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MG MGA - MGA steering will not self center

I have just restored a 1959 MGA,using MGB kingpins and shocks. Trouble is that the steering will not return after taking a corner.If it matters, I installed 5.5" rims and 195/65r15 tires. Any ideas,please?
S.G. Kaufman

It would matter to me! self centring depends on the toe in / out setting to some degree but is mainly built in to the suspension design. The king pin axis should intersect the wheel centre line at the road, and looking from the side it should intersect the road level ahead of the tyre contact. That is the castor angle. It is hard to see how this could be altered by what you did, but it must have been.
Art

I have experienced just this when some gas station guy filled the rack with grease on a customer's car I had assembled with the correct oil in the rack. Bitch in the winter, very nearly crashed it!
FRM
FR Millmore

Have you had the steering apart or used a rack or column from another car? The upper steering shaft and the lower pinion shaft must be aligned so that the projected axis of each intersect at the center of the universal joint, without forcing either. There is some adjustment at the upper column mounting points and there is a procedure in the shop manual for doing this.

Sometimes shims will be needed under the rack. When fitted at the factory they were riveted to the rack mounts, but if parts from another car have been used, or there has been major chassis or bodyshell work, it may be necessary to add your own or change any that are there.
John DeWolf

There is also that brass ( bronze ? ) thing on top of the rack housing that pushes down on the rack-- if that is too tight, it could keep it from moving freely
gil

Jack up the front to raise the tires off the floor. You should be able to turn the steering wheel with a pinkie finger. You should also be able to grasp a front tire with two hands ans steer it while the steering wheel spins free.

If any of this drags it's time to get familliar with how the steering rack works, because it needs fixing. See here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/suspensn/sr101.htm

If the mechanism moves freely with tires off the ground, then you may have some strange problem with improper caster angle, like not enough rearward inclination of the kingpins.
Barney Gaylord

SG

Assuming that you used the A shocks with the appropriate spacers at the upper link check your toe-in. This conversion usually requires shortening the tie rod / tie rod end a little to get the proper toe-in. Without doing this you will have significant toe-out which will probably give you the behavior you are experiencing.

If you have used B shocks I believe you have to reverse the arms to get the proper camber.

Check the archive as there is a lot of information on this conversion there.

HTH

Larry
58A with B kingpins and brakes in front
Larry Hallanger

This thread was discussed on 22/06/2006

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.