I think I can remember a series of cars relatives had with this, or similar steering when I was a kid.
Six Inches play in an Austin A40 (Or was that A60) Cambridge. Did your `Auntie Ethel` also drive down the road `sawing` at the steering?
Regards
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The bog-standard kind of steering box was cam and peg. That was simply a crank with a peg on the end engaging in a section of threaded steering column.
Worm and nut were much superior, because the bearing surface was larger.
Best of all (ie apart from rack and pinion of course) was Marles-Weller, which had a large roller on the crank held in its own roller bearings. There was only rolling contact in this kind of box, no sliding, so wear was minimal.
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My father's 1934 Rover 10, owned in mid-fifties, had the worst steering I have ever experienced, making it distinctly iffy on the road. The nut crank inside the steering box and the drop-arm were at either end of a short shaft through a bush in a plate held onto the bottom of the steering box by four smallish nuts and spring washers. There were several shims between the two. The bush was badly worn and needed renewing, but when the whole thing was firmly assembled play at the wheel rim was only about four or five inches. Trouble was, the nuts would work loose allowing the plate to move, so that play at the wheel rim would suddenly become something more like half a turn. The memory of my poor father trying to stop the thing safely, and my own repeated forays under the car with the spanner for those accursed nuts - I was too young to drive on the road but big enough to help with running repairs, damn it - still makes me shiver and turn pale.
We did a very hairy piston-ring change on its engine too. Thinking back though I can't really understand why my father didn't have the drop-arm bearing rebushed. We couldn't have done it ourselves, but it wouldn't have been that hard in Plymouth, where we then lived, to get it done properly for a reasonable cost. He probably didn't think it was worth it, but the car was so frightening to drive that he had trouble getting rid of it.
Edited by Lud on 28/02/2008 at 14:59
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Don't forget 're-circulating ball'.
Do they still use these methods on 4WD? Useful I believe to prevent steering kick-back as they're less than fifty per cent efficient.
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Looking back before the days of crack & pillion steering actuation, I'm always amused when old films (usually B&W, American & starring Allan Ladd) have driving scenes with back projection, usually on dead straight desert roads - all the while the driver is twirling the coat-hanger thin steering wheel like he's on slalom course. Courtesy of course, old style worm & whatsit steering - but I'm sure the director always asked them to 'ham it up' anyway.
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Very few actors have the brains to simulate driving accurately, and very few directors can be bothered to get the back projection half right. The really idle and dumb ones rely heavily on speeded-up footage and random tyre squealing, often on straight bits of back-projected or real road. These things are done generally a lot better now than they were in the forties and fifties, probably because audiences are automotively much more sophisticated. But even recent efforts can annoy one.
Edward G Robinson however managed to look as if he was really driving. I do admire intelligence in a thesp.
Edited by Lud on 28/02/2008 at 16:15
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Dad's Mk1 and Mk2 Ford Zephyrs of the '50s had worm and nut steering IIRC. On the new Michelin X tyres he fitted to the Mk2 both he and Mum complained of the sensitivity to camber here and in France. The move to a Sunbeam Rapier with rack & pinion steering was the next step.
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My Rover P6 3500 certainly had a steering box of some kind but it never felt vague to drive.
Am I right in thinking that the likes of BMW and Mercedes only converted to the rack and pinion faith in recent years, unlike Morris - that IIRC had this system on the first Minor all of 60 years ago?
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My Rover 16 had it - Like Lud above.
I replaced the worm on our kitchen table... SWMBO was not amused - married 6 months.
New spares were (just ) available in those days.
Even when new the steering was carp due to worn kingpins (replaced), warn balljoints (replaced) and worn front springs.. axle tramp.
Oh the joys of old cars..:-)
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I had a 1936 Austin 10 with well-worn worm and nut steering, 4 or 5 inches of free play so somewhat like manning the helm on a yacht; next I had a 1950 A40 Devon, similar design but not so worn, so only a couple of inches of play, then an MG Y with rack and pinion which was a welcome change.
I had a couple of Mk II Consuls, a Mk11 Zodiac and a Mk III Zephyr, I think they were all recirculating ball steering, nice and light but with many balljoints in the linkages so when the joints wore they tended to suffer wheel wobble and wander. Did Mk IV's change to rack and pinion?
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Steering free play....? See a series landrover for details! I'm sure LUD will agree
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My 2003 Vx Omega has a speed sensitive (servotronic) steering box.
It has about 1 cm of free play with engine off which dissappears when the engine is started.
Feels nice and direct and shows no tendency to wander at all.
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Steering free play....? See a series landrover for details! I'm sure LUD will agree
I'd also agree about "old" Landrovers. 30 odd years ago I had to drive a selection of them while at work - they were mostly terrible: several inches of free play in the steering, and a tendancy to go where they wanted almost regardless of steering input.
Later on we had some brand new ones which even had synchromesh on all the forward gears, but they were no better in the steering department.
The nicest of them all was a series 1 "safari" long wheelbase (107" ??). The steering was lighter, with a bit less free play, and it had some effect on where you were going.
When I joined the company the transport manager took prospective drivers out in the worst of them all - if you could keep it on the lefthand side of the rutted roads he took you on, and keep it there when you braked, you were considered safe to drive...
Edited by Another John H on 29/02/2008 at 11:42
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