100/6 Steering

[Bob Claffie]

Once upon a time in years long gone I had a '59 Healey. One rainy night I plowed into a culvert at speed.

NO body damage but a crinkled frame, bent rim and blown tire. After getting the frame pulled out all was well, or so I thought. Something NOT funny happened to the steering.

Would you believe normal 3 turns lock to lock (+/-) just like it should be, EXCEPT
it was one turn to the left and two turns to the right !

The mechanic swore he never touched the steering box or the rack.
What could have happened and how could it have happened without causing any other damage.

This was doubly embarrassing as at the time I was heavily involved in auto crossing. The turning circle one way was
25 ft and to the other more like 50 or 60 feet. Not championship caliber.

What was it ??






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[SideShifter Tri-Carb]

Check to see if the steering lever or idler lever was bent. I had one that was bent and made my steering a bit wacky. If they are good, then maybe they pulled the steering arm off (which is a bear to get off) the box and put it back on after the steering wheel was turned.

 

[vette]

Bob, when I bought my car it was in a similar configuration. When I restored my car I fixed, but I did drive it for about 7 summers with steering not centered. Your mechanic may not have "touched" the steering box but I would figure that he did touch the pitman arm which is the arm at the bottom of the box. By the way, Healeys don't have racks. As in Rack & Pinion steering. Their mechanism is a steering box with a worm and peg system which very unprecise compared to a rack & pinion system. What has happened is that the pitman arm was removed during the crash repair and then when it was reinstalled the steering box worm and peg was not centered with the same number of turns to lock from center in each direction. Also, when this happens, the tie rod ends on the ends of the tie rods will be threaded unequally. In other word, one may be threaded unto the tie rod a very much greater number of turns than the other one on the other side. This can be dangerous if the one with the least thread contact has too few of threads holding it on. When alignments are done, most especially the toe setting, It is very important that the alignment technician ensures that the tie rod ends have sufficient number of , or lets say the maximum number, of threads possible in contact on both sides of the car. But when the steering box is not centered, In order to try to compensate the tech may try to thread one tie rod end out more. As I said, if the differential is not great there can be enough threads to work. As mine was like that for 7 summers. I had checked my thread engagement and decided it was sufficient to not come apart, because at the time I did not want to take the time to take the pitman arm off the steering box. Dave.

 

[British_Recovery]

Usually the tie rods are a fixed length on the 6 cylinder cars, with the toe-in adjusted with the center bar. You can check the centering of this tube by measuring or counting the exposed threads to see if they are the same for each side. Since one end is left hand thread and the other right hand thread, rotating the bar or tube will pull the wheels in or push them out, creating toe-in or toe-out.
My guess would be a bent drop arm or pitman arm. Compare both the steering box arm and the idler arm - they should be mirror images. But better to compare them to another Healey, as I've seen a case where both arms have been bent.
Bob

 

[DerekJ]

You may have bent the rocker arm in the steering box. This happened to me when I crashed at Goodwood earlier this year. I didn't notice it until I had re-assembled the steering set up with new tie bars and cross bar and a new steering arm. I had the same issue. One turn to the right two to the left. The steering arm which attaches to the rocker arm can only be mounted in one way as it has two squared off faces. It would have to be out 180 degrees for it to be fitted incorrectly, so it won't be that. If you have bent the rocker arm it will be at the splines at the bottom where the steering arm attaches to it. It will be twisted. When your steering set up was 're-centred' based on the steering arm and tie rods etc, the peg in the top of the rocker arm will actually be in the wrong position, and not centred in the 'worm' in the steering box.

If it is a bent steering arm (Pitman arm) then it will be obvious because you will see the bend in it. If not you will have to open the box and remove the rocker arm. If bent at the splines it will need replacing. Denis Welch sell them.

 

[vette]

Folks, I might be misinterrpeting this based on some others discriptions, but I must point out, that I have never taken my steering box apart and I fixed my situation. I'm not looking at my car now, but unless my memory is TOTALY gone, which it may be, the pitman arm is attached to the bottom of the steering shaft by splines. When I restored my car, I centered the box and reattached the pitman arm by a spline or two. Dave.

 

[DerekJ]

Vette. It is attached by splines but there are flat faces between the splines. In fact their are 4 flat faces (not just 2 as I mentioned above - I just checked on the old rocker arm that is twisted). So in theory the steering arm can only be fitted to rocker arm in four ways. If it is incorrectly fitted it will be out by 90% and this would immediately be apparent.

Logically you should not have been able to relocate the arm by 'a spline or two'.

 

[red57]

Derek is correct - it's only possible to install the rocker arm in one of four positions. I wrecked mine in a racing shunt a couple of years ago and quickly saw the bent rocker arm. Upon disassembly the twisted rocker shaft was a great surprise to me considering the size of the shaft. I doubt I would have seen the twist if not fully removed from the box.

 

[DerekJ]

Red, Those two parts are an exact duplication of mine! Bent steering arm and twisted splines.

 

[vette]

Ok, I can accept your positions because the only time I have looked at the Healey pitman arm arrangement was a few years ago when I put it back together. i don't remember the flats. I must have corrected my uneven geometry with just the turns in the cross shaft. sorry for the confusion.