Technical steering wheel does not turn back

Hi. I need your help, I'm stuck and do not know what to do anymore. I do not get my wheels to go back after I have turned, anyone know what it could be? the steeringbox is renovated, and I have adjusted the front trailer, but no success. anyone hav e any more publishers on what it might be?
the car is a ford roadster -29 hot rod

 

You will likely need to post a lot more info, type of steering box, how is it set up, engine in car, weight of car, etc. Pictures here would be immensely helpful.

 

what caster is it running? recently fitted kingpins? more info needed on suspension etc

 

Steering box or something is too tight, bad geometry, bad alignment specs. Caster and toe helps the wheel come back to center.

 

akerman [spelling ?]

 

Steering box too tight? Disconnect the drag link from the box and see if the steering wheel turns in both directions freely. King pins too tight? With the drag link disconnected and the front end jacked up grab a wheel and see if you can turn them in both directions easily. And of co**** check the caster, that is what makes the wheels go back straight after a turn. Please report back and let us know what fixed it.

 

Akerman deals with the front wheels staying parallel when turning. If you turn them lock to lock and one is turned sharper than the other you can see it. Mid range if they aren't parallel - one will scrub and that is why you want to get your ackerman close.

Caster on the positive side (king pin rocked towards back of car 5-8 degrees) causes the front wheels to return to cents and track properly. Drag cars like lots of caster. If the caster is neutral or negative the car will drive spooky and not return wheels to center.

 

That covers it all. Let us know how you make out.

 

Where are you located? One of the members might be able to come by and give you some ***istance/

 

Kingpin angle can often cause this. Usually too little kingpin angle. The more kingpins lay back, the more the wheels want to straighten out when you turn and then let go of the steering wheel. That's why rails use such steep angles like 22-35 degrees. So they want to keep themselves going straight at high speed.

 

that isn't king pin angle, that is caster, King pin angle is the angle that the king pins set in the axle at. + kingpin inclination. Then the angle that the spindle shaft sets at is the camber.

 

Is this a new build or is this something that just started? HRP

 

I'm going with the others who wonder if you actually have your caster set correctly ***uming that "front Trailer" is caster angle. As others said the generally accepted caster angle to have a Ford cross spring I beam axle hot rod drive right is between 5 and 8 degrees positive.
strut suspension rather than I beam or tube axle but the principle is the same.


Ackerman is always the catch word that people throw out wanting to sound knowledgeable about front ends but I have seen maybe two cars in 55 years where the Ackerman was so far off that it caused issues. One was a T bucket with about a 140 inch wheelbase in the 70's with a tube axle and if memory is right Angela spindles. One of those 70's cars with the front wheels 4 ft out in front of the radiator. It drug a tire on turns and the rear tires didn't want to follow the fronts in a neat line.

A simple explanation of Ackerman principle in action.



Toe in should be at about 1/8 inch to start and adjust from there if needed.

Camber shouldn't have any effect on this issue. If camber is off you usually have tires wearing on one side or the car wants to drift when going down a straight road hands off. Normally 1/4 degree, more positive camber in the drivers side wheel compensates for road crown unless you are in an area with extreme high crowned roads or extreme low crowned roads. Lots of rain area vs desert area.

 

Stock model A steering boxes really don't return very good, if at all. Sorry I can not say exactly why, but they just don't. Perhaps not much leverage with the 11 to 1 ratio.

 

wasting our time replying if the OP doesnt came back with more info.

 

I was told Model A steering boxes are not self centering and that's one reason guys use F1 steering boxes on hot rods. Not sure if that is actually because they were not designed to or because Model As simply don't have the steering geometry ****ery that causes self-centering behavior or if mine is worn out or what.

But mine doesn't self-center either and all the steering components are in good shape. I got used to it quick but it is a little weird.

 

If its an A box they basically have straight cut gear teeth on each gear.You turn in to,and out of the turn. 37,and later have a spiral cut gear that want to go back to center.

 

Not really correct ^^^^ 37 & up have the rolling sector to reduce friction, otherwise, same worm design in basically all steering boxes

 

Scrub radius is another factor [wheel offset in relation to kingpin inclination]
Too much negative scrub radius will counteract positive caster

Don't forget Ackermann [the big word used to make somebody sound knowledgable]

 

Stock cars needed positive caster to keep them from darting around on the straights under full throttle.

 

Things that will effect. High point of steering gear set to tight, King pin inclination ( when you turn the you should see the front end raise a small amount) A large amount of wheel offset can hurt. First step jack up the front both wheels off ground grab a wheel and see if is easy to turn right and left

 

If you have positive caster, in reverse you have negative caster, right? So if you back up around a corner, does it try to turn in?

 

Caster is the number one thing that self centers the front end. The weight of the vehicle makes the steering want to self center due to the positive caster. Anything in the steering linkage or gear that binds will prevent the vehicle from self centering. Bottom line; you either don't have the proper amount of positive caster or something is binding.

 

Yes caster and a thing called axle inclination those are your geometric issues to check and also bench the steering box check the backlash .It's some stuff I aced my first one at 13

 

I was thinking from the thread ***le that some kind of sprag arrangement was allowing the wheel to turn only one way, like something horribly wrong with the self cancelling mechanism for the turn indicators, or something catching a uj but only in one direction. How disappointing to find its another caster or similar issue, in all likelihood. Lots of info provided already to fix it though.

Chris

 

Is your tie rod in front of the front axle, or behind the front axle?

 

Just about everything that could cause his problem has been mentioned. So now we need the OP to try some of the fixes mentioned and hopefully get back to us with what fixed it.

 

@Johan Hansson can you post a pic or two of the front end? There may be some clues to help get an answer.

There are some good suggestions.

Do you happen to have an angle finder?

 

Johan has left the building.

 

Don't you just love it when a person with 3 posts asks a question, gets lots of good suggestions and then ghosts us?