Steering Stiff when Hot

[John Cornforth]

I have a problem which puzzles me.  My Pearl has the usual pre-1936 worm and wheel steering box with an alloy housing.  Lubricant is Penrite steering box lube, a thixotropic concoction like thick oil or thin grease. There is some free play at the rim, probably less than half an inch.

The steering is fine when starting off for the day, but gradually becomes stiffer especially when away from straight ahead.  I fancy it is worse when turning right. The time it takes to become stiffer is dependent on the ambient temperature, and was especially noticeable recently when it was 30 degrees C and it took only around 15 minutes running before it began to stiffen up.  The stiffness is still noticeable on a gravel driveway, which suggests it's the steering mechanism and not tyres or geometry.

In other respects the steering is fine, and on uncambered smooth roads it will almost run "hands off".

I can only assume that when the box heats up from the nearby engine, something expands slightly and causes the box internals to tighten.  But this seems counter-intuitive, I would have expected expansion to loosen things up !

Does anyone have any suggestions ?

[Malcolm Parker]

My initial thoughts are that if you have only 1/2" of free play at the rim of the steering wheel in the straight ahead position, to me that suggests that the worm wheel and gear are quite tightly meshed.   As you no doubt know, there is generally more wear in the straight ahead position and it is usual for things to tighten up on lock.  At least on my steering boxes!  I generally have one segment of the ribbed rim of the steering wheel as the amount of free play in the straight ahead position and I like to think all my sevens steer quite nicely.
I appreciate that this doesn't really answer your question!

[andrew34ruby]

No ideas John, but I think mine does the same, maybe to a lesser extent.

[Bill Dixon]

John have you tried using a freezer spray on the steering box?

[David Stepney]

John. I suspect that you may have your steering box worm adjustment too tight. When I had my first Seven (about 50 years ago!) my then boss, who was an excellent motor engineer, told me that somewhere between one and one and a half inches at the steering wheel rim was about right.

My car has not quite 1and 1/4 ins at the rim (I have just measured it) and steers beautifully (well, beautifully for beam axled car) and with no tightness from lock to lock hot or cold.

[Ken Morton]

You are aware that the wheel in the box has 3 keyways and that the "straight ahead" wear portion can be re positioned to get "almost new" operation.

[Chris KC]

...if no-one else has been there before you

I agree 1/2" play at wheel sounds tight to me.

[John Cornforth]

Thank you to all who have replied so far.  It sounds as though I need to make an adjustment to allow for global warming.  I assume this is the "meshing" one involving slight sideways movement of the end plate where the drop arm emerges ?

Several years ago I did attempt the "move the gear round 120 degrees" idea, but gave up as the gear gave every impression of being welded to the shaft !

I do also have a complete spare steering box and column which I was assured was in good condition, so if the above is unsuccessful I will try it.  It might be a good idea to test it off the car first.  In my experience, gearboxes all seem OK when they have no real work to do, so I will need to dream up a way of realistically loading the output.  Maybe hang a large weight off the drop arm ?

[Malcolm Parker]

I would simply slightly loosen the nuts that secure the steering box drop arm cover plate and turn the wheel from lock to lock with the front wheels jacked up. When you have about 1" play at the steering wheel rim tighten it up and give it a try on the road.  It is quite normal for the steering to become a bit stiffer as you get on full lock, as long as it doesn't stop the self-centering it's okay.   I wouldn't go to the trouble of changing the steering column, the one you put on is likely to be just the same!

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Maybe try adjusting the worm end float first.

To paraphrase the Green Book:  loosen the clamp that connects column to dashboard, remove the locking screw at the column base, slacken the pinch bolt, and, using a "C" spanner, rotate the column in the required direction - in your case, anti clockwise - until the required end play is achieved.

I would back it off a couple of notches and see how it feels.