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MG MGF Technical - Wheel alignment

Prior to having my 98 F's wheels aligned, my steering wheel was slightly off centre to the left. Had wheels aligned and today had the alignment re-checked as my steering wheel is now slightly off to the right. The garage advises that the laser alignment is correct.

Has anyone experienced this and would the answer be to re-set the steering wheel?

Tony
AT Devine

Hi Tony,

I would be very interested to hear anything you find out about this as I have just noticed a similar problem on my Trophy!
Originaly the steering wheel was fine but now slightly off to the right and garage saying there is nothing wrong.

Kris.
Kris Ford

Hi,

The very same thing happened to my 97 F at KwikFit. As you say, Tony, they assured me the equipment was fine, even though they managed to knock the steering wheel off maybe five degrees clockwise.

In any event, I replaced the indicator/wiper stalks a few weeks ago... and since I had the steering wheel off for that, I took the opportunity to *try* to recentre it (which is harder than it seems). It's not as bad as it was, but it's still off.

Just another niggly thing that gives the car it's, uh, charm ;-)

Col
Colin McIlwaine

If the steering wheel alignment is off, the tracking centre that you've used has done something wrong I'm afraid.

Fact is, it is entirely possible to have correct tracking settings with an offset wheel rechecking the wheel alignment won't necessarily give you the answer you're after.

When the toe-angles are set, the steering rack *has* to be centralised. The toe-angle is then set by adjusting the length of the track control arms (or the steering arms) to bring the leading edge of the wheel into (toe-in) or away from (toe-out) the centre of the car. This is done by moving the thread on the steering arms a flat or two.

If you set the tracking with the steering rack not centralised, you can get the tracking correctly set "according to the book" but with the offet steering wheel as you've found.

The only solution is to get the car re-tracked with the steering rack centralised.This is better practice than attempting to alleviate the perceived problem by moving the steering wheel a couple of splines on the steering column boss: incorrect steering alignment will result in different lengths of the steering arms and therefore different bump steer characteristics on both sides of the car - not desirable. Mind you, I doubt that anyone would be able to tell the difference on an F...
Rob Bell

Usually the steering wheel is out due to the rear wheel alignment being set wrong or due to movement in the rear bushes,watch out for worn TRE's and ball joints etc. In any event the steering wheel should be set straight ahead as part of the alignment proceedure.
mike

This thread was discussed between 13/07/2005 and 14/07/2005

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