crooked steering wheel

[AngryElmo]

i went out for a drive last weekend, on my way home i noticed that my steering wheel now is down about 45 degrees to the left. i checked wheel bearing, wheel alignment and they are all fine, tyre preasure is all normal as well, i checked drag links and tie rods and they are not bent and king pins are all tight. Any one else had this? i thought maybe radius arm bushes??
any help would be appricated.

Thanks

Luke

[BUSTED100]

check the sector shaft (steering box), the splines may have a twist in them

[AngryElmo]

can that be done with out pulling it apart?

[BUSTED100]

yes just look at the splines running down, and look out for a slight twisting to one way were the pitman arm attaches

[AngryElmo]

yeah i checked that before, looks ok.....

[McLarryBob]

Every time i go 4x4ing in my 80 the steering wheel is on a slightly different angle on the trip back home. I'm not too worried about it.
How did you check your wheel alignment? Because the best way to correct that is to have a profesional wheel alignment done. They will centre the steering wheel and align the wheels to that. Should cost between $50-100.
And when they do the wheel alignment they should do all the pre-alignment checks which includes checking all the wheel baring for movement and all other steering components for servicability. That is if they do a good job.

[dogbreath_48]

You have too much crap in your wallet

[AngryElmo]

How did you check your wheel alignment? .

i measured the distance been the wheels mid way up at the back and at the front. distance is the same.

$50-$100 is a bit of dollars to be doing it every time you go out, and seeing as it dosent usually do this (and this trip wasnt even as hard as usual) makes me think something else has gone wrong

[Shadow]

How did you check your wheel alignment? .

i measured the distance been the wheels mid way up at the back and at the front. distance is the same.

$50-$100 is a bit of dollars to be doing it every time you go out, and seeing as it dosent usually do this (and this trip wasnt even as hard as usual) makes me think something else has gone wrong

I would put money on the sector shaft twisted. There have been dozens of threads about this for 80 series and the usual result is a twisted sector shaft.

[AngryElmo]

How did you check your wheel alignment? .

i measured the distance been the wheels mid way up at the back and at the front. distance is the same.

$50-$100 is a bit of dollars to be doing it every time you go out, and seeing as it dosent usually do this (and this trip wasnt even as hard as usual) makes me think something else has gone wrong

I would put money on the sector shaft twisted. There have been dozens of threads about this for 80 series and the usual result is a twisted sector shaft.

I had a look at it quickly but coudnt see anything wrond with it, is it a big/expensive job it fix?

[crankycruiser]

I'd also say the sector shaft. they twist easily on lifted 80's. only way to stop it is a high steer set up.

also check the bolts on the passenger side swivel hub, the ones on the bottom that hold the steering arm on.. they have a nasty habit of loosening themselves on lifted 80's as well.

[crankycruiser]

also just had a thougth, my steering shaft loosened itself under the dash once..

if u look above the pedals u can see a little uni joint, there is a slip joint near that that can loosen itself.

[Ogre4x4]

I got a leaf sprung 4runner.

My steering changes as the springs sag. i might articulate one way more than the other.
it went back to middle after Saturdays trip

[80's_delirious]

X1 more on the sector shaft.

I twisted one, changed the steering box and twisted the replacement less than 12hrs later didnt take much of a hit to do it

the red line in the pic below shows the twisted splines just visible, these should be straight as per the green line (sorry mobile phone pic)

[AngryElmo]

ok thanks for that photo, helped to show what i was looking for, ran up the the ute and had a look at mine and the are straight, no twists at all, is it possible that it could have twisted the input shaft splines?