that not where the drop bracet connects?



i'll have a look soon its just not much light atm.
Danny.

Edited by dansalter, 01 November 2009 - 07:17 PM.

[Dan]

DO NOT DRIVE THIS CAR. I mean it, until you investigate this problem DO NOT drive it.

When you fit a steering column drop bracket it is essential that you slacken and rotate the steering rack so that it aligns properly with the new column position. If you don't do this the odd angle wears away at the splines inside the column where it joins to the pinion in the rack. Fairly soon these splines wear away completely and you are driving using only the pinch bolt to drive the rack, eventually this will also wear through. This is extremely dangerous and you will loose all control of the car, the steering wheel will not have any say in which way the wheels are pointing. This will happen quite suddenly. When we drove to the Nurburgring once one of the cars went from having norml steering to having completely zero steering control in the 500 or so miles of the trip there. He finally lost steering entirely as he pulled into the campsite, luckily for him and everyone else on the road.

Do not drive this car until you have checked the inside of the steering column and the pinion to assess the condition of the spline. This is a very dangerous condition for the car to be in, your life and the livs of others on the road around you really do depend on this spline. Whatever excuse you have that might make you think you need to use this car, don't to it. This car is not roadworthy.

[wassupcrew]

not sure about the slack in the column, but the clicking noise sounds like a cv joint on its way out

[dansalter]

DO NOT DRIVE THIS CAR. I mean it, until you investigate this problem DO NOT drive it.

When you fit a steering column drop bracket it is essential that you slacken and rotate the steering rack so that it aligns properly with the new column position. If you don't do this the odd angle wears away at the splines inside the column where it joins to the pinion in the rack. Fairly soon these splines wear away completely and you are driving using only the pinch bolt to drive the rack, eventually this will also wear through. This is extremely dangerous and you will loose all control of the car, the steering wheel will not have any say in which way the wheels are pointing. This will happen quite suddenly. When we drove to the Nurburgring once one of the cars went from having norml steering to having completely zero steering control in the 500 or so miles of the trip there. He finally lost steering entirely as he pulled into the campsite, luckily for him and everyone else on the road.

Do not drive this car until you have checked the inside of the steering column and the pinion to assess the condition of the spline. This is a very dangerous condition for the car to be in, your life and the livs of others on the road around you really do depend on this spline. Whatever excuse you have that might make you think you need to use this car, don't to it. This car is not roadworthy.

cheers for that... bad news but i had to know. at least i'm not dead.

how do i go about checking what the condition of the splines and such things are in? and what do i do about it?

and i'm pretty sure the CV joins are pretty new.
cheers, Danny

Edited by dansalter, 01 November 2009 - 07:42 PM.

[Dan]

Worn CV joints will click as you drive around a corner and the driveshafts clonk about in them, not as you steer.

You need to pull out the steering column, sounds like it will be complex but it's pretty simple and it's in the Haynes. Then inspect the spline inside the bottom of the column. The spline should be nice and sharply cut and well defined and even for its whole length, if it's worn it will be obvious because the length of the pinion is shorter than the lenght of the spline in the column and so it wears a patch away rather than the whole length. Inspect the pinion as well but its unlikely that it will be damaged because it's a much harder metal than the column. The pinch bolt will probably show wear too and should be replaced. You might find that the column is hard to pull off the spline, if so it may be that the worn portion has slid past the end of the spline teeth and is jammed against the teeth as you pull. You need to wiggle the spline back into engagement in order to pull it through.

I'm glad you appreciate how important this is, yes you need to know about it and it is scary.

Then again I might be wrong and it might be a loose steering rack. Either way it's important and scary and both have much the same effect.

[bmcecosse]

Slightly less scarey - it could just be that the rack is loose in the U bolts - worth checking that - but also DO check as above!

[dansalter]

thanks for your help, lucky i brought my haynes and a load of tools.

can i ask how do i adjust it so that me having my steering wheel lower won't make it wear again?

and when you say the U bolts.. is that just the part near the front were the colum attaches to the body, under the dash?

sorry i'm a bit of a novice when it comes to the steering rack, one on the only things i havnt messed with.

i'll have a go at it tomorrow when its light.

oh and can i buy the parts seperatly or do i have to get a whole steering colum?

Danny.

[newdawn1st]

Top Right of the picture you'll see two nuts, these are for the U bolts. This shows the left one, there's one to the right too. The bung next to them is to centralize the rack (iirc)

Edited by newdawn1st, 01 November 2009 - 10:34 PM.

[dansalter]

righhtt cheers for that mate, appreciate it.

i'll get on that tomorrow
cheers.

[dansalter]

Right then!

cheers to everyone

just thought id show everybody this pinch bolt;



an the shaft;


and from the car;


anyone have any idea what has happened to that bolt??

the spindles are obviously worn but would it be safe to drive (just to get a new inner collum) with a new bolt through i can't see how i could loose steering completely with a better bolt through unless it bends even more than that one?

has anyone got a spare inner steering colum i could buy off them. would be realy good if they were near swansea!

sorry if i've used the wrong names for things

Danny.

Edited by dansalter, 02 November 2009 - 05:58 PM.

[Boycie]

Good work.

I can't really tell from the pics, but only you can decide if the spline on either item is good enough to reuse!!

I must say though, they're not particularly decent even when new, I've been surprised at how, erm, feeble it all looks (seriously safety-critical joint here!)... it's designs like this that really show the Minis age..

[dansalter]

hmm right thanks

is there anything i could do to temporeraly make the fit better like, although even in my head it sounds stupid, putting something like a piece of paper or glue or anything between the splines and pushing it back on just to pad it out, make it grip a bit so that it is less likely to slip?

Danny.