So, 1996 neon challenge car.
Has incredibly stiff steering. Like it takes all my effort to get it to turn at all while moving. Stopped it all my upper body strength and both arms. Odd is that it gets worse the more you drive it.
Seller said bad rack.
I took lines off rack and pumped all the fluid out. No change.
Adjusted air pressure in tires. No change.
Jacked front end off ground entirely. Steering smooth and easy. At first audible grinding noise of indeterminate origin. After a few cycles, passengers strut mount gets squeaking/groaning.
Put car on ground. Same symptoms, noise goes away.
Jack up JUST passengers side, steering is normal unassisted rack feel until the ends of steering travel where it gets tough again.
Loosening the upper strut nut makes no difference in.effort, just noise.
I think strut bearings in the mount have failed.
Thoughts? Different diagnostic methods?
Just an idea:
Put front end on jack stands, place jack under either wheel, jack up gradually while steering both directions & see what happens. Switch jack to the other front wheel & try the same thing.
Pop the tie-rods and turn the strut assembly by hand? Should be able to get a feel for it is sticking, while also cycling the rack by hand via the tie rod.
In reply to Tyler H :
Only thing there is that jacked up with the weight off everything, it feels completely normal. I detect no binding or stickyness even using the wheels to cycle the rack and steering.
Sounds like strut mount issues to me. It could be assembled incorrectly or some sort of failure.
Worth pulling down and double checking.
In reply to Stefan :
Thats the way im leaning, but want to make sure. The weight being the variable that matters is what is throwing me off.
Strut mount sounds like a winner.
Other thing to check is rusted or worn u-joints between rack and column if applicable. I had a hard to diagnose variable steering effort that I first thought was a failing pump but ended up being rusted bearings in the ujoints. Worked great on the lift, was a major pain with truck on the ground.
Pete Gossett said:
Just an idea:
Put front end on jack stands, place jack under either wheel, jack up gradually while steering both directions & see what happens. Switch jack to the other front wheel & try the same thing.
Trie . No sticky issue.
Currently tearing down. Rack cycles smoothly with tirme rods disconnected. Wheels turn smooth too. Except for the noise in the passenger side strut mount. So its all getting torn down for inspection.
Took passengers strut mount apart. Amazing amount of crap in them. Cleaned and regreased everything. Will do drivers next.
i made it better/worse with grease and new tie rod ends. Play in the wheel is gone. However, its all but uncontrollable with bumpsteer and road following. All in the alignment. Which im not fixing until i find and fix the stiff steering issues. So, to recap: adjusted tire pressure. Greased and cleaned strut bearings. Regreased ball joints. Replaced tie rod ends. Added massive toe out. All for no change in steering effort or issues. Has to be the rack, right?????
Any chance that the front end has been bent and you now have shopping cart levels of caster?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Take the time to set the toe and caster (if it is adjustable) and report back.
I had a rack in a Pinto that got extremely stiff just before it ate the pinion gear in it so it could be the rack. It would turn fine if there was no resistance on it, but would bind when under load.
Toyman01 said:
I had a rack in a Pinto that got extremely stiff just before it ate the pinion gear in it so it could be the rack. It would turn fine if there was no resistance on it, but would bind when under load.
This is what I was thinking too. I drove a car with the pinon too tight/over-engaged, and the most noticeable thing aside from the high effort was that the self-centering effect of the steering no longer worked (car had low caster).
Does your rack have a pinion-engagement adjustment on it?
ProDarwin said:
Toyman01 said:
I had a rack in a Pinto that got extremely stiff just before it ate the pinion gear in it so it could be the rack. It would turn fine if there was no resistance on it, but would bind when under load.
This is what I was thinking too. I drove a car with the pinon too tight/over-engaged, and the most noticeable thing aside from the high effort was that the self-centering effect of the steering no longer worked (car had low caster).
Does your rack have a pinion-engagement adjustment on it?
Oooooo....
Off to the fsm!
And caster and camber are not adjustable in current configuration. Just toe.
Caster can be adjusted fyi
Rack and pinion engagement can be adjusted also.
In reply to Professor_Brap :
Caster? Really? How????
And my laptop is being stupid. Doesn't want to load fsm.....
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael : adjusting front subframe/top hat plates
^never done on a neon, but similar to many FWD cars... slide subframe fwd/back, slide top hat plates fwd/back.
Its likely in stock form that adjustment is near-zero.
ProDarwin said:
^never done on a neon, but similar to many FWD cars... slide subframe fwd/back, slide top hat plates fwd/back.
Its likely in stock form that adjustment is near-zero.
On neons, there is some factory adjustment
