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MG MGB Technical - Steering alignment after rack replacement

I recently bought and installed an all new steering rack assy. from the Proper MG. Reveling in the thought of how much I saved, halfway through the project I realized that I really didn't know what I was doing. I did however count the number of turns it took to remove the tie rod ends, but after installation of the new assembly and tie rod ends things just don't line up. What to do?
William

Assuming you're talking about alighning the front wheels.
Line up the wheels as best you can and take the car to a tyre place who'll do a front end alighnment for not very much money.It needs expensive gear.
Peter

A couple of yardsticks and a C clamp will do it. The only adjustment on a B is toe in and this can be easily accomplished at home. The Moss catalog tells you how. Make sure to get the steering wheel centered at the same time.
Thomas Rynne

William,

My Haynes manual makes a lot of noise about aligning the steering rack so the input shaft lines up exactly with the shaft coming down from the steering wheel. How did you fare in that area? Did you get a set of shims with the new rack?

Matt Kulka

Wiliam: if you take two lengths of 2x3 long enough to mount on the front wheels paralel to the ground under the body and stick out past the tire equaly so you can take measurement before and after the tire I use 1/4" threaded rod to make a hook that holds the 2x3 in place against the tire a tape measure and a level to mount them the same on each wheel, compareing the front and rear measurements will tell you what you need to do. RIC
R E L Lloyd

Hi William

If you lost count of the no. of turns on the tie rod ends, it is possible that the effective length of the tie rods will be different on each side.

If this is the case, and even though you do adjust the toe in by one of the methods suggested, the suspension and steering will not function correctly, and you will experience bump steer to a greater or lessor degree depending on the differences in length.

If you can be certain that they are the same length, and you will have to measure carefully from the rack end to the centre point of the tie rod end to do this (and it will probably involve removing the steering rack boots to get an accurate measure) then proceed to adjust the toe in by screwing the tie rods in or out of the tie rod ends an equal amount on each side checking by using one of the methods already suggested.

On the other hand, modern wheel alignment machines will detect differences in tie rod lengths, and indicate which tie rod needs to be adjusted to correct for this. At the same time all other suspension angles will be checked as well as rear axle alignment. Even though they are not adjustable, they may be far enough out to indicate crash damage and perhaps warrant some corrective action.

Cheers
Ian F






Ian Fraser

Different racks will almost certainly need a different number of turns of the track rod ends onto the tie-rods, but it is relatively easy to get the wheels close enough to parallel to get it to an alignment place. As Matt says aligning the steering column and rack shafts is far more important, get this wrong and you can wreck the rack pinion bearing in short-order.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 31/12/2003 and 01/01/2004

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