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MG TD TF 1500 - Steering Column

My OCD has kicked in. On the steering wheel, when the wheels are straight, the MG cap in the center of the steering wheel is not straight and it's making me nuts. It looks like if take the column off of the flange, turn 1/3, it will align the emblem. Is it as easy as it looks? It looks like I may need to replace the rubber bearing while I have it apart. Any warning before I take this on
TRH Hammond

Sounds straight forward to me.

You might want to adjust the last few degrees tweaking the tie rods, and that makes it a good excuse to double check the alignment.
JIM NORTHRUP SR

There is a flat key way on the shaft on my TD. So the Steering wheel only goes on the shaft in one position. It has to be the tie rods the take up the difference.
Jack up under the A pans to get the wheels clear of the ground and then by turning the steering wheel all the way from one side to the other - you will know where the true middle of the travel is. That is the point where the emblem should be strait and you are going in that true strait direction.
If you are a long way out you can move the clover joint one 1/3 of a rotation. The rest you tweak with the tie rod ends to get it dead strait.

As Jim said - good time to do the tracking and replace the rubbers at the clover joint as well.

Have fun. :)

Rod
R D Jones

TRH, all the advice given in response is good stuff. ..if the steering rack is indexed to the pinion properly. If, after following the advice given you are unable to adjust the tie rod eds to make this work your rack/pinion indexing maybe off. Regards, tom
tom peterson

TRH, could you possibly send an image of what you have at the moment? It might just be a trivial fix. Bud
Bud Krueger

Make sure you understand how the clover joint goes together. I had 2 of the 3 shoulder bolts fall out while driving!
Chuck
cj schmit

If the steering wheel is off by 1/3 turn (120 degrees) a repair can be made by removing the three bolts at the bottom end of the column (what cj calls the "clover joint") and reattaching them after turning the steering wheel the necessary 1/3 turn.

It would be a good time to check the rubber bushing/bearings at that joint.
Bob;
RwB Brown

Also look at the Moss Motors tech tip about the column joint as many are stripped and messed up. George
George Butz

This thread was discussed between 24/09/2013 and 25/09/2013

MG TD TF 1500 index

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