Uber Deaf One Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 So we finally got the KA24 510 on the road yesterday... drove it to a muffler shop, had an exhaust put on, then got an alignment today. I'm not sure what the deal is... maybe something's up with the steering box, or it doesn't have enough caster? But in a turn when I let go of the wheel, instead of naturally spinning back to center, the wheel just stays where it is and the car will continue to turn. I can't imagine this being normal, is something up with the gearbox? How much caster are some of you guys running? Right now we're at 2.5 degrees LF and 2.8 degrees RF. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Since you don't say if it was fine before or not I'll assume yes. This leaves the alignment at fault or more troubling the exhaust system is rubbing on a turn. Did you or the alignment shop adjust the slack out of the box? Most of the wear is in the straight ahead position (or close) while the left and right hardly wears at all. If you adjust the slack out of the box (in the wear area) and then turn the wheel the gears will bind up because they are much too tight now. Quote Link to comment
Uber Deaf One Posted October 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I don't know because I bought the car almost a year ago as a non running project. We're going to try and loosen up the steering box some more... Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 The only way is to raise both front wheels. Loosen the lock nut and turn the screw in or out then turn from lock to lock looking for any sign of tightness. Adjust as necessary. Having it even slightly tight will only acellerate the wear on the bearings and internal parts. Be sure to hold the screw while tightening the nut. A previous owner may have thought he was fixing something or just trying to hide the wear. Quote Link to comment
Uber Deaf One Posted October 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 We've loosened the screw a little bit and it has improved a tad... gonna play with it some more tomorrow as I had to work tonight. When I make u-turns, the wheel does return to almost center when I let go.. it's just that last maybe 120 degrees? 90 degrees? ish. is where it stops and I have to manually return the wheel back to center. How much caster are you running? Quote Link to comment
mklotz70 Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I think the stock spec for the 510 wgn I had was only 1.2deg....it wasn't much. Quote Link to comment
Uber Deaf One Posted October 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2011 Turned out to be the idler arm... whoever put it together or rebuilt it did it wrong... we literally couldn't rotate it by hand. Feels a million times better now, just turning everything by hand with the front off the ground Gotta do a few more things then we'll get it back on the road... definitely going to have to tighten the steering box back up... should feel like a whole different car now though Quote Link to comment
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