Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

My steering linkage has a fair amount of slop in both the box and the pivot. I seem to recall someone doing a rack & pinion swap somewhere but I can't remember. Any ideas or suggections? If you do, any pictures and specifics would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Steve:
You might want to just replace the idler bushing and adjust the box.
I found that the majority of the steering slop was coming from the idler box on the passenger side.
It was easy to replace its lower bushing and have it reamed .001-.002 larger than the shaft. The lower seal was relaced at the same time. The bushing and seal were fairly inexpensive.
My tie rod ends were fairly tight, so most of the steering slop was removed.
A slight adjustment of the steering box screw also removed some play.

The above removed most of the steering play at lower road speeds,
however at highway speeds a bit of steering play/wander was noticed.
The lower ball joints had excessive play, so they were eventually replaced and the car now has a tight steering feel and the car doesn't wander.

Ray B.

Slop will always be present in the steering boxes more so with the early box over the later style. The boxes internals themselves really don't move that much. You can adjust the box to take a little play out but usually the culprit in loose steering is the idler arm, tierods, center drag link and suspension. I replaced all the items except for the steering box and got steering response that I thought was unbelievable for a 30+ year car.

I don't know the year of your car but you can always swap the early box out and replace with a late style. I believe evilracing on the forum is building up a car with a rack and pinion. You cannot beat the performance of a rack. It may be out of a mustang 2 or pinto, I am not sure.

I am looking to replace the lower bushing but want to inspect the upper bushing and idler shaft from an earlier roadster. How does the idler shaft come out of the idler body? I have turned the shaft until the top flat piece shows above the upper lip of the body but it doesn't seem to want to turn any farther with hand turning. Do I use a wrench to turn it further or is there some other way for the shaft to be removed? I don't want to damage the shaft. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated. I am trying to remove the 'slope' I have in my steering and believe the idler assembly is the problem. Thanks.

Hi Guys,
I have just finished a complete rack and pinion conversion, I can tell you it requires a complete reconstruction of the crossmember, but it can be done, I had to get a engineers cert for the mods. But now have a steering system with only 2 tie rod ends, and almost no slop in the steering.

I'm no steering/suspension expert, but Mike Young reduced the amount of "slop" in my other Datsun by adjusting the steering box itself. There is a holding nut, then a large torx-shaped plastic screw that can be loosened or tightened to adjust the amount of play in the steering. You might try adjusting this first.

Thanks for the suggestion Adam. I have spent some time adjusting the steering box top screw but found if I adjusted it too much the steering became stiff when trying to turn the steering wheel. That's when I moved on to the idler box. I am also going to replace my ball joints as soon as I have replaced all of the tie rod boots which are shot. I did finally get the idler shaft out of the assembly. Seems to have had some sand in it that was making it difficult to unscrew the shaft. Tore the hell out of the lower bushing too. I am looking to have the shaft repaired by a local machine shop or replace it with a re-conditioned shaft. The bushings are in too tight to remove them so it also looks like I will need to have them honed out also. May just replace the whole assembly with a better one.

I recall that my idler bushing was also hard to remove.

A slot was made thru the bushing wall using a hacksaw blade and then I collapsed the bushing to remove it.
There was a bit of wear on the idler shaft, so a few thousanths were turned off the diameter and then emery polished.

The bushing was press fit installed and reamed to suit the shaft.

When assembling, take note of how far the splined end is sticking out and test fit the arm on to insure the new seal maintains a compressed seal when the arm is swung from one extreme to the other.

I made the mistake of having the shaft sticking out too much and when the arm was in full lock in one direction, the seal wasnt making contact between faces.
After few adjustments and testing I found the depth the idle shaft should be before finally bolting on the arm permanently.

The seal should not be over compressed to stop the arm movement or too loose to not maintain the seal at all times.

You will have a noticable improvement in steering once you get the assembly installed and the car back on the ground.

Then its a matter of finding if there is any steering play in the tie rods or $ ball joints.



Ray B.

Well, ten hours later I have replaced the tie rod and cross rod boots, complete upper and lower arms to include new upper and lower ball joints, spindles, bushings, boots, rebound bumpers top & bottom, etc. Used my front suspension bolts package I bought a year ago. Adjusted the steering box again and I replaced the sway bar bushings for good measure. I have tightened everything down to specs and lubricated every grease zerk. With snow on the ground I won't be able to drive it or have it aligned but it feels tight. If that doesn't do the trick I will have to replace the indler assembly.

WOW, Im drooling just thinking about your new suspention.