Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 4/4 Sigma 2014, problems with the steering -solved

I had a clicking noise around the center position and a steering feel that was not quite right. André Koopmann, a very good Morgan workshop, has just taken the steering apart. The spring that presses the pinion into the rack with the nylon follower was correctly adjusted, so as indicated on Lorne's Gomog page, my son had carefully screwed the gearwheel with the screw and the spring underneath it to the stop four years ago and then unscrewed it a quarter turn. The cause of the fault is now that the nylon follower material has expanded over the years. It can no longer move freely in the metal bushing and is stuck in one position. This means that the spring, which presses the spindle against the rack with constant force, no longer has any function. The driving experience was very disconcerting, without any feeling for the road.
The nylon follower can be seen right hand at the photo. André ground it down a little so that it could move again and the spring could work properly with the follower. Now the steering and driving feel is wonderful again, just as it should be.
André says that these nylon followers expand after a few years and become stuck. It's almost inevitable and affects all Trads sooner or later.

mechanics hands!!

David Byrne

Very useful heads up Heinz

Yes, experienced the same issue with my steering rack.
Fit the bigger diameter into a lathe and turn the other side down slightly to make a sliding fit

This is another job on the list.

So..........today I took a look at my Roadster rack.

I had re-tensioned the rack plunger a few years ago due to a bit of free play, and to be honest didn't notice the stuck plunger. so maybe it was OK at that time.

When removed, I found that the plunger was stuck fast. The spring was doing nothing. What is interesting is that before I did this, there was the tiniest amount of free play at the steering wheel. Only detectable with a really gentle wobble of the steering wheel, and no more than 1mm (if that) but as a perfectionist I knew it was there.



I don't have quick access to a lathe, and so I opened up the centre hole very slightly with a drill, and then found a thin self tapper, long enough to go all the way through and into the jaws of my drill. Having mounted the drill in my vice.......I used lubricated 150 grit and slowly reduced the diameter of the section which fits inside the cover. It took a while. The bush is a really hard nylon type material, and it's amazing if this does expand, but it certainly looks that way. After four sessions, and finishing off with 250 grit, I had a sliding fit.



Here are the parts all cleaned up.



Having re-assembled, I tightened down, backed off a quarter turn, and that 1mm "free play" was gone.

I'm a great fan of the drill technique too Dave. I try and use a 6mm tapped hole (5mm drill for 6mm tap) then use an adapted 6mm bolt and a lock nut.
I then mount it in the drill press to carry out the adjustment.

Stihl power tools suffer a similar issue on their pull starters. the spindle is a hard plastic of some sort and it swells and jams preventing the pull cord from retracting so I've done a few of those in my time as well although the same level of accuracy isn't required there!

Should have added that the tapped thread helps you remove it the next time it jams tight too!

I had a KTM motorcycle and the plastic fuel cap would regularly swell making it almost impossible to remove, sanding down was part of regular maintenance.

Dave, do you also have the impression that the steering feels “right” again? In the phase where the bush expands, you don't immediately notice the very slow deterioration. But after the spring can work freely again, I felt a much better steering performance with more feedback from the road.