Steering lock anomoly (turning circle)

Post by **MattH** » Wed Apr 27, 16 8:29 am

My Challenger turns in alot sharper left than right i.e. it has a tighter turning circle one way than the other. Its very noticable when parking on the drive.

Does anyone else have this or do I just need to recentre the steering box by winding the track rods in and out the same amount both sides?

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Apr 27, 16 8:39 am

It sounds like the steering box and drag link were not centred when the tie rods were put on and adjusted.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Apr 27, 16 12:20 pm

Yep you just need to centre the steering and re track it. Not having it centred will cause a certain amount of bump steer.

Post by **MattH** » Wed Apr 27, 16 1:46 pm

Thanks guys, thought that might be the case.

Rebel · Post by **Rebel** » Wed Apr 27, 16 5:15 pm

I've just centred mine and re-fitted the the tie rods, haven't got as far as doing the alignment yet, the tie rods at the minute are both equal length, when one spindle is pointing straight ahead, the other one has severe toe in. Not concerned about it as no adjustments have been done yet, however, when the alignment is done, are the tie rods supposed to be approximately equal length on either side or is it ok for one side to be longer than the other?

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Apr 27, 16 6:39 pm

Track rod length shouldn't be so important, what you are trying to achieve is having the inner rod ends in line with the inner pivots of the lower control arms. I normally take a measurement to the torsion bar from the inner rod end and have each side equal, then it's centered. Once that's set and maintained, the actual length of each track rod track rod is whatever it needs to be to set the tracking. Few people ever check this and I've worked on loads of cars where it's wrong.

Rebel · Post by **Rebel** » Wed Apr 27, 16 8:14 pm

Thanks Blue

Post by **MattH** » Thu May 05, 16 3:11 pm

Just done this and seemed to have sorted it out, turns better in both directions and just has the steering wheel spokes not quite right now, I am sure I can do that another time.
I just measured as Blue suggested, after counting the turns lock to lock and centreing as best as possible, then measured the same point front and back between the tyres on the same tread grooves to get a reasonable setting for the tracking.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Thu May 05, 16 3:44 pm

The "odd" spline on the box and at the steering wheel end of the column should be very close to the 12 o'clock position when everything is correctly assembled and adjusted.