[DeTomaso] steering rack....Again??!!Bump steer and noises

Julian Kift julian_kift at hotmail.com
Sun Jun 12 17:57:38 EDT 2011


Personally I would suspect a suspension problem. Mechanical feeling can easily be transmitted back through the tie rods, rack and be felt through the steering wheel. Did your suspension rebuild change anything geometry wise, is something binding when the suspension is unloaded now the rack is lower? Did you check the sway bar mounts during the rebuild process they are known to crack in two allowing the sway bar to move. As Doug says trying moving it all around, maybe also try that in different unload positions i.e. wheels free from the ground, on ground suspension partially unloaded to see if you can detect/reproduce the problem.
 
Good luck,
Julian
 
> From: doug351c at gmail.com
> To: claywillmott at hotmail.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 11:09:30 -0700
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] steering rack....Again??!!Bump steer and noises
> 
> Jack up one front corner at a time, grasp the tire at 3 and 9 o'clock, and
> rock the tire back and forth vigorously by hand. Hopefully you'll hear/feel
> a clunk. If so, have someone else look for the source of the clunk while
> you rock the tire/wheel. Do this check on both sides.
> 
> Doug Braun
> blue 73L #5505
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
> [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of clay willmott
> Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2011 6:31 AM
> To: Pantera Forum
> Subject: [DeTomaso] steering rack....Again??!!Bump steer and noises
> 
> 
> 
> I rebuilt the entire front suspension and then had the expert in Cincinnati
> align and double check everything and 4 corner weight balance etc. he does
> the other panteras and is a suspension guy mainly and does some of the
> Lemans teams and said everything looked great.WHile doing this I used all
> the best parts and the car appears structurally sound at a arm sites of
> attachment.
> I had the rack out of the car and its an early 71 pushbutton car.I had the
> suspension guy inspect the rack, it had a bronze bushing and the set screw
> is intact. I told him rebuild he said didnt need it and he took it apart (i
> think).I also purchased the bump steer kit from a Poca member and mounted
> all that before final alignment.
> The car while driving 5 mph on even a decent road has a lot of noise such as
> rattles creaks and groans coming from the rack and I can feel it transmitted
> to hands from steering wheel. Its even more noisy with any small bumps into
> driveway or just the tiny bumps in road of neighborhood while driving very
> slow and not turning the wheel. These are seams in the road and cannot be
> felt or heard in any normal car fyi. Sounds like something is loose or
> wants to fall apart. When turning wheel right to left its also noisy but
> even before the guy "re built or inspected the rack", whatever he did to it,
> it never had the big single clunk everyone talks about.
> Is the rack bad? I was told it wasnt bad when i had it out?also, I did find
> it difficult to mount the bump steer kit but the bolts are tight. Nothing
> appears loose. However it seems the tie rods are angled a bit due to the
> bump steer kit?
> I guess my three questions are:
> 1. Is the Bump steer kit making matters worse?2. Is the rack bad?3. If I
> remove the bump steer and remount old way I doubt that would fix problem but
> would alignment change? Hoping to fix all this without big money alignment
> again.
> thankswanna get this fixed, again!
> 
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