Thread: No Steering

Sadly this is a common and deadly problem. I had it happen in a carpark at the shops, just after traveling on the freeway and just before getting back on it.

The bolt that tightens the split spline end of the arm onto the relay shaft has 2 roles. 1: to tighten, 2 to fit snug into the groove in the relay spline, preventing the the arm from falling off even if it is loose. If it is loose the relay shaft will end up being flogged out from wear resulting from the loose fitting, but the bolt should stop it from falling off.
Always replace this bolt with a bolt of correct size and tensile strength that fits the groove snug!

I also met a guy a few weeks ago that lost his at 120km/h. He had a full roll cage combined to a bull bar setup and just slammed on the brakes and grabbed hold of the girl next to him to brace for impact. Destroyed the rover into a tree, but they walked away.

Despite the above posts, in fifty years of driving Series Landrovers, I have only known this to happen once, when the split that allows the clamping action on the arm cracked to the outside. The arm did not fall off, although all steering was lost (About fifty miles before Pimba heading north). This was on a Series 2, and the replacement arm was markedly heavier. The bolt should prevent the arm from falling off, even if it does come loose. You might make sure the arm is not cracked as happened to me, as this could allow the arm to fall off and fail to tighten.

I think the important point is that you should immediately investigate any change in the feel of the steering. This applies to any vehicle, not just Series Landrovers. This would have detected movement on the arm before wear on the spline occurred.

The reason that it will not tighten is that the spline is worn, probably on both the relay and the arm. The only proper fix is to replace both the arm and the shaft. If examination shows that the arm only is worn, you may get away with just replacing that, and there is a very slight chance that the problem is that the bolt has a damaged thread and cannot tighten properly. However, it should be impossible for the arm to turn on the spline unless the spline is damaged, so this is unlikely to be the case.

John

I agree that any change in steering should be investigated immediately. My issue and I'm sure others could be in the same boat, is based on buying/owning an old 2A that was far from having great steering to start with, hence not knowing that something was wrong till it failed. ( Upon repair of all steering ball joints, relay arm and adjustments I find it is a completely different vehicle to drive)
Sadly the errors of previous owners only show when it is too late, eg. wrong size clamping bolt.
I did find that the material of the relay shaft is much harder than the relay arm and resulted in only the arm being worn. The arms are cheap in comparison to replacing a relay and I'm sure this was a consideration in the design.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Despite the above posts, in fifty years of driving Series Landrovers, I have only known this to happen once, when the split that allows the clamping action on the arm cracked to the outside. The arm did not fall off, although all steering was lost (About fifty miles before Pimba heading north). This was on a Series 2, and the replacement arm was markedly heavier. The bolt should prevent the arm from falling off, even if it does come loose. You might make sure the arm is not cracked as happened to me, as this could allow the arm to fall off and fail to tighten.

I think the important point is that you should immediately investigate any change in the feel of the steering. This applies to any vehicle, not just Series Landrovers. This would have detected movement on the arm before wear on the spline occurred.

The reason that it will not tighten is that the spline is worn, probably on both the relay and the arm. The only proper fix is to replace both the arm and the shaft. If examination shows that the arm only is worn, you may get away with just replacing that, and there is a very slight chance that the problem is that the bolt has a damaged thread and cannot tighten properly. However, it should be impossible for the arm to turn on the spline unless the spline is damaged, so this is unlikely to be the case.

John

Thanks for the helpful posts, I've removed the arm and that is the only worn part, the relay is in good condition. The bolt was certainly tighentening properly.

While I'm at it are there any other steering parts that should be replaced?

When I put the steering arm back on properly I noticed a huge difference in steering (it quickly slipped back down again though). As Sideroad pointed out I never knew how good the steering should be. When I first got the beast the steering was (compared to my modern Falcon) terrible. I had read articles about the poor steering and so assumed it was normal. Then over the last week I had noticed a small change in the steering and the vehicle was pulling to the left slightly but as I said I just thought I needed a wheel alignment and not having a lot of experience on cars in general (none on steering and this is only my second car) I stupidly ignored the problem planning on getting a wheel alignment done sometime this week.

Anyway I've learnt valuable lesson, nearly learnt it the hard way, the vehicle was a lot closer to the edge than in the picture. I reversed it as quickly as possible.

Hey just wondering what part of the lake you are from we are at Cardiff anywhere near that. . .????

Yeah not to far away, at Morisset so what's that about 40 ks I think. I'm studying at Uni (Avondale College) here.

"The joys of owning a Landy.
Replaced: water pump, blinker arm, axel half shaft, left rear wheel bearing, lower steering lever... in one month of ownership."

Not bad for a car that is 30 years old or more. If you keep on doing repairs at that rate in 6 months you'll have a car that will last another 30 years.

I have the same problem on my SIII. YOu could turn the steering wheel about half a turn before any movement occured. When, methodically checked all the linkages and found the problem was the relay lever, the steering relay rotated on the lever. When I pulled it off I noticed it was badly worn on the side where the pinch bolt goes through. Most of the splines here had been worn off. Waiting on a replacement now.....