w123 steering problem - not the box.

[isobars]

Hi All,
I’ve been gradually sorting a few problems out with my W123 Estate 300TDT – nothing too serious, mostly down to the car not having been used enough, and certainly not run long and hard for some time. Valves done and re-done, diesel purge x 2, sound thrashing, etc, etc.
Yesterday I was down at a friend’s place here in Portugal and he said why don’t we nip down and see my Ukrainian mechanic and ask him if he can pinpoint that annoying little rattle?
It seemed to be getting better, but why not.
Anyway, we got there and within a flash he’d jacked it up and was pushing the front wheels back and forth. There is a little play there, as there is on them all – I believe that they might need an inch to kick the pump in. I had been having a little vibration at around 30mph and thought that was a balancing thing, I tried to tell him that and thought he’d agreed, (it was comedy translation stage by then – being English I can mime a bit, but I failed miserably with ‘six words, the whole thing, “I only think they need balancing”) Also I can speak enough of the language (Portuguese, he’s fluent), to say, I think it is not a problem.
I went to take a phone call and when I came back he’d got a long extension and a socket onto something from above – though he was underneath at some stage, but he never used a hex key. I left him to it thinking, what harm can he do?
Well, he did a few other odds and sods and toppings-up, etc, which I think might have included sticking too much tranny fluid in the box because I’m sure the engine wasn’t fully up to temp when he checked it, and last night, dark and late after having arrived home I popped it back into gear to edge forward a little and it gave a right thump when it engaged. I’ll check later today.
Worst of it all was that the steering now has five or six inches of play in it, my question is, what can he have fiddled with that wasn’t the steering box to make this happen. I‘d just like to be able to reverse the procedure without going back to him, it’s two hours and I really could do without seeing him again.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Druk]

He has almost certainly adjusted the steering box the wrong way. There's a locknut and machine screw adjuster on the top of the box. This adjuster is counter-intuitive in that it needs turned out to take up play in the box. And very carefully at that cos it can be overdone. Best is to jack the front wheels and screw it out a 1/4 turn at a time and check the steering for binding on each full lock. When you get the play down to about 1" on the wheel at centre and no binding on lock then nip up the locknut. A new steering damper can also transform the feel and costs notalot.

Derek.

 

[isobars]

Hi Derek,

Many thanks for that good advice, I'll give it a go later.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[clk208]

Hope you get it sorted. Annoying having "repairs" done like this to have a minor issue made worse and to have wasted time and money in the process!

 

[isobars]

This is very odd, I just started the car to put it into the garage and the steering felt OK. I took it for a quick spin round the village and it still feels ok, maybe 1.5 inches play.
I'll take it up and adown some seriously bendy roads and a few long stretches to see if I'm imagining it.

Cheers,

Paul