Make sure that the steering wheel spoke is horizontal when the wheels are in the straight ahead position. Otherwise, determine the cause of the malfunction and eliminate it.
Steering gear assembly with drive: 1 – a tip of steering draft; 2 - ball joint of the tip; 3 - rotary lever; 4 - locknut; 5 - thrust; 6 - bolts for fastening the steering rods to the rack; 7 – internal tips of steering rods; 8 – a bracket of fastening of the steering mechanism; 9 – a support of the steering mechanism; 10 - protective cover; 11 - locking plate; 12 - connecting plate; 13 - rubber-metal hinge; 14 - damping rings; 15 – rack support sleeve; 16 - rail; 17 - steering gear housing; 18 - coupling bolt; 19 – flexible coupling flange; 20 - roller bearing; 21 - drive gear; 22 - ball bearing; 23 - retaining ring; 24 - protective washer; 25 - sealing ring; 26 - bearing nut; 27 – an intermediate steering shaft; 28 - anther; 29 - protective cap; 30 - stop sealing ring; 31 - rail stop; 32 - spring; 33 - stop nut; 34 - stop ring nut; 35 - plug; 36 - spring insert; 37 - ball pin insert; 38 - ball pin; 39 - protective cap; A, B - marks on the anther and crankcase; C, D - surfaces on the ball joint and swing arm.
Turning the steering wheel from lock to lock, visually and aurally check the following:
- reliability of fastening of the steering mechanism and steering wheel;
- lack of clearance in the rubber-metal hinges 13, in the steering rod joints 2 and in the rivet and spline joints of the elastic coupling of the steering shaft;
- reliability of tightening and locking of bolts 6 for fastening the rods to the rail and nuts of the fingers of ball joints 2;
- lack of jamming and interference preventing the steering wheel from turning.
If knocks and jams are found, disconnect the transverse links from the swing arms of the telescopic suspension struts and repeat the test.
After making sure that knocks and jams come from the steering, remove it from the car and check the gap between the rack stop and the nut (see «Checking the gap between the rail stop and the stop nut»). The maximum allowable gap between the stop and the nut is 0.2 mm. If necessary, replace worn parts and adjust the gap between stop and nut.