Stiff Steering

[David Morris]

Hi All,

I would appreciate some advice. My Javelin's steering has progressively got stiffer and stiffer. I am hunting down the cause, but would appreciate any advice. I can guess at three potential culprits,in possible order of likelihood :-

a. the swivel pins

b. the cone nuts on the steering cross member

c. the box itself

As a start, I am in the process of raising the car on axle stands and removing the front wheels, prior to getting at the various grease nipples. Then I plan to unwind the track rod ends ( fortunately they are the Jowett type that screw into the arms, rather than having tapers ). Then with the front suspension freed from the steering, I can see whether the swivel pins are at fault, plus giving them a good lubrication. I now only have a single garage, so work on the sides of the car is a bit of a struggle!

Many moons ago, I did some work on the cone nuts on the steering cross beam, and I know these can tighten up on the cross beam, to the extent that the steering completely seizes. The key here is to fold the tab washers forward and back, securing both the cone nut and the lock nut. The last time the cones were replaced and adjusted was under Dennis Sparrow's care and I am sure the tab washers would have been correctly set. I haven't touched them since, apart from regular greasing. I cannot see that these would have have moved and, with wear since, the cones would surely be much more likely to have loosened?

By the same token, I have regularly greased the steering box with steering box oil, via a grease nipple that has been fitted to the steering box plug. Again, I have never heard of the box being responsible for tight steering, unless the eccentric bush on the steering box has been touched, which it hasn't, to my knowledge, for at least 20 years?

Any ideas would be most welcome?

Meanwhile, stay safe and try to keep away from the virus.

David

[M S G Benning]

Had this problem on my Javelin, I put oil in my grease gun & went round the nipples on the swivel pins. Worked it in a bit & then re-greased. It cured the problem.

[Keith Clements]

Take care to check steering freedom from full lock to full lock both when unloaded on full droop and fully loaded , with a lot of weight in car and torsion bars relaxed.
I know not easy to do but tightness in ball joints and steering arm knuckles can cause lock up.
Lock up is more dangerous than wear play.
I only detected this on Amy's Jup by luckily noticing it.

[David Morris]

Hi both,

Thanks for your suggestions. I raised the car on axle stands and removed the road wheels. I disconnected the OS steering ball joint and found this almost locked. Strange? I freed it up on the bench and reset it for a running clearance. The swivel pin was completely free. The steering was still quite stiff, so did the same with the NS. Again, the swivel pin was completely free. The steering ball joint was also free this time. Now, with the wheels disconnected, I can turn the steering wheel lock-to-lock in the garage and it is much better, but not really what I would call 'free'.

I think my next move will be to load the grease gun and give everything a good grease-up. Perhaps, I will initially use a second grease gun loaded with thick oil on the steering joints and idler? Whenever I load my grease gun, I always seem to get more grease over me than into the joints. I shall have to get kitted-up with full PPE first! Then, after making sure she is fully greased, I shall sit in the car and pretend I am driving up and down a very twisty alpine pass a few times, and hopefully everything will ease up?

Thanks for the ideas,

David

[David Morris]

Hi All,

Thanks for the help and glad to report that the problem is sorted. As I mentioned in the previous post, I greased all round, including the steering idler and the steering box, with steering box oil and grease. Sat in the car, making Brrm, Brrm noises and rotated the steering wheel about 100 times lock to lock. She is quite free now and I am just busy reconnecting the linkages.

The sun is shining and it's a pity I cannot take her out for a proving run, due to the lock-down. It would be just my luck to get pulled over and questioned on why I was out, by myself and without a good excuse.

I was reminded that, when at work in the Naval storage depot, we had to cycle big electric motors through the workshops, rather than leave them languishing in stores for too long. It was surprising that their grease used to solidify in the ball races, to the extent that often they would be locked solid and required a strip-down and re-packing with fresh grease. Grease is, after all, mostly soap and oil and it can dry out.

Thanks to everyone and stay safe.

David