Steering problem. Reward Offered. Name your price.

Well, when I took it to Pr*T*re 6 weeks back I stood under rthe van with the mechanic and he showed me a screen with a dynamic picture of the Van and all was green - the reason being of course that he had set the machine to a setting that as it turns out was incorrect for the vehicle - he was assuming minutes of arc = mm.

Today I stood next to the chap and he showed me the settings he had entered into the machine from the Bentley manual and the machine was calibrated in degrees and minutes of arc.

All I can say is - mine is finally driving like it should and the chap I mentioned knows his stuff - he went straight to the camber nuts - looked for the dimples to check where they were aligned after the suspension rebuild I had carried out, so he knew what to look for.

The other thing is that after he had adjusted the camber it changed the toe, so the procedure is to get camber set first then adjust the toe.

Hope this helps - I too was starting to think about taking the van to the local car crusher .......

 

Well, it's just a 60 minute drive to Bristol, so I'll hopefully be going over the next few days. Anything and everything's worth a shot right now. Thanks. I'll let you know what happens.

 

Having read through all of the postings, I can share with you your frustration. I have exactly the same problem(s). The emphasis here is problems. Here's where I'm at:

Changed the front beam, everything new. All stock. Stock height. Stock wheels etc
Drove like a tug boat in rough seas even after so called local experts set things up!.

After research,
1. I made them check the 'new' king pin (center pin) and re-tighten. This helped some of the wondering.

2. Changed the drag link - the one which was again new, had slight play. Slightly better response. Still bad though

3. lateral thinking kicked in. I checked the rear section where the rear beam/axle goes through the chassis near swing arms. Wow! Rotten through. Couldn't see it at first as there was tonnes of Waxoil. I had these welded up both sides with new plates etc. massive difference. I was shocked that the vehicle had only just been rebuilt, mot'd etc. I had been under the bus a hundred times and never noticed. There's no movement if you manually try to move them, it only moves under load and only slightly. But it's just enough to make the bus wonder when turning especially on long sweeping bends. On the straight it was great.

I too have had the wheels, camber, tracking set up by a computer fruit cake. I saw the report and computer screens. Not convinced! It might be great for standard newer vehicles but widely wrong for a 35 year old bus. I had T2D setup my other (lowered) bus, it was perfect, drives like a go-kart.

Next action for me. Old school wheel tracking and camber as there is still some strange steering going on. I may even get the rear re-checked as the bus has done another few hundred miles under load.

Q. I'm looking for an old school wheel alignment specialist in the greater Manchester area

T

 

Has any one checked the rear torsion beam rubber bushes yet?

 

I wasn't convinced Malc. They were clutching at straws. As Para says - rear donuts?

 

i once drove a evo that had been damaged and repaired on the rear end, it had full adjustable rear suspension, above about 10 miles an hour it would literally feel like the steering had been disconnected, was just the rear tracking out, scared the poop out of me

 

So I went to see another bloke today in my neck of the woods. He's been working on buses for years, mechanically-wise, but largely just does restorations now. He jacked up the bus and we wiggled the steering again and he had a good play with things. He said everything looked absolutely perfect under there. He had no idea what the problem was. Then he took it for a drive. His first word was 'Jesus', followed by 'this is a bit scary'. At 20mph. He's not use to it like me of course. But he had no idea what the problem was. Thought maybe it might be the steering box, but I've already changed that twice and it's unlikely they were both faulty. So, tomorrow, I'm off to see his mate, who specialises in T2 mechanics, again only about 5 miles away from me. On the phone, he reckons it's the tracking or camber (which I've already had sorted, or so I thought).

Place your bets. Will I hear the words 'oh, I know what the problem is, I can fix it no problem' or will I hear 'haven't got a clue mate'? All I keep hearing is the latter.

 

twisted chassis ......

 

Did you have new ball joints pressed into the trailing arms ? If the vehicle is high and wonders they could've been fitted incorrectly although the suspension would be rather hard. I seem to remember Zed experiencing this a while ago on a customers van.

 

hows the rubber coupling at the end of the steering column..

 

oops!

 

there was a make of ball joint that was slightly over size so when you pressed them in they went really really tight . of course i can`t remember which make !! does it crab ?

 

Well, I went to see another 'expert' today and he took the bus for a spin and, as he was driving, said it's partly the steering box, which justs needs an adjustment, and the idler pin too, which appears to not have been put in right. He adjusted the steering box there and then and, whilst still not perfect, it did drive a lot better. He'll sort the idler pin when I get back off hols and check the camber and ball joints too. At the end of that, he assured me I'd have a perfect steering bus. And I believe him too! For once, I feel totally confident. At last I've found the mechanic I've been looking for! Can't believe he just lives 5 miles away! He doesn't advertise, doesn't need to, all by recommendation only, and works only on Beetles and Campers.

Thanks for all the advice and help from all. I hope to report back in a couple of weeks with a perfect steering bus.