I was wondering if you guys could help recommend some things I can check to troubleshoot this problem. About 5 months ago I purchased an 89 IROC-Z with the FE2 package. The previous owner told me he had the Centerlink replaced, and the car needed an alignment. It was a warning sign but the car was cheap so I bought it anyway. I had the car aligned, and it does not wander. I am not having problems with slop in the steering, no noises, and no problems with the alignment of the steering wheel. The problem I'm having is that the car turns more to the left than it does to the right. So at full lock left, the wheel is turned fully (no rubbing) and works good, but at full lock right the wheel does not turn as much as it should making the turns very wide. I've done a bunch of searches, and found some great info posted by Vader, so one of the first things I'll do is check my Pitman and Idler arms. But I was wondering is there was anything else you guys can recommend I check, or possibly something that might have been done wrong when the Centerlink was installed that I can check. I did a visual check and did not see anything obvious. The steering box was very dirty, so I cleaned it up. I checked it a month later and noticed that is it leaking a small ammount of fuild from the bottom line (return line?). So I suspect that the steering box might have a problem, but I was wondering if there was anything you guys can recommend I check out or test before blaming this problem on the steering box. Thanks for any info you guys might have!

 

well, turn the wheel straight and look at the steering arm..

what they COULD have done was make the car go straight with the box turned by having the arm in the wrong place and having the ends at diffrent lengths... then put the steeringwheel on so its straight... but, uhh, that would be wierd.

 

If the pitman arm had been removed and put back on the wong spline (if that's possible - there may be a master spline on the shaft) it would cause the steering box to hit the internal stops sooner in one direction than the other.
Also depending on how the aligment was done could affect this in another way. The steering wheel is to be centered first by counting the # of turns lock-to-lock, dividing that by 2, and going that number of turns to center it - regardless of where the steering wheel or front wheels are pointed. The wheel is then locked in place, and all adjustments take place from there.
If the wheels were aligned with the box off-center, then the tierod sleeves would be adjusted to compensate. Like, you wouldn't drive onto the alignment machine, give the steering wheel a full turn to the left, lock it, and have the wheels' toe adjusted to run straight leaving 1/4 turn of the steering wheel to the left before it hits the internal stops.
I hope that sounded like it was meant to...

Pete

 

Thanks for the help guys. I will have the alignment shop give it another try before blaming this on the steering box.

 

this is secondhand info from a coworker... so i'll just let him type it:

If its a laser alignment, they should have you turn the wheels full lock one direction, then full lock the other direction. The computer can then look at the arc and calculate center.