Just been down to my car with a screw driver and a flat piece of rubber cut to about an inch square. Found the bootom uj on the willy steering column and jabbed the rubber into the gap and pushed it in with screwdriver. Result: uj now tight. Wheels turn with the steering wheel, no looseness, and handles much better. Its only temporary as im sure it will work loose but it only took 5 mins to do. If i spend some time and get the rubber the right size and also have some mechanism to hold it in, i have just saved 270 quid on a new column. Welding would work too, but this way you dont even have to take the column out, just pull the rubber gaiter back to expose the joint and jab in the rubber.
ClioSport.net
Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.
read this: willy / valver loose steering
- Thread starter king.stromba
- Start date
Just been down to my car with a screw driver and a flat piece of rubber cut to about an inch square. Found the bootom uj on the willy steering column and jabbed the rubber into the gap and pushed it in with screwdriver. Result: uj now tight. Wheels turn with the steering wheel, no looseness, and handles much better. Its only temporary as im sure it will work loose but it only took 5 mins to do. If i spend some time and get the rubber the right size and also have some mechanism to hold it in, i have just saved 270 quid on a new column. Welding would work too, but this way you dont even have to take the column out, just pull the rubber gaiter back to expose the joint and jab in the rubber.
B
Bennyboy
Could you do the same thing with some beefy plastic cable ties maybe?
Look at the pedals and youll see a big rubber sleave over the universal joint where the steering column dissapears into the floor of the car (kind of behind the clutch pedal). Pull the rubber sleave up from the floor (its attached by a small lip and just clips / unclips). This exposes the lower universal joint. The joint itself is about level with the floor of the car and just up from the joint is a second joint consisting of a female (lower) and male (upper) part. If you hold this and turn the wheel on my car, the male part that inserts into the female part is too small for the hole, because i assume the rubber surrounds have worn away. When the wheel is turned the slack in the female to male couple is taken up before the upper part catches the too large lower part. The result is a delay in the turn of the wheel actually turning the column. This means the wheels will steer themselves (ie youll drift on the road) and also the wheel will feel loose.I jammed some rubber down the gap and as a result there is no slack at the joint and turn of the steering wheel results in imediate turning of the colum lower down. I will sort some pics at weekend (if it stays dry) and get em up asap.
As an analogy imagine a cup on a table. Put a pencil in the cup vertically, end on the bottom of the cup. Tilt the pencil and you will have to tilt it along way before the pencil hits the lip of the cup and causes the cup to tip. Put the pencil in a different cup and fill it with concrete and then as soon as the pencil moves the cup moves too, because the concrete has packed out the free space. If you see what i mean. That free space is the delay in the steering.
Yeah i agree is is slightly higher than the UJ. Its the part that converts the cylindircal shape of the column attached to the steering wheel into a shape that will fit the uj (kind of a braket adapter). Its surely the uj that would break in an accident. In fact i cant see why there needs to be a joint there atall really? You could maybe even clamp it.
Just driven home and the car really grips the road better. I am very happy. This may not be causuing 100% of the steering problem, but its certainly the main problem. I have a pic of the joint now but dont know how to get it up.
The rubber around the colunm (ribbed cylidrical colunm above the joint) i think is to hold the rubber gaiter on. You can see the joint in the pic. The blue writing says packed rubber here. You can see the gap. As the column twists, the slack in the gap is taken up before the lower part turns. the universal joint itself feels fine. On the way home when the rubber bit fell out the steering went loose again. A good way to feel it is to take off the rubber gaiter, and drive with bear feet. You can feel the looseness with your toes and feets. Welding would just make the whole joint as one, so no movement. You can get to the uj best if you lie on the sill of your car on your back. I held the torch in my mouth. Its not easy though as the pedals get in the way.
Can anyone think of anything that i could put in the gap? Maybe something that is applied as a liquid and sets hard. Ideally it should have a slight amount of give in it, as i think the join may help reduce vibration on the wheel.
The Jinx
Silicon Sealant?
Self levelling floor screed? What is it and where do i get it? This morning i just wrapped a sh*t load of gaffer tape round the joint and even that makes the steering feel more like a williams should. Everytime you turn the wheel now you get that characteristic of the wheels digging into the tarmac.
I had exactly the same problem, my mechanic who is a bit of a clio specialist said it happens all the time and he welded it. Have never had the problem since and this was about a year ago.
The Jinx
til you crash and it spears your chest of course
Silicon sealants pretty tough stuff. What about expanding foam, super sticky and reasonbly flexible.
Floor screed will just crack under loading.
Nah i think it would break under impact at the universal joint. The bit that you weld wouldnt effect a break in a crash in my opinion.
BE WARNED!
This is not a good idea. A customer of mine attempted to do a similar thing and ended up the wrong way round on the M40 when the "packing" he had put into the joint worked loose. He had got used to his new found tight steering and when it went loose again he wasnt prepared.
When I typed out my suggestions to you king.stromba in the PM, i deliverately made no mention of this workround for this very reason.
Regards
Paul
Paul i know what your saying, but thats could quite easily happen with a new column just breaking because of metal fatigue. Worse case senario if the join breaks is that the steering will go back to how it was before, which the car has been driving on for x amount of miles. Dont get me wrong i think youre right, best to get a new column, and eventually i will, but i have so many things to sort on the car i have to prioritise what needs doing. If i can temporarily sort the steering by welding for 20 quid then i would rather spend the cash on new brakes which are much more likely to save me in any emergency. As for the join, i am not convinced that welding is the easiest way. I am going to attempt a simple cure using a metal sleeve that fits over the joint, encasing a rubber lining. This should replace the old internal joint with a new external one, but retain the rubber anti vibration effect. I could really do with a column to look at outside the car so i can see what best to do. I thought about a bit of copper / other metal piping, sliced longways and slipped over the join and then clamped tightly shut.
I just used a screw driver to prize it up from the floow of the car, it just sits in a hole with a small lip. Pull it hard and it comes up. I bought some JB auto weld today 5.99 from halfords, so ill see if that works and get back to you.
at 3 this afternoon i applied the JB auto weld to my steering column, so now just got to wait 16 hours till it dries. Also applied it to some test metal, and after just 6 hours it seems like pretty tough stuff. Fingers crossed.
iam not suggesting anything to anybody. as paul said nothing is 100% safe but having said that iam quite happy to have welded my joint up and really did weld it not just spot welds iam confident that this will never cause me greif again. iam mentoning no names but a well reconised rally driver also recommened this to me so if its good enough for them its good enough for me
Bondy, can you weld it in situ?
JB weld doesnt work 100%. Its still slightly slack. However the 80 % it has worked has reduced problem by 80 % so im guessing a strong weld is the way to go.
First lot of autoweld = 80 % improvement. Got in there again to fill any remaining gaps and now id say 90% improvemnt. Ill keep you informed as to how long it lasts.
Hows it going javascript openWin pop_up_profile.asp?profile=6605&ForumID=6 , profile , toolbar=0,location=0,status=0,menubar=0,scrollbars=0,resizable=1,width=440,height=370 ">king.stromba. Is it lasting. I think I have the same problem on my R19 as well as a clonking noise when i turn left.
Yeah seems ok. still as good as when i did it. But with the JD weld it still allows the smallest bit of play. I will have to eventually get it welded but ill do as it is until i get round to it.
Similar threads
