Drifty steering

[PaulC]

what would cause drifty steering, i.e. wandering left/ right and always needing input correction?
Jacked up each front side under the a arm, gave the tire a good shake and couldn't feel any obvious play in either the ball joints or the tie rods.
Sway bar? Bushings? Front end alignment?

[geospider]

My general experience with "wandering" is in one direction, and I would then look at alignment. Given yours wanders left and right; I would look at bushings, since you ball jts and bearing seem fine.
also check on steering gearbox play; how much movement/play does your steering wheel have when not moving? mine was loose when I first got the car and the steering could go either way at times.

[RRoller123]

+1. Try putting the wheels straight ahead, maybe the front jacked up a little better, and see how much steering wheel play there is before any movement gets transmitted to the wheels. There should be maybe an inch or an inch and a half at the top of the steering wheel. Any more can usually be taken up in the steering box, which is easy to adjust. With the wheels up, you can see if the play is resolved elsewhere. If everything is tight and right, alignment for sure.

[bobplyler]

Bad bushings in the rear control arms can cause this.

[PaulC]

I can see from the service manual that adjusting the box is fairly simple but the big question is how the heck do you access it?
I can just about see it from under the hood and getting to the screw and nut seems a challenge.
And yes there seems to be more than the inch or so of movement around center so adjustment is probably called for.

[DieselSpider]

Alignment set toe neutral of toe out will cause wandering as will caster set reverse. On the 124 Spider too much weight in the trunk or rear end riding low/sag will also cause wander since it can reverse caster. You can have wander that shifts to either side depending on the crown in the road without any worn parts on the car.

Putting it on an alignment rack will tell if there are worn parts or if it simply needs adjustment.

I had a lifetime alignment done on mine so I can have it rechecked/realigned at no charge any time I want.

[RRoller123]

Getting at that adjustment nut is a pain, but it can be accessed, may have to remove a couple of things in the way. On my car, which is an FI, I can get at it with some difficulty. But it can be done.

[PaulC]

What i mistook for drift was actually play in the steering. Releasing the wheel when going down the road showed the car to track dead straight.
When I made a steering correction I was actually over correcting due to the extra play causing a correction to be made in the opposite direction then the other way ,etc. Once I realized this and anticipated having to anti-correct, all was well except for the excessive play (more than the inch or so recommended)
Next job is to adjust the box to the correct play around center.

Also can the idler be removed leaving the arm still attached to the tie rods?
Looks like you could remove the shaft nut and mounting bolts and push the splined shaft out of the arm thus removing the idler intact.

[geospider]

As for the Idler: My old hydraulic one was leaking, so replaced with new bearing version. I found it very difficult to get the arm off the old to use on the new: when doing on the bench. I can imagine trying that on the car.
But in theory, I guess you should be able to.
Geo

[redcars]

+1 for being hard to get the arm off. It is much easier to remove the drag link and tie rod from the idler arm.

[DieselSpider]

Just be mindful that it is supposed to have 1 inch or so of play and will never zero out or come anywhere close to the rack and pinion steering found on a more modern car.

You have to learn the feel of where the play ends so it becomes second nature and you no longer over correct.

Setting the box too tight can lead to catastrophic failure since you can be putting the internals of the recirculating ball and worm gear steering box under extreme and constant stress. The end of the worm gear shaft can get worn off from setting the cross shaft too tight so that the center of the worm shaft pops out of the bearing leaving you with no steering. In the past 50 years of wrenching I have seen this happen too often especially when younger folks try to set a recirculating worm gear steering box to the same level of play as they are accustomed to with rack and pinion.

I find some of the new cars too jittery with their immediately responding electric power rack and pinion steering that seems to react even to your pulse.

[PaulC]

Exactly what my Kia soul does with it's electric power steering! Guess electric saves engine load vs a belt drive pump.

[DieselSpider]

Exactly what my Kia soul does with it's electric power steering! Guess electric saves engine load vs a belt drive pump.

Yes electric eliminates the constant load of the hydraulic pump recirculating oil however my Nissan Leaf is a plug in electric car and the electric steering in that one is quite civilized compared to many of the others.

[narfire]

Screw in perhaps 1/4 turn at a time. I found it does not take much to take up that slack.
Also, my car "drifts" a bit on the highways that have a lot of transport traffic. There is a slight crown between the wheel tracks and with 205/15's I can bounce around a little. Not an issue really but is noticeable.

[PaulC]

Finally got around to doing something about all the free play in the steering box.

Jacked up the front, loosened the lock nut on the box adjuster and was able to reduce the free play at center to the recommended 1-1.5 inch. It took nearly a full 3/4 turn of the screw to achieve that. Checked that there was no binding at either full left and right, and all was AOK.

Then unscrewed the fill plug to see if that needed topping off and did it ever. Stuck a screwdriver down the hole as far as it would go and it came up dry! Topped it off with 90EP until it dribbled out the hole and probably put in most of the 7 oz. listed in the shop manual.

While it was still up, I tried wiggling all the tie rod and link ends for any movement and there wasn't any perceptible. In fact most of the ends looked fairly new, at least not all rusted over. Also, I found the idler to be a late model dry-type that was also snug.

Took the car for a spin and what a difference in the steering! While not the rack-and-pinion precision I'm used to, it was sooo much better, no overcorrecting and the wheel didn't seem as heavy in tight turns.

Yea! That's finally done, so on to other things. Like my ADFA rebuild and the custom boot design for the top.