szabon

Ok, so I know nothing about steering. At all. So that's why I ask you guys.

My steering wheel is loose. It's got about an inch of play, and it is bothering the heck out of me. I don't even know where to begin to diagnose the problem. I would love to have a nice tight steering in my car. What is first?

Ryan_U

In which axis is there play? Up/down? Left/Right? In/Out? Each will point to a different problem.

Van

Check tie-rod ends; check control arm ball joints; check the rack mount bushings; check the steering shaft u-joints.

One, or several of them are bad.

V2Rocket

Van, once upon a time I heard a fix people have down with the PS racks. Apparently in the gearbox somewhere there are 2 small springs that allow for a little bit of wheel play before any steering movement. To quicken things up people put small aluminum spacers in place of the springs...do you know anything about that?

Van

Hey Spencer, I don't know about that... I once took a power rack apart (just to see what's inside) and the steering shaft gear meshes right with the rack teeth... So I can only imagine that the springs you're talking about are on the hydraulic valving - e.g. they get the pump to provide hydraulic pressure for the power steering faster.

To the OP, this car should have better steering feel than 99% of the other cars on the road.

86 951 Driver

When I had this issue it turned out to be bad steering rack bushings. Mine were completely toast. Check that first. Next I would look at tie rods. There is an inner joint that is covered by the rack boot. I was told my ends were bad but when uneasy replacing them I found out my inner joints were shot.

Hopefully its not your steering shaft.

mclarenno9

The plate on the front of the rack casing with two bolts (and the ground for the horn) holds a spring and a coped bushing which preload the rack against the pinion. I suppose you could put shims behind the spring to increase the preload if you ever felt so inclined...

Just to be clear; unless that spring is somehow missing I doubt this has anything to do with the OP's problem.

Van

On the manual racks, there's an adjustment screw for that preload...

MAGK944

+1 never seen the preload sping on a ps rack only on a manual and it only preloads the pinion to stiffen or loosen the turning effort. imo nothing to do with the op's issue which is clearly wear in a steering component, hopefully only rack bushes as someone mentioned. 1in play at the wheel caused by the tie-rods or steering shaft would be worrying,

gregeast

I had a similar issue and solved it by tightening the pinch bolt on the steering shaft splines where the shaft meets the steering rack. Apparently some hack mechanic (that'd be me) either didn't tighten it sufficiently when he replaced the rack or failed to use Loctite on it, likely both.

szabon

Ok. Sorry about not being specific enough. The steering wheel play is left to right. Here is a vid:

http://youtu.be/FmFPSvspVrg

So you guys are saying to check tie-rod ends; check control arm ball joints; check the rack mount bushings; check the steering shaft u-joints.

Man....nothings easy huh?

MooreBoost

Have some move the steering wheel and find what moves first

szabon

That's a good idea. I'll do this over the weekend. See how much my wife loves me.....