Steering wheel shimmy.

Swivel pre-load, bushes gone west, steering damper bushes not put on right, or damper not a good one .. could even be damper mounting come adrift ... ;)

You remove them.

When I check the pre-load do I add or remove shims to increase load? The manual doesn't say which. That said, as it was a sudden fault could that be a likely problem, I would have thought it's more like something has failed.

Thanks. If there's two choices I'll always do the wrong one first. :-(

On or around Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:05:31 +0100, "Bob Hobden" enlightened us thusly:

the other thing to check is the UJs in the steering column.

Be aware that I've been working on and off on this problem on my Rangie since I've had it, and it's still not completely fixed. It's often a combination of all the things...

Lurking here for years I was aware of you problem on your Rangie, which worries me, if you can't cure the problem what chance me.

There is some slack in the steering, always has been, so I will check that out (when I get some time and the rain stops). It's the sudden nature of the fault that has me perplexed, one moment I thought how improved things were and then halfway round one corner and OMG what's happened. Teach me to feel pleased with myself! I seriously wonder if the new gas Britpart steering damper has failed suddenly, probably coupled with an existing pre-load problem that the steering damper hid. (or buckled wheels, or out of balance wheels even)

snip

Don't take it to heart, it's just the Land Rover re-asserting it's dominance over you (it's supposed owner) :-)

On or around Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:27:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden" enlightened us thusly:

The damper is the thing that made most difference here, took off an apparently-OK one (not leaking) and fitted a better (as in "felt stiffer when moved) second hand one.

thye various other things also helped, it went from going into a harmonic oscillation which could only be cured by dropping below 50 mph to a shudder which dies out quickly, before doing the damper.

The steering column bit with the 2 UJs and the spline thing is neither too pricey nor hard to replace. I'll put a new damper on it (rather than an SH one) sometime, see what that does.

"Austin Shackles" wrote ... "Bob Hobden" enlightened us thusly:

Harmonic oscillation is exactly what it felt like and just as you say, dropping the speed down (below 40mph) removes the shimmy. So I'll take a long hard look at the new damper and then go through the whole steering system. Unfortunately on my test drive I took all the old bits from my recent renovations, including the old damper, to the dump so can't refit to see if it cures the problem. In all this I forgot to mention my 90 has OE power steering, must have been a posh one when new. :-)

Thought all 90s came with PAS as standard equipment, like all series didn't.

"GbH" wrote

Yes, the only LR I've had before was a S111.

"Austin Shackles" wrote ... "Bob Hobden" enlightened us thusly:

Took off the new Damper and it doesn't seem to be working properly, there is resistance to movement but it isn't consistent and sometimes it pushes in or out without any resistance for a small distance. Will have to speak to Paddocks tomorrow.

The steering column does not appear to have any slack in it at all although there is some play at the wheel, can that be adjusted on a Gemmer power steering system? Looking at the manual it mentions adjustments but I can't find where it says what does what and how to adjust things.

I'll have to do the pre-load ASAP and see if that helps.

In article , Bob Hobden writes

It's very subtle.

Marge is on her second steering column top UJ in a year. I fitted Britpart previously, and it lasted less than six months. The failure was still a miniscule amount of play, but it gave a lot of wandering around when driving.

Our local specialist has two ex-MOT testers in the workshop, and one of them showed me how to spot it: with the engine off and the steering unlocked wiggle the wheel back and forth very slightly and quite fast, feeling for any 'clicky' movement. Get an assistant to do same whilst you rest a finger either side of the UJ on the column itself - if there's any give you should feel it move differently, and you might hear an audible click. The first one that failed clicked, the second didn't.

She's now got an OEM UJ fitted, and so far all is well.

"Bob Hobden" wrote

Spoke to Paddocks and they have sent me a new damper (at my expense) and that appears to work properly with no harmonic wobble showing up in the steering. All I have to do now is return the naff damper for a refund. Knowing my luck they will probably say there is nothing wrong with it.