Project Dougla | Steering issues

Banzai · Zorce Media Crew Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 31

Went to the Alignemtn guy yesterday ato get teh car straigtened out in terms of its tracking issues. Steering has alot of play and the camber/caster seemdto be off as well. However, upon inspection of the bits underneath, it was recommended that we change out the Pitman Arm and both steering ends before trying to align the car properly

Here is the current setup

This needed to be removed. Trusty Spanner in hand, Anil goes to work

as with all things that haged...sometimes some "hard iron" behind it will make it crack...

final twitisn and teh old pitman arm comes off

the old pitman arm...clearly worn....it still had a"slack" feel to it even after it was removed

Fresh Pitman arm to be installed. i wish that all car parts were as cheap as old car parts. We paid 73TT for a brand new Pittman arm.

mounting it back up was as easy as taking it down. Something to note here. Make a notch on the old Pittman arm and match it up with a notch on the new one so that "dead center" will be true center. A few teeth off and you'll find yourself compensating on the other parts of the steering setup

There.....new Pittman arm installed....

Next up was the Steering ends. We did both sides. Heres the same side..Right hand....before we took it off..

Outer Steering end removed. Notice the worn bits of the tip..and it felt "sticky" when yu tried to move the ball in the socket

Fresh Steering arm. Cost? $38TT. This really blew my mind. Steering end also comes with a locking pin.

some other tools of the job....Grease...this is for the inner and outer bearings that was also due to change. However we bought Bearingns for a Mitsu not knowing that the hub setup was really a transplanted setup from a S15.

Steering end remounted.

We also did some steering box adjustments to get rid of the "loose steering play" whe ndriving. Couldnt take out pics of that beucz the space in which to work was limited.

Next. Front Bumper install....

Yeo · Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:52 pm Post subject:

Very nice Banzai!!

Lovin the write-ups.
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Plex · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:51 am Post subject:

good pics

NarendZORCE · Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 8:19 am Post subject:

Excellent thread Rawle!!!
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MG Man · Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject:

score bonus points for the narrative............simple.clear english
well done Master Rover
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Inshan · Rebel Speeder Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 75

Nice write-up. One thing that worries me is the technique used to remove the old pitman arm.

Now I expect everybody to say, that is the way we always do it and never have no problem... but that is not the way to remove a pitman arm. A puller should be used. Beating it off with a hammer can cause damage to your steering box.

Using a proper puller like this one will cause no damage to the steering box. Pitman arms are usually on TIGHT!!!

MG Man · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject:

^^^Good point, Master Inshan.........the question of course is how many local mechs have proper tools, and who sells proper tools? You'd be amazed the runaround I sometimes gat when trying to find the odd tool down here Exclamation

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Inshan · Rebel Speeder Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 75

SAd, because that is a very basic tool that I owned even when I was in Trinidad.

MG Man · Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:38 am Post subject:

^^^^yep
how many times u see a local mechanic push a brake piston back into the caliper bore with his thumbs / screwdriver, when a g-clamp is so cheap......when u can find one to buy Confused

Or use a broken feeler gauge / flathead screwdriver to scrape off old gasket crud.....the list goes on......
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zodiaque · Dude where's my Car? Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 602

Cool, I changed all the ends, both inner and outer, As well as the idle arm, a few months back. The Pitman arm is the same though, did not replace that yet. You would find yourself replacing the idle arm bushing fairly often with our roads, may want to go with teflon.

The ends were so well infused with the drag link that I eneded up taking out the drag link asembly to lightly tap out the old ends after applying wrench ease. To prevent this from happening again I used assembly grease when putting in the new ones.

I see you all had gloves, good idea Laughing

. I never worked with em, the scars on my hands are evidence, maybe I should practice using em.
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