Excessively light power steering

**jimbo110** · 21st December 2008, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Dougal

So does that mean the "assistance level" is adjustable in some way?

BTW are we talking 3 bolt or 4 bolt steering box?

Think of the box as a manual box with power assistance when more than a preset amount of pressure on the steering wheel is applied. This is what gives you "road feel" when driving straight ahead and when light input on the steering wheel is used for correction on slight bends etc, there is no power assistance. This preset amount is controled by the torsion bar in the input shaft in the box, connected to the steering wheel. When weight on the steering wheel is high enough to flex the torsion bar, this opens valves in the rotary valve block to flow oil to the piston to give power assistance. So the torsion bar controls how hard you need to turn the steering wheel before the assistance comes in. If the bar is weak or broken, or parts in the rotary valve block are slogged out the assistance will come in too early, and you will have too light a steering with no feel and be able to spin the steering wheel from lock to lock while stationary with a flick of the wheel.

A picture from the manual is worth a thousand words...........

**Lucus** · 21st December 2008, 09:12 PM

I'd say your pressure reducing/flow bypass valve in your pump is sticky. There is a section in the workshop manual about how to test this and the sypmtoms/cause. They good news is the pressure reducing/flow bypass valve is removable with out removing the pump.

Id offer to post up the pages for you but unfortunatly im on site at the moment so i don't have my book

EDIT:

Just noticed the above post. If the torsion bar is weak/broken or the reaction valve is leaking/damaged holding the wheel on full lock and slowly increasing the revs to around 1200rpm will cause the wheel to kick back towards the opposite lock.

cheers
Luke

**Tusker** · 22nd December 2008, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by rangieman

Maybe castor ?
What sort of suspension lift do you have anything over 2" you will need castor correction

x 2.

If you've got 35s, what dis you do to the suspension to get them under.

Regards
Max P

**def-90** · 22nd December 2008, 11:45 AM

thanks for all the info fellas.

2" lift so yes my castor is out, will be doing swivels early next year. i do run a steering dampner. its a 6 bolt box.

i'm thinking it may be easier to drop off to get fixed, so it's done properly

**LOVEMYRANGIE** · 22nd December 2008, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by PAT303

I have my moments. Pat

Hmmmm.. a poet in Kal, I'd be keeping that one quiet Pat!!!

**cooter** · 22nd December 2008, 10:39 PM

sounds like either a broken or worn orbit torsion bar in the top of your steer box with the ign off give the steering wheel a slight reef to ine side (about 2 inches) and let it go does it spring back???

**def-90** · 23rd December 2008, 07:00 PM

hey cooter, yes she does spring back, with ign off.

**rick130** · 23rd December 2008, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by def-90

thanks for all the info fellas.

2" lift so yes my castor is out, will be doing swivels early next year. i do run a steering dampner. its a 6 bolt box.

i'm thinking it may be easier to drop off to get fixed, so it's done properly

any idea of your bump stop clearance ?

I'm thinking lack of castor too. It provides weight and feel to the steering, as well as self-centreing.

**def-90** · 24th December 2008, 11:27 AM

around the 105mm mark rick, i know my castor is out - very twitchy at high speed, but thought the light steering was more so to do with the box. i have mates with bigger lifts then mine in fenders and have alot more feel through their steering.

**rick130** · 24th December 2008, 07:57 PM

about the same as mine ATM and I haven't slotted the swivels either.

Mines dropped probably 12mm since the springs were new. It's a little wandery, but not excessive and not as light in the steering as the Patrol.

Increased castor definitely weights the steering.

I used to use it as a tuning aid on race cars. Increasing the castor increases the negative camber as lock is wound in and can increase front end bite on an understeery car. Unfortunately not all drivers could cope with the weight increase.
The first time I drove a Formula Ford it had somewhere between 8 and 10* of castor and it felt like I was driving a Mack truck without PAS.

(most FF's only use around 3-3.5*) I didn't know how on earth you could change direction in it, but I soon got used to it.

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