STEERING GEAR

Shannon News, 5 October 1928, Page 4

STEERING GEAR

SIMPLE ADJUSTMENTS.

Given an ordinary standard car of good make, the owner need only keep his steering in proper adjustment and condition to ensure safe and reliable service. But the steering gear does require attention and occasional adjustment.

When the steering is new it may be a little still; —a fault which will wear off as the car gets run in. But longer use may result in accumulated backlash which may accentuate any preexisting tendency to wheel wobble, and which is, in any case, a disconcerting condition. , ,

feack-lash in the worm and wheel of the steering gear-box may occur, and also in the connections between the drop arm of the steering box and the wheel arms at the joints which connect the drag link with the wheel arm at one end and the drop arm at the other, and at each end of the track rod —the rod which connects the steering heads of the two wheels. All these joints are subjected to much wear and impact. Obstacles in the road are only prevented by the drag link and the a«rms and the trackrod. Obviously then there is impact and pressure here above that which would be duo to the simple turning of the steering wheel and alteration of the wheel direction. It is this impact, which may cause trouble and undue wear, and it can be increased enormously if there is any looseness. Impact obviously cannot take place between the articulativo members if they are already in contact, and the correct way to avoid all these troubles is to keep all the joints carefully adjusted so that there is freedom of movement with no looseness.

It is not a big job to go over these joints and adjustments, and in neatly all cases adjustment is provided. In those cases where hardened and ground pins are used in parallel holes in the joints there can bo no adjustments for wear, and in such cases it behoves the user to sec that the joints are properly filled with grease front the start, kept filled and kept enclosed. Steering heads may also got loose, and loose heads arc a predisposing cause of wheel trouble. 'The'heads should be tight enough to prevent any shake. And it is well to note that a head which is .apparently tight, or at least shows no sign of any looseness when the axle is jacked up and the head is free on the axle without load, may be eased and really loose when the load comes on.

For this rea-son only an experienced mechanic used to the particular ear can be trusted to make a really good job of the adjustment of the steering heads.