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Re: Alignment made simple

To: "W. R. Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Subject: Re: Alignment made simple
From: "U. Goettsch" <ulix@u.washington.edu>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 10:32:58 -0800 (PST)
Ray, I thought I had experienced the opposite.
Because the car spends most of its life going straight, that's the spot 
where it will wear, so that when you adjust the play out of your 
steering at the center, it will bind when turned.
You might respond that once the steering is worn this much one should 
replace it...and you would be right.

Wow, maybe such a  steering box could be saved (kinda) by radically 
adjusting the tie rods (so that the steering wheel is really crooked) and 
one would be on a unworn spot when going straight !??
(I'm not suggesting doing this on a LBC, but maybe on that $350 '74 LTD 
Wagon?

On Thu, 21 Dec 1995, W. R. Gibbons wrote:
> You can detect this on conventional steering boxes that have an adjustment
> to take up play--put the front on jack stands, and rotate the steering
> wheel from full left to full right over and over, while adjusting the box. 
> You will find that too much adjustment causes it to bind in the straight
> ahead position, because of the tighter clearance. 
> 
> In cars where the steering is designed this way, you want the steering 
> box in the straight ahead position when the car is going straight.  If 
> the wheel is crooked because some incompetent has done all the alignment 
> on one tie rod, and you straighten it by repositioning the wheel, you 
> can brute force the wheel to be straight when driving straight, but with 
> the steering box not on the "sweet spot."  You would then have excessive 
> play, which you could not adjust out without making the box bind when 
> turning.
> 
>    Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
>                 Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
>                 gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910
> 
> 

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