Thread: HELP PLEASE!!! Serious steering issues

Originally Posted by rick130

Loose Panhard Rod.
Rock chassis side to side and you'll hear/feel it clunk. Check all bolts/fixings and bushes on the Panhard Rod. Otherwise swivel pin pre-load.
BTW, wheel alignment is 0-2mm toe out.

Will you marry me Rick?

I did the swivel preloaded, the left swivel hubs top bearing had collapesed so replaced the bearings both top and bottom, then did the preloads both sides, took it for a drive no difference.

Got it home cried for about 10minutes until i remembered what you said, the bushes on the panhard rod arent that old but i rocked the car and sure enough it clunked. So i tightened the bolts and went for a drive, problem solved. You can still feel some vibration when you hit bumps but that is most likely the damper, new one will be here tomorrow so that should eliminate everything. Will fit new panhard rod bushes next week when i get round to it just to be sure.

Phil, when i fit the damper which end goes which way? Is it the fat end to the passenger side or the drivers side? Matt

Originally Posted by Ace

Will you marry me Rick?

hmmm, and this after your recent comments in the mud pit...........people will start to talk Ace..........

It may not be the bushes. The bolt on the clevis is loaded in double shear and uses a standard high tensile (8.8) industrial bolt and the grip length (unthreaded portion) doesn't bridge the gap between the two sides, hence one side bears on the threaded shank of the bolt, which is always slightly under size and when it gets a little loose works backwards and forwards in the hole. The real fix is getting a stupidly long bolt with the correct grip length and trimming it to size. The fix that I and everyone else uses is just tighten the bejeesus out of the bolt. (replace it if it has worn undersize)

This is the reason aircraft AN/MS/NAS bolts come in 1/16" increments and racecars use them on their suspension clevis's. Unforunately all the important bolts on a Landy are metric, and even Airbus use US type AN/MS/NAS hardware. When i was working on race cars I used to spend a lot of time trimming Socket Head cap screws (allen bolts) to length so that all the bolts in double shear were bearing on the grip (unthreaded shank) as most open wheelers use quite a few on their suspension. Anywhere a hex head bolt could be used, I used an AN bolt with the correct grip length. Eliminated anything working loose and a bloody driver (including me ) having a winge about "something feeling weird"

oh, btw, I'd get the balance re-checked on the tyres. Sounds like a dynamic balance issue. Had this once on my old F100. The bloody shimmy would throw me out the window under brakes. Took the tyre place took three goes to get them balanced.

Originally Posted by rick130

hmmm, and this after your recent comments in the mud pit...........people will start to talk Ace..........

It may not be the bushes. The bolt on the clevis is loaded in double shear and uses a standard high tensile (8.8) industrial bolt and the grip length (unthreaded portion) doesn't bridge the gap between the two sides, hence one side bears on the threaded shank of the bolt, which is always slightly under size and when it gets a little loose works backwards and forwards in the hole. The real fix is getting a stupidly long bolt with the correct grip length and trimming it to size. The fix that I and everyone else uses is just tighten the bejeesus out of the bolt. (replace it if it has worn undersize)

This is the reason aircraft AN/MS/NAS bolts come in 1/16" increments and racecars use them on their suspension clevis's. Unforunately all the important bolts on a Landy are metric, and even Airbus use US type AN/MS/NAS hardware. When i was working on race cars I used to spend a lot of time trimming Socket Head cap screws (allen bolts) to length so that all the bolts in double shear were bearing on the grip (unthreaded shank) as most open wheelers use quite a few on their suspension. Anywhere a hex head bolt could be used, I used an AN bolt with the correct grip length. Eliminated anything working loose and a bloody driver (including me ) having a winge about "something feeling weird"

oh, btw, I'd get the balance re-checked on the tyres. Sounds like a dynamic balance issue. Had this once on my old F100. The bloody shimmy would throw me out the window under brakes. Took the tyre place took three goes to get them balanced.

Thanks Rick. Should i get the balance checked out even though there is no vibration at all through the steering wheel when on a flat road? Wouldnt you feel the shake throught the steering all the time if the wheels were out of balance. Matt

when i fit the damper which end goes which way? Is it the fat end to the passenger side or the drivers side

the stone guard end to the D/S.

phil

I was just refering to
"you can still feel some vibration when you hit bumps"
and it depends on the severity of the kick back or whether it's just 'road feel'.

Steering shudders when you hit bumps is top king adjustment as previous post from someone else talking you through the process jack veh up remove all steering/track rods if you grab wheel say at the 3 & 9 o'clock postion move through the steering motion, there should be some resistance (ie 8lb if you use fishing scales) if not or not much remove wheel hook the "hook end" in the say steering rod hole pull back wheel should stay untill +/- near 8lb's.
If less than this remove the thinest shim torque bolts and re-check. Things will always "bed in" after new king pins/bushes ect fitted usually do setting to about 9lb's so when used for some k's they will free up, hopefully to the 8lb tish mark

Matt,

As Discowhite says check your tyres to see if they may need re balancing or one may be slightly out of shape.
Had similar problem on a vehicle that would to start to wobble at 80K after hitting a couple of ruts in certain roads and would not stop till you pulled up. Frustraiting in that it would'nt do it on all roads, just on some roads.

Two new tyres, balanced and wobble disappeared

Cheers,

Baggy

it took a while Mat,
but now you have a BETTER Landy,,
your car knowledge has increased,
you got to check lots of bits that needed checking,

and it helped everyone who followed the thread,

including me,,
rollers,, well who'd da thunk it.--