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MG MGB Technical - steering problems

Hi guys
Right i have rebuilt the front X member on my 69GT. I had to remove the nut off the king pin(the one at the top. I know there is only one.) Any way put it all back together and the steering is very tight. Normaly when you have gone around a corner you can let the steering wheel slide through your hands until the wheels are straight again. Not so on mine now. you have to turn the wheel to get the wheels pointing forward again. can you over tighten that top nut. If so what should it be torqued up to?

Thanks Andy.
Andy

Andy,
I think a little more information might be needed about what exactly was done on the crossmember "rebuild". Were the king pins or king pin bushes replaced? If so, the bushes must be line reamed with a special reamer to allow a perfect non-binding fit to the king pins. The nut on top of the king pins sets the preload of the bushes to the king pin. This preload is achieved by torquing the top nut down onto shims of the correct thickness beneath. If the bushes are reamed correctly, and the correct shims are used, overtorquing the top nut should not result in any significant binding of the king pins. (Within reason)
I wonder also if the steering rack was removed from the crossmember. If so, any shims under the rack would have had to be reinstalled in the exact same place they were removed from, or else the rack pinion to steering column angle may have changed, causing binding at the steering column u-joint. This could definately cause the symptom you describe. This alignment is critical. When I rebuilt my steering column on my 1970, I found out the hard way how important this is.

The more information given, the better we can help troubleshoot this problem.

Scott
Scott Wooley

Sorry, I almost forgot. The nut should be tightend to 60 foot pounds or 81 neuton meters. The nut should be further tightened, if necessary, to align the castlenut with the hole through the king pin.

Scott
Scott Wooley

scott
the king pins were not replaced they were ok. I just had to remove it to get everthing off ( it was a right pig). the steering rack was not taken off. I have no holes in my king pin for split pins. There are nylocks on them. I will take the nut off and put it on at 60 lb foot.
Andy

This thread was discussed between 17/03/2002 and 18/03/2002

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