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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Steering return


It sometimes takes another driver to point out faults in a car & this includes the steering on my 1970 midget.

Despite giving it a good greasing the steering is so slow in returning to straight I have found it difficult to judge how far I need to travel before it does so.

I can vaguely remember seeing a thread about this recently but can't find it in the archive - probably because quite a few threads start out on 1 topic & progress to another.

Is this something to do with camber, tyres (standard & almost new 145/13's),rack issues? Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks.
Gavin Rowles

naturally all those things can cause the issue, however another important item is the tracking. If the tracking is parallel to toe out, this will cause great steering (IMO) but it will feel very heavy and will struggle to self centre. Worth checking
Bob Turbo Midget England

The easiest first check is to jack the front wheels off the ground and see if the steering feels at all stiff. With no load on the tyres the steering wheel should spin fairly freely from lock to lock with very little effort. If this is OK then the fault will be in a setting such as the wheel alignment, or tyre pressures. If there is resistance in the steering wheel, then it will be to do with steering column bushes,rack alignment, kingpins or possibly track rod ends. You can further isolate these problems by disconnecting the TREs and checking if the hub swivels freely or not.

What tyre pressure are you using?

Guy
Guy Weller

Thanks both.

Tyre pressures are as recommended - from memory 24lb front 26lb rear. Will check.

Have to admit not had the alignmnent check for a couple of years so will try this.

Greased suspension yesterday up on stands & always turn from lock to lock adding grease as I go. Steering is easy & light throughout travel. So not sure what is to be gained by removing TRE's.
Gavin Rowles

Gavin,
That is a good sign - if it is easy to spin the steering wheel lock to0 lock when the front wheels are jacked up, then it at least suggests that nothing is seized or binding. As you say, no benefit therefore in undoing the TREs. It rather points towards wrong tracking. The steering won't centre properly unless the tracking alignment is set properly; - I think it should be somewhere between parallel and 1 degree of toe-in.

Guy
Guy Weller

This thread was discussed on 24/05/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.