I was having a private discussion with another member that turned technical and I would like my ideas to be on the regular board for people to see.
echostatic had tires wearing unevenly, alignment not holding. I told him to beware the mechanics who may be planning on getting swimming pools with the money from the steering repairs. He said he has trustworthy people, and they said it was a worn steering box. I said:
It just occurred to me, a bad steering box probably would not cause uneven tire wear. If the linkage is all good, the left tire and the right tire will stay properly oriented with each other. A bad steering box would cause play in the wheel, but not tire wear. If the alignment was made right, and it is now out of whack, it is something in the linkage. After all, there are no alignment adjustments in the steering box, so it can't be at fault. You can have play in the steering box and still have proper tire wear patterns if the linkage is all perfect. I'm pretty sure about that.
I am not saying you have a good steering box. I am just saying that if the alignment won't hold, and the tires are wearing unevenly, there is something in the linkage that is worn out. Box could also be worn, but Just fixing the box won't fix the tire wear problems. These boxes aren't very tight after 20k miles anyway. They lose their tightness early on in the life cycle, but that does not effect the alignment. If you compare a high mileage tta to a car with a rack and pinion steering system, it will seem loose and worn out. or even if you compare it to a car with a steering box and normal size tires and a normal steering ratio, it will seem loose.
The combination of steam roller size tires and a fast ratio steering box just causes it to lose it's tightness early on. you would not have noticed because you didn't get it new. When these cars are new, they feel like rack and pinion steering. Like you have on a new bmw or new volkswagen jetta or something. A very very slight movement in the wheel causes steering. But that does not last long. It becomes american-feeling after about 20k miles. The big tires batter the steering gear and wear it out. A steering box has a steering gear with only 3 teeth on it. A rack and pinion does the same job with 40 or 50 teeth. SO the wear is evenly distributed. But with only 3 teeth on the gear , it is such a crude device to begin with, it does not take much to wear it out. And it was designed when the steering had 6 turns lock to lock and narrow bias tires. Our cars have only 2 turns lock to lock. They just asked way too much from those poor 3 little teeth on the steering gear. This is why the first and second generation trans ams all have rack and pinion steering conversion kits for them. Someday maybe the 3rd gen will get it too.
echostatic had tires wearing unevenly, alignment not holding. I told him to beware the mechanics who may be planning on getting swimming pools with the money from the steering repairs. He said he has trustworthy people, and they said it was a worn steering box. I said:
It just occurred to me, a bad steering box probably would not cause uneven tire wear. If the linkage is all good, the left tire and the right tire will stay properly oriented with each other. A bad steering box would cause play in the wheel, but not tire wear. If the alignment was made right, and it is now out of whack, it is something in the linkage. After all, there are no alignment adjustments in the steering box, so it can't be at fault. You can have play in the steering box and still have proper tire wear patterns if the linkage is all perfect. I'm pretty sure about that.
I am not saying you have a good steering box. I am just saying that if the alignment won't hold, and the tires are wearing unevenly, there is something in the linkage that is worn out. Box could also be worn, but Just fixing the box won't fix the tire wear problems. These boxes aren't very tight after 20k miles anyway. They lose their tightness early on in the life cycle, but that does not effect the alignment. If you compare a high mileage tta to a car with a rack and pinion steering system, it will seem loose and worn out. or even if you compare it to a car with a steering box and normal size tires and a normal steering ratio, it will seem loose.
The combination of steam roller size tires and a fast ratio steering box just causes it to lose it's tightness early on. you would not have noticed because you didn't get it new. When these cars are new, they feel like rack and pinion steering. Like you have on a new bmw or new volkswagen jetta or something. A very very slight movement in the wheel causes steering. But that does not last long. It becomes american-feeling after about 20k miles. The big tires batter the steering gear and wear it out. A steering box has a steering gear with only 3 teeth on it. A rack and pinion does the same job with 40 or 50 teeth. SO the wear is evenly distributed. But with only 3 teeth on the gear , it is such a crude device to begin with, it does not take much to wear it out. And it was designed when the steering had 6 turns lock to lock and narrow bias tires. Our cars have only 2 turns lock to lock. They just asked way too much from those poor 3 little teeth on the steering gear. This is why the first and second generation trans ams all have rack and pinion steering conversion kits for them. Someday maybe the 3rd gen will get it too.
