| Does your steering wheel have a lot of movement before your car begins turning or feel numb on center? Does it jerk when you hit expansion joints on bridges? If your car has over 100K, the idler arm, drag link, tie rods, ball joints, steering box, shocks, springs, and bushings have all had better days. But, there is a free improvement that will only take 30 mins. This adjustment removes slop in the preload of the gears in the steering box. Things you will need: 3/16" allen wrench 5/8" box end wrench penetrating oil A jack Two Jackstands 30 minutes Procedure 1. Use oil to lubricate threads of locknut and adjustment plug (they are right on top). 2. Jack up the front end of the car so both front wheels are off the ground and place on jackstands. 3. Make a reference mark on the box (chalk, etc.) so you can see your original position. 4. Put the 5/8" box end wrench on the locknut. 5. Use the 3/16" allen wrench to hold the adjustment plug at the top of the box. 6. While holding the allen wrench still, loosen the locknut with the box end wrench several turns. 7. Turn the adjustment plug clockwise until lightly snug (to remove slack), then back it out 90 degrees. 8. Hold the allen wrench still and tighten the locknut. 9. Start car, run steering wheel through full rotation, checking for binding. (Note: RPM's will drop slightly at full lock due to the drag of the power steering pump, this is NORMAL !) 10. If binding, repeat steps 4-8, backing out adjustment plug slightly more (1/8 turn) 11. Remove wrenches, lower car from jackstands, testdrive & note improvement! NOTE: At step 9, I did not encounter any binding. However, after I lowered the car and went for a test drive, I felt a slight drag, so I backed out the plug slightly more. Soooo... make sure you take it easy the first time you take it out after this adjustment !!! CONCLUSION: I performed this adjustment to my car, but I didn't notice a HUGE difference. Maybe its because most of my 140k miles were on the highway. Either that or the rest of my suspension is so crappy there is too much slop in other places !!! However, it did seem to help the way my wheel used to jerk when I hit expansion joints on bridges. |