Been a while since I did the seals in the P/S pump and thats still working fine but I have had a few other issues and along the lines of Beauh's question. For a while now I have been feeling a tiny bit of movement in the steering. I checked out all the bushes, joints tie rod ends ok and drag links had a tiny bit of movement so I tightened them and they seemed ok. There still every now and then seemd to be slight movement. I have held off doing too much until I replaced the tyres a few weeks ago. This led to more problems.
Firstly the spring bushes (leaf springs) were worne. I had already relaced the front ones before I put the tyres on but I had not done the rear because I new the rear springs needed resetting. They have needed doing for a long time 10years + but I dont carry heavey loads that often and the clearance on my garage was only 25mm. So now it does not fit in the garage anymore.
When I put the tyres on I they went to do the wheel alighment and what do you no there is movement in the rear. So I have had the rear spings done and put new bushes in. Wheel alighnment is all bad now. When this thing was new the wheel alighnment was never right I had it back to toyota several times but it was never brilliant. Depend who I spoke with back then some people recommended putting a caster kit in the swivel housing others said it didnot need it. So I never put one in. I think when I put heavier springs under the front after they saged many years ago it improved beacause the front lifted up which I am guessing altered the caster angle a bit 1-2 degree maybe??
Anyway I took it back the other day and had the wheel a lignment done wheer i had the tyres fitted and it did not help much. Was continuousley running off the road to the left. Not bad but anoying and not good on the front left tyre. It wears the outside edge.
The guy that did the alighnment was not happy with it but told me that it was all to spec and there was nothing he could do. He did say that the caster angle was 0 degree but he had no way of adjusting this short of putting a caster kit in the swivel housing.
So anyway did a bit of gooogling the other day on what the caster would affect and read about caster shims/wedges. So apparently too little caster will cause bump steering or in other words it will follow the angle of the road. This morning I put a set of 3 degree shims in. A lot simpler than fitting the ecentric bearing type kit into the swivel housing. It seems to have made a difference so I will see how it goes over a few days on different roads and then take it back and have the alighnmnent checked again. Hope fully that issue is sorted.
While I was doing this I also had a thorough check of the steering joints again looking for the movement. I ended up taking of the steering damper and this allowd me to feel the movement which I first thought was the drag link on the pitman arm. I poped the drag link out and the movement is actually in the steering box. When the steering is centered the movement is minimal but the more it is turned one way or the other the greater the movement. I am guessing here the it is wear in the steering box but any help full info would be apreciated here.
