Steering wheel off center by alot now...

Youd be amazed at how small of an adjustment (and being knocked slightly) will move a steering wheel. Pictured in the OP is maybe 1 turn of a tie rod, maybe 1.5 turns... and the tie rods are quite fine threaded. Needless to say it will be hard to see if an eccentric bolt on the LCA got moved by the naked eye.

The only thing you should really look at is the clearance between the spindle and backing plate where the tie rod meets the spindle. People have been known to bend spindles there. If both sides look good a quick alignment will sort this right out.

 

I thought it was bent at first but then compared it to the driver side spindle and tit look like the same angle and everything, but I'll check it again tomorrow, thanks!

 

Go back and hit that pothole again. Make sure you go in the opposite direction and at the same speed, it’ll self correct.

Jk, find a good alignment shop.

I’ve never tried it but people must make claims to be compensated. I’ll hear on that news occasionally that the city pays $X for damages and alignments due to potholes and such.

 

A coworker told me that too. Ill look into it. This pot hole would have probably totaled some cars if they hit it right

 

Should sue the pothole.

Also alignment is needed.

 

The amount of money and time spent dealing with that wouldnt be anywhere close to cost effective... not considering an alignment is 50-100$.

 

Subbed for the results - my steering wheel is off too. Alignment got it better but not great. I know my steering rack bushings are shot too.

 

If you DID jump several teeth on the steering shaft, I'd reposition to the original spot. Tie rods shouldn't be used to correct this issue if its too extreem. The rack can pull to one direction as its designed to self center (within reason)

 

The only issue is that is just a theory I have. Since I don't have a reference point of where it was factory, I don't know if it did or not...

 

If there is no obvious camber issues I'd suspect it skiped.

If the steering shaft has jumped, and the tie rod adjustment is "eyed" the SAME LENGTH left/right, you can verify by the position of the steering wheel.



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what's the fix? if I loosen that nut on the rag joint, is it easy for the shaft to slide out completely to realign? I did loosen it once and the shaft slide out a few mm but not sure If I could get it all the way out. Didn't want to push it for fear I wouldn't be able to get it back in.

 

Super easy to reinsert. Some (most) vehicles are able to reposiion anywhere. Occasionally there is a master spline (one position). Wont know uñtil you try

 

I highly doubt it would "jump" the splines...if it did they would probably shear off..

 

I watched a vid and saw it should be easily done on the steering rack side. I'm going to get it aligned today to make sure it wasn't a cam tab and then later test the steering to see how many turns it takes to go lock to lock on each side. If it's way off then i'll adjust the shaft and use the tie rods to to fix it. If it's not too far un even I'll just keep it that way.

 

A combatant alignment will cover the whole issue

 

I thought it unlikely too but having the tie rods not bent or changed, spindles not bent then I was running out of possibilities. Hopefully it was a cam bolt shift and it will be fixed with the alignment.

 

well..i wouldnt move the steering wheel....if something did shift it will correct itself during the alignment

 

If it did shift, it wasn't much so if the alignment is good I will just call it good.

 

It’s really unlikely the intermediate shaft “jumped” splines.

The only way to know is to center the rack and see where the steering wheel sits.

I wouldn’t just go moving anything on the steering column first until you were 100% sure that that was the real issue.

If the joint was loose, you should be able to turn the wheel full lock then force it to jump another spline or 2 just by turning the wheel more.

Id get it aligned first before messing with anything else. Or at least make sure the rack is centered.

It would be really silly to move all this stuff when it was just an alignment cam the whole time because now your rack isn’t centered.

 

yeah getting an alignment at 2 today, then going from there.