Anybody who's re-set the preload had success? What did you try and does it help can you reach it installed? Or should I make plans to talk to Turn One? Seems like a lot for such low mileage.

Its a 2.5 degree lash. The steering wheel tends to stay about about 5 degrees left after a left turn. Straight on after a right turn. Everything else seems tight.



One full turn to the right.






Then after one full turn to the left. And back to center.

 

Suggest you contact Turn One.
I tried to set the pre-load on my 86 to take out the slack and it's possible while installed but there was no difference after I set it per the FSM.

 

Is your rack centered with the wheels pointing straight ahead?

 

Thanks for the Question, When it was aligned they apparently preferred the wheels pushed to the right if that makes sense. so its butted to the right as in straight steering wheel and that is where the car settles in on the highway also with a good amount of gyro-thrust pushing the wheels right, the steering wheel aligns straight so the steering wheel prefers straight ahead after a few miles. In city driving, different, stays biased left after a left turn and biased right (tie rods calibrated make the wheel straight) after turning right.. pretty straight forward, pardon the pun.

I was just trying to gage how common it is and it seems is pretty common for C4s that are trying to be nice drivers, to see who else is dealing with this detailed nuance. There are some old threads I have read. So its a legacy issue I see. Its definitely a lot of lash for a premium car even if it is from the 90s. GM definitely didn't follow the MB play book on this one.

I am no stranger to steering work I sent a EPS from a BMW Z4 to "ECU Testing" via UK Royal Mail and customs - (AKA PARCELFARCE) for a circuit board dead spot fix. Want to talk about tight quarters?, LOL that unit is under the dash. Worked out good though! MI should be much easier lol. I'm still gonna try the pre-tension when the temps get above freezing here. I figured someone would have some experience with tools, used or made, and how approached for the pre-tension adjuster without removing it first. Thank you.

 

I haven't noticed my wheel doing as you describe but when I got the car the pinch bolt connecting the column shaft to the rack was loose causing "slop" in the wheel.
The 1989 FSM says to turn the adjuster plug clockwise until it bottoms, then loosen 50-70 degrees.

I'm thinking the rack bushings could be the cause, I replaced mine with polyurethane replacements.

Hope this helps!

 

Yes thanks. I'm gonna do the twist diags soon and get in there and try and figure it out. I will post what happens. Soon NH weather should start to break and I can detail my run down for my first season of ownership. thanks all for looking.

 

93QuasarBlue, I'm curious. Would you define "Twist Diags and Steering diags" and how they relate to alignment? Are you referring to the wheel being out of "clock" with the direction the car is traveling?

Perhaps a link? Trying to learn something here. (:

 

Hi there. Hmm. trying to not assume your question is asking if the car over steers? No the lazy wheel stays in the direction last turned. Talking 90 degree turn in city driving. Left stays left, right stays right.

So I got a chance to get the work light out and look around. Holy Crap that system is buried. So I wasn't able to see the lower shaft knuckle since its covered with the plastic shroud. Working from the outside in.

Using my knees on the tires and hunched down a bit I am able to move the wheels back and forth in a left to right motion. I would say the movement is noticeable. I tried to take a video, but with all the effort and moving it didn't work out as I hoped on video.

using distance I would say on the tire - judging distance I can "wiggle" the tires/wheels left and right about an 1/8 inch without the inner tie rod shaft moving (much), and the steering shaft Not moving. On the left side I "think" I see some play in the tie rod end. On the right side I "think" I see a little more slop in the wheel bearing than in the tie rod end.

My plan is to order both front and rear tie rod ends since they are the same and may as well do them all, and front wheel bearings. I have one rear bearing completed already have the other set ready to go in. I am suspect that this car is very sensitive to all 4 axle spindles if they aren't perfect / maintained.

Also I think I can make a crafty spanner with some mild steel stock and try and work the pre tensioner. I think I will craft a fork for the lock nut and weld a socket end on the fork, and with a swivel I think I can loosen it. What a bitch that thing is buried.

Will update once I can get through that stuff. If it still has too much lash for my taste then I guess its a next winter project to get in underneath the driven accessories area and get the rack reworked.

 

SON OF A BEAVCH! Hold MY FRUCKING BREWFKY! Who designed this POS???? It was the one SINGLE steering Rack mounting BOLT. The one 16mm Bolt sitting RIGHT THERE in the bottom of the accessory well. So I managed to spend an an hour or so carefully unscrewing the clamp and pulling the plastic sheath cover back to check the lower shaft knuckle, and lo and behold NO slop in the lower intermediate shaft also. I had also managed to work the Rack Pinion Pre Tension and it was at exactly one hex face out of seated per the manual.... I put it to 1/2 a hex face. For diags. I should put it back to a full face. Used a 3/16" about 20 inches rod stock to tap the retainer nut loose on the cut folded hex end. The actual plunger bolt is a 22.. loosed the left side sway bar and pulled it up and down as needed to access the adjuster hub. 3 Full days worth of trouble shooing this.

So I virtually eliminated ALL the possible points for THIS much turn error.... I had my trusty side kick do the shake weighty exercise on the steering wheel once again, and while my face was mashed up against the AC compressor I saw something "move". After a little more looking it was the Friggin RACK cycling to and fro. The Loose Rack bolt was by far the EASYEST thing to tighten.. Out of ALL the rest of the DIAGS and refreshes ie.e the rear wheel bearings which it did need, I finally solved it. Who the hell thought it was a great idea to have a single bolt on here with out even a bushing? Anyways This is Solved!

I feel like I finally got to the big boy seat at the table with this out of the way its back to basics for now.... Beer Me ..

 

Did you replace your steering rack previously?

 

Glad you got all your diags in a row!

 

Hi. No it appears to be all original. I didn't take the time to pull the bolt all the way out mostly because I was so certain that was the problem all I wanted to do was test it after torqueing it down using hand force only. I am sure there's some grease in the joint so I will go and take another look some day when I figure out what kind of a solution to increase the friction in the rack mount to the frame eye loop so it will resist the lateral forces in the future. If there is a bushing I will have to look it up. Or if you have the P/N handy I would be much obliged. I think the iron eye loop has some wear now so even a bushing in the rack body would be moot. So second day, I did road alignment by feel. The car had a lot of toe out and caused some death wobble at 30 and 60 mph. I guessed at going more toe in and it worked wonders. I just need it to be reasonably straight while I figure out what other tweaks to do before sending it to the alignment shop.

So at the end of the day, the rear wheel bearings were really worn even at 50K. I tested using a 4 ft crow bar on the lugs and pulling forward with about 100 pounds of force and the rears did move quite a bit. Clearly visible. The fronts are a little worn but not enough to be the primary cause. I think the tie rods are tight. So the single bolt, some how just became vulnerable to the lateral vibrations and got loose. Its the one right in the middle bottom in front of the damper pully. At least I got to remove the belt and the stationary tensioner to get at the intermediate shaft boot cover, and got the new belt on too. So far most most of the disassembly I've done I've been able to knock out a couple of small projects. Light bulbs, bearings, belt, and small stuff that it needs. Very happy right now.

 

So I thought I would continue the thread with continued work. I got a quart of Lucas Steering fluid and a HF manual pump out tool. Replaced 2 tank fulls of fluid with a combo of driveway steering wheel exercise fast and slow and some driving a windy road. It seems the lubricity is a huge improvement on the sportify steering strategy. No more sticky type steering, the car seems to track the road curves much better. So far amazing improvements. I think I will continue with another quart of Lucas flushing over the next few months. I can bolt it up to 100 mph effortlessly and with confidence. It drives like a real Vette! So far so good. Car is getting her mojo back!.

 

Hello 93QuasarBlue. I am having a very similar symptom that you were having on your car. I had my rack replaced about 3 years ago and ever since then it has had play in the steering rack. I have had 3 different alignments (2 different times it was done very badly... won't be going back to those places), all the ball joints replaced, tie rods replaced, tires replaced twice (due to those terrible alignments), there is no slop in the steering joint in the column for sure, appears to be no slop in the rag joint, the shaft seems to rotate all the way down to the rack with no play at all that I can tell. It feels as if the rack is loose. In this time I did an engine swap, and while I had the engine out, naturally I did everything I could to try and make sure the rack was tight. I also tried to redo the preload as you did... didn't change a thing.

So my question... how did you notice that the rack was shifting? Were you just staring at it with someone steering while the car was on the ground? I feel like I have done the same exact thing but saw nothing in my particular case so I am just really trying to get to the bottom of this. Right now my car now makes double the HP than it used to... but its steering is... well... quite honestly terrifying. Keeping the car going in a straight line at anything above 30 is actually a full time job. Going into a corner you never know how much you have to turn the wheel. Going straight you never know how much you have to turn the wheel. Heck... sometimes around very slight turns, I actually have to turn the wheel in the opposite direction (left or right turns... doesn't matter) because of the play to go around the corner. Its a major pain.

 

What year is yours. Let me think on it. In the mean time I suggest what I did was used my garage door as a target finder. So I strapped 2 pen light lasers to the wheel with enough tape to last the 10 minute experiment. Put little pieces of tape to mark the laser markets at center. Turn the wheel to see if there is a lag in either direction. Let me know how that works out. Car on ground at idling for power steering nothing fancy. The wheels will gyrate a little and you can see you camber working as well. Do In the dark obviously. Let us know.
​know.To clarify. Strap the pen lasers right to the actual tires. So they point forward. To a straight ahead wall of some kind. Like a garage door. Little half inch tape markers for the spotting.

To your question. I had my wife jostle the steering a bit while I was looking around and because of the deep and low light way down in the front of the engine bay is where the tie down bolt is. Then I saw something that moved and then was able to see the bolt was kind of lagging and the rack was lagging, left and right. If only even 1/8 inch. But I finally found the issue for that one.

So the point of the pen lasers is turn left, then right ect and see if the tires come back to center datum. How do they both track with the expected returns from shallow and deep swings. Let me know.

 

Mine is an 84, so I know it won't be "exactly" the same, but I would imagine it should be fairly similar. Also when I get a chance I'll try your trick with the lasers and tape. I'll also see if I can find anyone to jostle the steering for me. I have done it myself by sticking a wrench on the steering shaft and jostling it back and forth with the engine running trying to look for any movement... but I have been unsuccessful thus far.