steering shaft centering

[IDreamOfChapman]

Hi. I noticed I had some play in my steering so I went through the steps in the Caterham assembly manual to re-tighten the steering shaft clamp at the firewall which eliminated the (admittedly small amount of) play.

 

Now my wheel is not centered - according to the assembly manual you center the steering for a QR Momo wheel/shaft by removing the bolt on the lower U joint (at the rack) and just center the whole steering shaft by pulling it out and re-inserting it with the wheel centered (and it says to do this after the upper clamp is tightened and installed). The problem is, I can't pull the shaft out because the upper clamp is right against the firewall.

 

So, am I missing something here?? As you can see, once the lower U joint collar is loosened from the shaft, there is nowhere for the shaft to go without banging into the firewall...

 

thanks for any help!

 

-Chris

[xcarguy]

Chris,

 

Not a Caterham owner, but I do have some hands-on experience from designing/building my own steering assemblies and have a couple of suggestions from studying your photo. First, can you move the clamp forward (down the column toward the front of the car and re-tighten)? If so, this may give you the wiggle room needed to free the shaft from the lower U-joint. If this is not a possibility, then a) paint-mark the the shaft/U-joint similar the the items in this photo (http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=20057), b) remove/loosen the clamp, and c) separate the splined column from the U-joint and reinsert one spline over from the original position in the direction desired for steering wheel alignment. Then, re-tighten the clamp and check your steering wheel alignment. This process may take some time (several trial and error attempts) to find center, but should work. Regardless of technique, paint-mark the column/U-joint as this will be your point of origin until you find a spline alignment that best centers the steering wheel. Hope this helps. :cheers:

Edited June 22, 2014 by xcarguy

[TurboWood]

Chris,

I believe you need to loosen the upper clamp in order to get enough play in the lower shaft. This will allow the lower shaft to slide up through the clamp and upper shaft. This shouldn't prevent you from aligning the steering wheel.

 

Daniel

[IDreamOfChapman]

Thanks! A little of both and it is all fixed. Thanks everyone.

[IDreamOfChapman]

so. to make this thread

more useful two observations: the lower steering shaft is not just splined, it is also grooved such that the steering rack u-joint clamping bolt slides into the groove. you have to completely remove the bolt to slide the steering shaft out of the u-joint and rotate it.

 

second, you can set your steering wheel position fore and aft here as well but on my car at least this was very limited by clearance between the upper steering clamp and the master cylinder. it is possible to set the steering shafts such that the clamp interferes with the brake cylinder (bad, obviously).