Thread: Steering wheel free play

The grease nipple you can see is a bleed nipple for bleeding PAS fluid. Do not inject grease into it.

Free play adjustment is via the locknut in the centre of the top plate.

Ah! bleed nipple thanks. Is that RAVE you quoted from? Although same instructions as in HAYNES it’s easier to read....

Quoted from the workshop manual/RAVE.

This shows the bleed nipple.

Originally Posted by onebob

... Online research suggests if the backlash cannot be adjusted replace the box! Any advice welcome .......

Lash should be adjustable at the box via that locknut and set screw.
But before I check this, I always check/test tie rod ends.
As there are 4 of them there's a good change one of them may be just slightly loose/weak.

And definitely don't grease up that bleed nipple!

Vague steering could be any number of loose/worn items in a complicated front end setup like a live front axle.

Are you getting any kickback through the wheel over rough parts of the road or through some faster turns?
What tyre pressures you running?

etc.

Thanks AK83, front tyre pressures are 30psi for BFG AT KOs. No kick back through steering at all - changed changed LHS track rod balljoint some months ago yesterday noticed very slight movement at other end but not so bad that you can feel it. Decided today that i will replace the track rod so will have all new ball joints there. Any ideas why steering free play would be worse at full lock??

Worn sector shaft(in the steering box) could be the most likely cause.
My old RRC had this(3 bolt box) and the cheapest way to fix it was to source a second hand 4 bolt box(back then hard to find to tho).

I dunno nuthin about the front end of a D2(yet), but could be main balljoints?(someone with experience will have to chime in about worn balljoints)

I recently had to deal with an occasional death wobble on my D1.
By accident I found that the two front tie rod ends(drag link) were more worn that I initially tested them to be.
When I tested them they were tight up to almost full articulation, but I didn't push to full articulation as they felt tight, and it needed more force than my pathetic wrist could manage.

But one day when I was lowering myself under the front, I grabbed the drag link and my weight pulled on the bar to fully articulate the tie rod ends and they went loose past that point I could (be stuffed) to pull past earlier.
Two new tie rod ends later and death wobbles gone

But it didn't end there!.

I usually run my tyres at 36psi, but in search of a bit more comfort in the colder weather I lowered them to about 28psi one day .. death wobbles came back much worse than before.
Came in lower than the normal 80k/h before I changed the tie rod ends, but now they came and stayed.
Pulled off the freeway ASAP, to the first servo and popped them back up to 38(now), hit the freeway and no more death wobbles that I could induce(up to 100k/h)

I've been meaning to change the track rod ends too one day(I got all for ends at the same time) .. but I'm a lazy bugga.
Other thing I've been wanting to check out is the outer ball preload too.
So like I said, I know just enough about the D1/RRC type front end, but very little on the D2 open knuckle balljointed type.

Originally Posted by onebob

Any ideas why steering free play would be worse at full lock??

It's just the way they're designed, it plays no part in the stability of the vehicle at speed so not important.