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MG TD TF 1500 - Steering Very Quick

Any way to tone down the go cart quick steering? Only thing I hate about the car is the super quick steering. No intensions of ever racing the car. There is 0 play in my steering and just the twitch of a hand will put you in the other lane, not that you want to be there mind you. Only thing I've ever drove with the same steering reaction, was a go cart! If it does this with the 17 inch steering wheel, how would it react with a 15 inch wheel, which is what I would like to install?
Oh forgot, there is 1/8th inch tow in also. PJ
Paul161

Rack and pinion steering usually has no play. Other than the rubber A-arm bushings, our cars have no damping and are just very direct. Make sure tires not overinflated. I run about 28psi now days, higher does make it more twitchy. I drove about 250 miles last weekend, and yes you really have to pay attention to steering. May check for something loose- any suspension bolt/mount, bad shock, etc. Make sure toe-in set, not out. George
George Butz

Everything's tight George, no loose ends anywhere, so I'll drop the tire pressure and see if that helps some. 165/15 radial Firestones Toe in is 1/8th inch. At 30 lbs they do have a nice profile, but will lower it and see. Thanks George. PJ
Paul161

That is a design feature of the car. I rather like it. It takes a bit of time to adjust your driving style to make up for it though. The only way I could think to change it would be to change the rack out with one that has different gear ratio than stock. However that is such an engineering task that I doubt the benefit would at all merritt the expense,
Alex Waugh

Paul,
I hope you have better luck with those Firestones than I did,, For the short period of time that I had them on our car, I found that they gave a very soft squishy ride when using 24-28 psi,, It felt like I was was driving with a flat..the back end wanted to swing around like oversteer during a turn.

Steve
Steve Wincze

Paul - The Workshop Manual for the midget Series TD and TF states that the Toe-in should be NIL. Your 1/8 Toe-in should make the steering slightly more stable

Personally I like the responsiveness of the TF Rack and Pinion, it makes driving more interesting and requires we stay alert. I have a 17 inch steering wheel fitted. I learned to drive in an MG YB with the identical Rack & Pinion design as the TF. The YB has always been my favorite car for reasons of sentimentality. I was looking for a YB when I found the TF locally

My other toy is a 'Point & Go' computer controlled modern 550 Bhp muscle car with stability control and all the modern gizmos controlling the handling and keeping me out of trouble. I feel more alive driving the TF with its sensitive steering, lack of ABS and drum brakes designed decades ago. It has to be driven, unlike a modern car

1955 TF 1500 9194
I Massey

Cars have come a long way in sixty years, but I’ve always thought the quick steering was a virtue of our cars. For us ol’ geezers who got our driver’s licenses in the 1950s and started driving TDs when they were only a few years old, it was (and still is) pure delight to drive a car with quick, accurate steering and a small turning radius. Back then,what we derisively called Detroit Iron had squishy unresponsive steering and huge turning circles.
Joe
Joe Olson

The other extreme is the TC - the one I have in the shop right now has a full quarter turn of the steering wheel of free play! Try guiding that straight down a road, or around a curve!

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

My first thought was; set to toe-in, but you already have that. You'd better get used to it?
Willem van der Veer

It has been mentioned above, but under inflated rear tires will yield a very twitchy steering. I've been there before.
Also, check that the rear axle U bolts are firmly tightened and the axle is perpendicular to the line of the chassis.
Rear wheels can be the source of undesirable steering, often more so than fronts.
Lew3

All's tight Lew, no loose ends anywhere. Thanks for the suggestion though. I just have to get used to it's quick steering. PJ
Paul161

What do you mean by quick steering? Rack and pinion systems are direct with no lost movement but I find the TF needs quite a few turns from lock to lock and even then the turning circle isn't very tight. I need to reverse out my garage and with the TF I have to reverse, stop, drive forwards and then reverse a second time before I can move off. With my everyday Mercedes GLA I can get round in one go.

Jan T
J Targosz

Tom Lange, good luck with that TC. I owned a TC for 29 years with a tight Bishops Cam and zero play in the steering wheel. Now that was a tight steering car. If you sneezed, you could be off the road.

Gary
G B McGovern

Tom - "The other extreme is the TC - the one I have in the shop right now has a full quarter turn of the steering wheel of free play!"
For a period of time, we had a 36 PB, which made the TC look like a ultra modern vehicle. If you hit as railroad crossing at anything over 10mph it was anybody's guess which direction the car would dart off to when the wheels hit the ground.

Paul - Having driven a TD since 1974, we find the steering to be quite acceptable - it is today's cars and their steering that bother us (when I say us, that includes my wife, who drives the TD much more often than I get to).
Cheers -
Dave
DW DuBois

Yeah Dave, I've got so use to my truck and most modern cars we drive here, the Tf is an experience to be sure. The 72 B we had was different even though it was a rack and pinion setup, but more conventional in handling. I guess the teeth in the rack were smaller. PJ
Paul161

I currently have a TD but, in the past, have owned a Midget and an AH 100-6. One of the features I liked the best was the very quick, very direct steering on all three. The rack and pinion gives a very direct road feel. While my BMW Z4 has very quick steering, it feels very dampened, since it is power assisted. I'll take the little TD any day.
Charles Duffy

This thread was discussed between 01/05/2016 and 03/05/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

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