Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mike2530]

Has anyone needed to adjust the steering box or knows what the settings are please or better still done the adjustment with successful results ?

[2woody]

I'd say the steering box adjustment is the single most important one on the whole car..... it's what makes the difference between a nice handling car and a porridge.

Unfortunately, it's a bit of a faff to adjust....

step 1. Make sure that the track rods are in tip-top condition, including the centre link. There's no point trying to adjust if there is play elsewhere in the system.

step 2. make sure the steering box is pointing straight ahead when it thinks it is. This is the most important part.

The cam inside the box is profiled so that it gives just a little extra feedback as it passes the straight ahead position. If the tracking has been poorly adjusted in the past, the steering wheel will have been removed and the "steering box" straight ahead will no longer be the same as the "steering wheel" straight ahead.

There are two ways to centralise the steering box; either to look at the mark on the input shaft and see that it's aligned with the mark on the steering box casting (both point straight up). This is actually the best way, but is pretty tough on Omega B - maybe even to the extent of removing the entire column to get access. The second is to remove all of the steering links and measure the torque going over the suspected straight ahead position (this is the GM method). I always find it easier to remove the column than persevere with this.

This all seems like a real pain, but it is the single really vital step - out of the maybe fifty cars I've adjusted, half have been wrongly-adjusted, usually as a means of adjusting the tracking.

step 3. reassemble everything confident in the position of the steering wheel being the same as the steering box.

step 4. get the tracking adjusted - obviously without re-positioning the steering wheel on the column.

step 5. make a series of SMALL (1/16 turn) adjustments to the steering damper in the top of the steering box. You're aiming to tighten it up until it just doesn't fully self-centre and then to back it off very slightly. BUT, you must be sure that when you tighten it, that you're tightening in the centralised position.

road test after each small adjustment - I normally find that it takes about twenty goes at getting it spot-on. Do persevere, though - the results are well worth it.

[Kevin Wood]

Ahh, Nice one. I'd been meaning to ask you about this since you mentioned it the other week.

Kevin

[feeutfo]

Interesting. Did mine by feeling play in the steering i.e. stand outside the car, window open, move the steering wheel and feel hand on the road wheel for lack of response in straight ahead position and off centre, say 90° on the steering wheel.
 My thinking being take out as much play as possible without being too tight in the straight ahead position. Seemed to be a fraction more play off centre than straight ahead, is this normal?

My previous 2.5 omega had been bodged by removing the steering wheel, both track rod adjusters where off to one side.

[Kevin Wood]

Right. Mine currently has noticeable play in the "straight ahead" position. After verifying that the steering box is central, would a reasonable adjustment procedure be to adjust initially until the play has reduced to a reasonable level in the central position, then road test and fine-tune until the self-centring is OK?

Kevin

[Jimbob]

Sounds like the making of a cracking maintainance guide here 

[2woody]

there should be more play when away from straight ahead.

imagine a far horizon of a plain.... now put single a mountain in the middle. That's what the cam on the top of the steering sector shaft looks like. There is intended to be more play away from centre, where you need ease of wheel-twirling and some isolation from bump, etc.

The important bit is to get the damper adjuseted against the mountain, which gives you the increased feedback at straight-ahead. but, I say again, if you don't know that the mountain is actually at straight ahead then you're fighting a losing battle.

at rest doesn't really work - you need to be on the move, where the steering can centralise itself properly, or not if you've got it too tight.

[2woody]

Sounds like the making of a cracking maintainance guide here 

if you like ......?

[feeutfo]

would be interested to see the marks on the steering box, sounds like they arent easy to see?

[2woody]

I have photos somewhere....

[Kevin Wood]

there should be more play when away from straight ahead.

imagine a far horizon of a plain.... now put single a mountain in the middle. That's what the cam on the top of the steering sector shaft looks like. There is intended to be more play away from centre, where you need ease of wheel-twirling and some isolation from bump, etc.

The important bit is to get the damper adjuseted against the mountain, which gives you the increased feedback at straight-ahead. but, I say again, if you don't know that the mountain is actually at straight ahead then you're fighting a losing battle.

at rest doesn't really work - you need to be on the move, where the steering can centralise itself properly, or not if you've got it too tight.

Ok. It helps to know what's actually on the other end of the adjuster.

Makes sense, I guess, because when the box is off-centre there are normally loads on the steering gear anyway, so this is likely to have taken up any play.

So, over-adjustment is likely to result in a tight spot around the centre of the box's travel, and if that doesn't coincide with the straight-ahead position of the front wheels you'll never be able to adjust out the play at the straight ahead position of the wheels because play is designed-into the box at anything other than the straight ahead position of the box. I think that makes sense.

Kevin

[feeutfo]

there should be more play when away from straight ahead.

imagine a far horizon of a plain.... now put single a mountain in the middle. That's what the cam on the top of the steering sector shaft looks like. There is intended to be more play away from centre, where you need ease of wheel-twirling and some isolation from bump, etc.

The important bit is to get the damper adjuseted against the mountain, which gives you the increased feedback at straight-ahead. but, I say again, if you don't know that the mountain is actually at straight ahead then you're fighting a losing battle.

at rest doesn't really work - you need to be on the move, where the steering can centralise itself properly, or not if you've got it too tight.

Ok. It helps to know what's actually on the other end of the adjuster.

Makes sense, I guess, because when the box is off-centre there are normally loads on the steering gear anyway, so this is likely to have taken up any play.

So, over-adjustment is likely to result in a tight spot around the centre of the box's travel, and if that doesn't coincide with the straight-ahead position of the front wheels you'll never be able to adjust out the play at the straight ahead position of the wheels because play is designed-into the box at anything other than the straight ahead position of the box. I think that makes sense.

Kevin

wondering...
 if the box is adjusted a fraction too tight, would you be able to feel the tight spot in the steering in your hands by turning the steering back and forth? Then comparing the tight spot with the steering wheel position you could tell if the steering wheel was straight to the box...if you can feel the tight spot of course. Might well need the front wheels off the ground i suppose?

[2woody]

you possibly could, but only if you've dropped the steering linkages off the steering box and you'd done this lots of times before. And even then it's marginal.

I wouldn't like to guarantee that I would be able to feel it.