Steering Problem

[Stevo]

Hi Fellow Dolimitians

I wonder if anyone might be able to offer any suggestions....

I have a Dolomite 1850 which when turning right oversteers suddenly during the turn, it bites into the turn significantly more aggressively than the left hand side does and it does this suddenly. I have done bushes, swapped struts and ball joints, the rear bushes are all new and tie rod ends seem fine. I have had a wheel alignment and also shimmed the camber as per the wheel aligners recommendations, all alignment and possible camber related causes look fine on the readouts. I am wondering if this could be a rack issue, or possibly a normal characteristic?

It certainly does not seem correct to me as turning the other direction feels perfectly 'normal' to me, but its been a few years since I have driven a Dolomite....

The receipts for the car does show a rebuild of the rack which makes me wonder if they have used a part from an early rack or something else funny in the rebuild..

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

Cheers
Steve

[jikovron]

The rack could be adjusted hard to one side and the track rods adjusted hard the opposite way which is one way I can imagine body roll inducing different steering response left to right hypothetically.

[GrahamFountain]

I had some less extreme problems with the steering pulling itself over at the ends of its travel, even when moving quite slowly, and being lumpy on returning. Initially, it didn't feel sloppy, but then it started to self-steer on bumps and became quite unpleasant to drive; especially at motorway speeds.

Replacing the rack has cured it.

Now I just need to teach the garage to set the turn indicator cancellation lug right with the rack centred before they bolt it all up and then tell me there's not enough adjustment in the ends to bring it back right. Grr!

Graham

[cleverusername]

I always like to check the obvious before doing the difficult. Are you running mismatched tyres on the rear? How about a directional tyres mounted the wrong way?

[dollyman]

Hi Steve, i had the very same problem a couple of years ago and it was a seized u/j on the column shaft. I only found it by taking it off, there was no play and no tell tale rust. Worth checking.

Tony.

[Stevo]

The uni joint does sound like it could be the behaviour I am seeing, but I would have thought that would cause both directions to do it, but thats a great suggestion I will check it out.
The tyres are brand new non directional and I have tried swapping them anyway to no effect.
It sounds like I need to swap my spare rack and knuckles in to see what happens.

[TrustNo1]

Thinking a bit outside the box.... brake flexi hose twisting or collapsing?

[dollyman]

The uni joint does sound like it could be the behaviour I am seeing, but I would have thought that would cause both directions to do it, but thats a great suggestion I will check it out.
The tyres are brand new non directional and I have tried swapping them anyway to no effect.
It sounds like I need to swap my spare rack and knuckles in to see what happens.

I have to say Steve i was really surprised it was the joint on mine, and like you it only did it one way and not both ways

Tony.

[Carledo]

Whilst I have also experienced odd handling from partially seized column u/js, i'd also have a look at the inner track control arm bushes, the Dolomite style "rose joint" bushes don't wear that often, but when they do, they can also cause the sort of nervous handling you are experiencing. The Toledo has a plain bush that DOES wear frequently so it has made me more aware of potential problems in this area, particularly that one of "diving" into a corner as if you were going 3 times as fast as you actually are! Not a nice feeling at all!

Steve

[Stevo]

Well I think you might be on the money Tony, I had a close look at the joint and it is actually a knuckle off another car and the other other joint is fitted upside down, so I would suspect this is the culprit, it was jammed with gunk and has rust coming out of it, after a good clean it now makes a pop noise and the rack visibly moves when I dry steer it right.

It certainly is not fitted correctly, the second joint does not look like the replacement Rimmers one either.

I will see if it cures it when I get a chance later this week.

Thankyou for the help, the Dolomite community is a marvel

[Stevo]

I will have another look at those as well Steve, they seem upon face value to be in quite good shape, but I might change them for some new ones anyway to be sure.

Thanks

[Stevo]

I just thought I would followup that this for anyone in the future it was in fact a rose joint that had a very small amount of movement in it. It was only visible after moving the steering around alot. Swapped to rubbers and the issue was resolved.