Steering rack play

[Revious]

My cb7 has always had superb handling, but this problem just appeared out of nowhere. When turning, there is a huge deadzone at higher speeds. You turn and get little to no response, and then the car will suddenly be responsive when the wheel is turned far enough.

Now, I work at Toyota so I had a technician friend of mine put it up on the hoist because the car gets honestly frightening at times. He said the steering rack had play.. but I didn't think racksjust went suddenly with such drastic change.

Does having your car lowered on coilovers increase the strain on the rack or what? And is it a possibility that it is a result of having an alignment issue?

[Ralphie]

He didn't figure out WHY it had play?


Im certain lowering it has 0 to do with it, as 100s of people lower their cars and don't do it properly and don't have any steering issues....


alignment would be caused by whatever problem you're having....but not the other way around.


Something is up with your rack....

[Revious]

No he just said it had play. No explanation for why, but he only had a quick glance. They don't really have much more time than that because they always have cars coming in for service.

I would look at it myself if I had any mechanical experience, but all ive ever done is. Hange brakes and spark plugs/distributors etc.

[Hooligan90]

Check your steering rack, and even the power steering pump. Look for leaks, play in the steering shaft, etc. Has nothing to do with being lowered.

By the way, the only thing lowering your car will do to stress the steering rack is differentiate the pinion angles of the tie rods, but wouldn't cause what you're describing. Also, only thing lowering really affects is your camber of your wheels and your alignment. Your steering box on your rack may be going out, or you may have a faulty power steering pump.

[Revious]

Steering rack has power steering fluid on it, but the thing is the power steering fluid is full. I make sure to keep all the fluids topped up.

I took it to my other mechanic buddy's place today, he took the steering column cover off and when we turned the wheel it 'floated' around in its place. Instead of being solid, and just simply turning left or right, it floated around in its spot to whichever side we turned it to, if that makes sense. I dunno, it's really odd and everyones baffled by it. They all say I'm going to have to take the entire rack apart, and that's going to be a looooong job.

[accordinated]

In the rack there's pieces called a worm shaft and ball nut which is surrounded by little ball bearings if some of the bearings have failed or worked their way out of one end it could cause your dead spot but you really cant tell until you crack the rack open! have you measured your tires from lock to lock to see if there's a difference?

[Revious]

In the rack there's pieces called a worm shaft and ball nut which is surrounded by little ball bearings if some of the bearings have failed or worked their way out of one end it could cause your dead spot but you really cant tell until you crack the rack open! have you measured your tires from lock to lock to see if there's a difference?

No... I haven't, I'm a newb and have no idea what that even means, heh.

Do you think I should go to a wrecker and just find a steering rack? Or buy a reman one from a parts place...

[cb7 calling]

If your power steering pump is starting to fail it would effect the driverside wheel more than the passenger I don't know why. It would feel like a dead spot turning right at higher speeds and pull to the left slightly when going straight. Look for air in the resavour at idle and faint streaks on the hood before moving on to ball joints, tie rods ect. ect. Then the rack

[roland lorenzo]

If your power steering pump is bushing type then the valve inside is starting to fail, no steering oil is penetrating inside occasionally that's why you have the issue. It need overhaul and replace all those rubber kit inside the pump.

[Bad_dude]

If the PS pump failed, wouldn't it just be hard to turn as the car is power assisted? It should not have play. I had friends with Toyotas with bad pump and it's hard as heck to turn but no play at high speed. Some thing is up with the rack there.

[Revious]

So, after a while of driving my car around with this problem, I finally started getting a clunking and decided enough was enough. Brought it into the shop along with a new clutch and had everything done...

Turns out the steering rack had a bolt completely sheared off, the other was loose and was rattling around in the frame... If I kept driving it the thing probably would have completely come undone and sent me off into a tree. The rack was just pissing out fluid and obviously needed to be replaced after all that time. The mechanic had a hell of a time putting the new one in, though. Had to cut holes in the frame just to get the bolts out and back in again...

Long story short, if your steering rack gets a deadzone -- fix it ASAP or risk your life. Haha

[wildBill83]

There is also an adjustment you can make if the rack isn't toast. I recommend a reman rack though personally. Been there done that.

EDIT: just saw last post, glad you fixed it before it fixed you.

[Revious]

Haha, yeah thanks man. I got a reman for 199 bucks. Hope it lasts. Labour + the part ended up being about 400 and then the alignment totaled it out at about 460$ so I can't complain.