S2a Steering Problems & Roll Cage Question

Before even jacking it up, check that with the steering set straight ahead the following conditions are met - pitman arm on the steering box pretty close to vertical, top and bottom arms of the relay at right angles, bottom arm pointing straight forward. The most likely problem is that either the drag link from the relay to the steering arm on the left hub is bent (I rate this as most likely), the track rod is bent, or you have a broken centre bolt (or spring). Any of these problems ahould be able to be found by simple inspection. JD

Hi JD,

Thanks for reply, could you just expand on the centre bolt/spring thing please, Im guessing that these are inside the relay?

I'd say your steering box is knackered. Check for anything that may be fouling the drop arms, or wheels, if it's still impossible to obtain full lock then you may have a serious problem. If you remove the top arm and it's still impossible to obtain the correct number of turns lock-to-lock (3.3 on a standard SWB/LWB) then your steering box is knackered. Check the box itself, quite often the top of the box gets forced off if the box has siezed.

If movement is correct with linkages disconnected, then you have a problem in the steering relay (unlikely!) or a fouling inside the swivels, ie a disintegrated UJ.

Alex

First the obvious (which it shounds like you have already done).If there is nothing visibly bent as you say, jack up the front wheels (just to make things easy!) and watching the steering relay make sure that nothing is fouling in the direction with no lock, and that the shaft in the realy has not twisted (sounds like it hasn't from your description), there have been a few cases of the recently (now solved), though I've only seen it on Comp. Safari motors to date. If it is none of the above then the following may have happened - the uj in the hub can break up, allowing one or more of the cups to fall into the bottom of the housing where it gets caught between the swivel and housing, thus restricting lock to the side which has failed. I've had this happen at a trial and the confusing bit was that there was no external evidence of it other than the lack of lock - no sound, no vibration, and, as the uj "still works" without the cups, no lack of drive! Hope this helps

Richard

No, the centre bolt is in the middle of your leaf spring. It stops the axle from moving along the spring. If the left hand one has sheared, allowing the axle to move back on that side, it will reduce the left lock. A broken spring leaf can have the same effect. Any problem with the relay unit will be shown by the top and bottom levers not being at right angles, and these units rarely develop any problem except a bit of free play, but the lever arms can move on the splines if the splines wear due to the lever clamp bolts being loose. I have had one case of the bottom arm cracking so that it cannot be kept tight. JD

exact same happened to me, the uj finaly gave up the ghost and disintegrated in the swivel locking the front drivers side wheel solid.

andy

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