Hi all, In the new year I'll be looking to get the steering looked at again to once and for all sort the issue with it feeling light and loose when turning right. I suspect this is due to the age of the rack (and it having done the best part of 180k miles) but would welcome any input or suggestions from you all. Wheel alignment has been sorted and improved things but it's still not right. Also if anyone has any recommendations for garages in the South East who might have experience with these cars that would be great. In terms of jobs for me, I need to get the front washer jets working, hook up the new speakers and give it a clean! Much more my level of mechanical ability. If anyone is interested I have the Stack speedo off of the car now and I'm open to offers on this. Feel free to drop me a PM. Dan
Hi Dan. Have you looked at the top mounts at all? I'm having an issue where I turn left and it's fine, turn right and I have to feed the wheel straight again, it no longer returns to centre of it's own accord. Rich
Thanks for the response Rich. It doesn’t have a problem self correcting coming out of corners. It’s more that when cornering I can feel movement and the weight behind the wheel changing (if that makes sense? Very hard to describe). The wheel feels light and disconnected turning right and nicely weighted and consistent when turning left. Will take a look at the top mounts though. Will you be replacing yours to fix your issue? Dan
I'm pretty sure that My issue lies with the top mounts - maybe I overtightened them when I fitted them...who knows. I'll whip them out and have a look. I can imagine your issue and it does sound odd to say the least. Maybe something is moving around or the rack is just shot like you mentioned previously.
Thanks for the comments Joe and Rich. Re drop links and bushes, two garages have now looked at this and said there’s nothing obviously wrong here, but if as you suggest the symptoms point to this I’ll have them checked again. Assuming there isn’t I think it’s time for a new rack. Forgot to mention that as well as the speedo I’ll have the BBS RMs ready for sale in the new year. Will post in the for sale section then and probably stick them on eBay too, but please feel free to get in touch if interested. Cheers! Dan
Drop links and arb bushes were just a suggestion to check, so you could be right about top mounts, I borrowed an impact wrench for mine and think I over tightened them you hear one spring creaking when turning the wheel. But I could feel your symptoms probably due to my worn rack and iffy tracking.
Cheers Joe. I've now fixed some of the broken image links at the start of the tread and will sort the ones of the restoration that have been lost soon. Haven't seen the pictures from when I bought the car (two years ago tomorrow!) for a while myself - good to look back and see how different the car looks!
Turns out one of the top mounts was knackered - you called it Rich! Replaced both sides and it steers much nicer now, but needs the alignment doing again. Replaced the washer bottle motor so all of the jets are working well ready for it’s MOT. Also sorted rear speakers and gave it a quick wash :-)
MOT and wheel alignment is in a couple of week's time. Have updated lots of the old missing photos on this tread and added a couple of recent(ish) ones below :-) Centre caps have gone pink (turns out they were just pieces of paper stuck to circular bits of polystyrene!) so have bought some plastic replacements.
Well, hello Dan, Dan the Resto Man! Good on you saving another and putting it back to it's original beauty. Mine is red but second favourite colour is white, quite striking. I had mine done a few years ago, it was fix it or lose it and it was in a pretty bad state really. All new panels it was taken back to metal, 2 primers, 3 coats paint etc and they Superguarded it as a nice favour. It's good to see your excitement, wait until it is finished. You will love it and be so prout of your achievement.
