lt4 steering slop
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,302
Likes: 2
From: colchester CT
lt4 steering slop
I have rebuilt just about everything on this car, tie rods, bearings, ball joints, bushings. I took the steering rack out and the inner tie rods were still very firm so I put it back in. The car has some noticeable slop in the steering. Its just not as responsive as my 86 was, which I had rebuilt as well. I notice that when i jack it up and just turn the steering wheel that there is about a 1/4 inch deflection before the wheels start to turn. Is there anything in the intermediate shaft or the steering column that I should look at? when I had finished my 86 it drove so nice and was so responsive, this car has tons more power but drives like ****. I even put in a bigger front sway bar and the rack is the short z rack. Tires are good, just seems this car should really perform better with everything done. I also had it aligned at a shop recommended by a forum member. Finally, anyone in CT who would be willing to drive it/look at and give me an opinion and if you have an LT1 I can compare with yours. Thanks
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 25,393
Likes: 2,741
There is a procedure in the FSM to do an "adjuster plug" adjustment and it's quite straight forward. If you've no deflection/slop in the intermediate shaft u-joints then the adjuster plug would be the next stop, assuming that the tie rods etc are all up to par.
In the FSM it would be covered in the first 2 or three pages of the text.
Try 3B1 Bearing Rack Pre-load.
Take your car to the alignment guy and have him put it on the "plates" when done and have him record for you the number of degrees a single turn of the wheel does in each direction. Two reasons, confirm that you did the adjustment with the rack centered and then by dividing 360 by the number of degrees on the plate you can determine the actual ratio of the rack. You mentioned a Z - rack. Do you feel you've got a 2 - turn rack installed now or don't really know?
In the FSM it would be covered in the first 2 or three pages of the text.
Try 3B1 Bearing Rack Pre-load.
Take your car to the alignment guy and have him put it on the "plates" when done and have him record for you the number of degrees a single turn of the wheel does in each direction. Two reasons, confirm that you did the adjustment with the rack centered and then by dividing 360 by the number of degrees on the plate you can determine the actual ratio of the rack. You mentioned a Z - rack. Do you feel you've got a 2 - turn rack installed now or don't really know?
Last edited by WVZR-1; Aug 20, 2013 at 06:10 PM.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,302
Likes: 2
From: colchester CT
if I turn the wheel all the way to the left its about 2.25 turns all the way to the right. i thought that this was the ratio for the shorter/quicker rack. I can see the intermediate shaft move but it doesnt immediately transfer to the rack. seems like the problem could be where the rack ties into the shaft but there does not seem to be a bushing. when the car is on jacks and i grab the front tires at 9 and 3 and twist I get some movement and the steering wheel will move as well a little. originally I thought it might be the inner tie rods but they seemed fine when i took the rack out. I replaced everything except the inner tie rods. I have the fsm, just didnt have it with me when I posted. I will take a look at what you said. Thanks
