Club Cobra - Manual rack & pinion steering behavior

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Manual rack & pinion steering behavior

Is there any reason why, at speed, turning left is slightly less effortless than turning right on a manual rack & pinion steering system? It's not a huge disparity, but it is noticeable, especially when going through the S's in the hills. This is for a LHD vehicle.

Are your # of rotations equal on both turns? Make sure everything is tight and has not moved. You may thy Alister Miller @ Miller Motorsports. He's out your way and has helped me numerous times.

Has it been like this since day one? Are the tie rod ends equal length? Positive, it's not a driver strength/leverage issue? Different camber in the turns on the track? Any play in steering shaft or loose u-joints? Put front end in air, test to verify it's not a problem in the rack.

I would raise the wheels off the ground so they turn freely and see if you have any binding when you turn from lock to lock. If you do, you can start disconnecting steering components to find the cause.

Fred

With one or two people in the car?

I can't recall if I have the same issue when there is a passenger in the car. Everything else from inspecting the steering and suspension components shows no play in the any of the components - everything is tight. One thing that I have noticed is that the adjusting (bottom) collar on the DS coilover is not turned as high up the shock as the PS collar (i.e. there is a significant amount of more threads showing on the PS coilover under the collar). The spacing between tire and fender on both DS and PS is identical - about two fingers. No abnormal wear on the front tires either. After 6200 miles on the Goodyear F1s (the original tires that came with the car), the tread wear is even and symmetrical. I bought the car last May with 4200 miles on the odo from the original owner. Car was built in 2011.

Next step will be to lift up the front end and turn from lock to lock and examine the steering in that manner

Yes, and Alistair is just down the coast in LA. I've met him and visited his shop this past January. Very knowledgeable - managed to get a lot of valuable tips from him. If I can't figure this out on my own I'll be sure to give him a call and pick his brain.

Your going to have to get it off the ground and count your rotations. The amount of threads will vary depending on the weight, shock and springs.

Another tool to diagnose the situation would be getting your four wheel alignment specs. To keep the cost down you could ask a shop to simply read and print the specs without making any changes. I had that done a few weeks ago and it took the technician less than ten minutes from the time the car stopped on the rack. I would be particularly interested in the front caster settings.

Check your tire pressures.

Could be a illusion caused by body position while turning right you are pined to the door frame while turning left you are pulling your body up as well as turning the wheel making you believe their is less effort not realizing you are turning the wheel as you are holding your body.