There are actually four primary causes for TR-3 steering to be sloppy:
1: wear on the pin that follows the worm gear
2: wear in the sleeve that carries the Pitman arm
3: wear in the fulcrum pins in the center tie rod (these are the rubber-encased
taper pins that go in the tie rod, and the tapers go in the Pitman and idler
arms
4: wear in the idler arm itself.
Most common are the idler arm and the decay of the rubber in the fulcrum pins.
Unless they are making a good replacement for the idler are, this is the most
difficult to fix. That's because they involve wear in the housing itself, and
the idler is based on a screw, not a sleeved shaft. They used to be fairly
inexpensive, but I don't know now.
Some times it is wear in the end float of the the worm, but this can be
adjusted. Also you need to check the most obvious: Worn outer tie rod
balljoints. The worm follower pin can be replaced if available, and if not,
you can remove the old, rotate it 90 degrees, and re-insert it.
Cheers.
Ron L'Herault wrote:
> Back in my college days (1968), I owned a '58 TR 3 which developed a sloppy
> feel to the steering. The friendly mechanic I brought it to found that the
> rubber bushing was gone in part of the steering. I think it was the
> steering arm but in truth, I don't remember. I do remember that he stuffed
> a section of heater hose into the joint, reinstalled the bolt and away I
> went with no further problems.
>
> Ron L
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