Last try at fixing my steering problem before I give up.
 

I'm going to give it one more shot and see if anyone here can help me. I think I have exhausted all options at this point and will just replace the steering rack at some time (I'll put everything back together and drive it "broken" until then).

Right now the steering shaft has been removed from the rack. The tie rod ends are adjusted within 1.5 threads of each other so nothing is funky there. I can grab the wheels and turn them to the left so far that the tires hit the a-arms. When I turn the wheels to the right they only move 0.8 rotations of the steering shaft before the wheels lock. I don't see anything bent and have no idea what is causing the problem. Any ideas before I scrap the project and just drive the car like it is?

Details with pictures can be found here:
http://www.lightweightmiata.com/v8/steering/

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/v8/s...steering01.JPG

Have you tried setting the steering wheel to the 1.25 turns position and ignoring the equal-ness of the arms and setting the wheels straight by screwing with the threaded rods?

What's a normal miata's lock-to-lock # of turns?

Let's see a pic showing how the rack is mounted. Straight on, jacked up if possible, showing the whole thing as well as practical.

center the rack, not the arms.

This is what I was thinking at first, then I started asking myself if the tie rod ends were the same lengths left and right. Then I thought, what about the threaded rods? Is it possible you have the left and right side threaded rods swapped?

I tried to mess with the tie rod ends but they were really on there tight and I gave up. I think that is my next step (trying to adjust them) but they are almost equal so that can't possibly be the cause of the problem. My thoughts are it could only be a band-aid to correct a little of the problem but not a real solution. I am also not sure if I have enough adjustment to get them centered. As I said, I think my next step is to mess with the tie rod ends. I'll probably turn them equal (opposite) revolutions until I run out of threads on one of them and see how close that gets me.

My lock to lock is 2.5 turns and I think normal is 2.8 turns (from what I have heard).

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying to adjust the tie rod ends to make the wheels straight when the rack is centered half way on lock to lock?

yep if you are 2.5 turns lock to lock, go all the way to one side and then turn back 1.25 turns so your rack will be in the middle.

from there lock your steering wheel in place with something and adjust your tie rods until your toe is proper.

if your steering wheel is off, remove it and clock it to get it straight again.

Here you go:
See how the tie rod looks extended on the left side and compressed on the right side. I don't know if that is normal but it doesn't look right to me and I don't think 3-4.5 threads will be enough to adjust that out.

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/v8/s...steering12.JPG

you can do that by pushing the boot in.
doesnt mean the rack is off.

what subframe do you have in that picture?

Can do what?

It is a Boss Frog subframe (LS1).

You working this weekend? If not give me a call and I might be able to stop by and see if I can spot anything wrong.

I think he means the small end of the boot slides on the rod

Yep, I'm working this weekend. All this stuff would be much easier if I would just hit the lottery so I could retire and work on the car instead.

Wow, I was doing a search for tie rods on Google and the Google spider (bot) has already grabbed this thread. Unbelievable!

amazing as it is, i hate that! I get all excited that someone posted almost exactly what I was wondering about and it turns out it was too exact.

Well, I just out from under the car (tried for a bit to loosen the tie rod end nuts - gorilla tight and I gave up again). Anyway, I took a closer look at how much adjustment was left and I estimate that if I ate up all the adjustment I had it would only make a 1/10th turn difference in the steering shaft. Definitely not the 1/2 turn I need so it would be a waste of time to even mess with that.

Hmm. Did the guy at Boss Frog let the jig slip a bit when he was welding on the rack mounts?

Edit: Yep, that's it! The mounts are centered up on your subframe but they are offset to the passenger side one to two inches on the stocker. Your subframe was welded wrong at BF!

I posted a message on their forum a while ago. Will be interesting to see what they say.

^^

Nope, mine are offset (I was wondering if they were centered on the stocker) <G>. Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

Actually, I think I found one possible solution to the problem. I am waiting on a phone call right now from a guy who is going to sell me another Miata.

Car out of alignment? Buy another one!

QFT. Count carefully, and center the steering. Then, align without moving the steering at all. If the TR ends are tight, get some PB blaster on there. They need to be loose enough to set the toe anyway. Free them up now, or cut them off later, they will eventually have to be adjusted.

I replaced my rack, and this is what I did. Adjusted toe by eye, and the alignment guy was amazed it was so close. Use the string method described in the M.net garage section.

Also, the power rack has less turns L-L than the manual, I believe.

Not possible to use the tie rod ends to adjust it straight with a half way in the middle of lock to lock. I have about 1/4" of adjustment left and I need something like 1.5". Doesn't matter anyway, I just bought this ($3400 - don't mind what the bid says):


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda...f479e21f#v4-44

$3400 Red 1997 automatic with 65K miles (for when the link no longer works). The car is supposed to be cherry. Wonder how many months it will take me to swap everything over? Like I said - Car out of alignment? Buy another one!

I will continue to contend that my Miata subframe rack mounts look far more offset than those on your BF one. I went outside and looked earlier when we were talking about it.

I would take a pic but it's dark outside and I'm already in my South Park pajamas. Ha!

You said they were centered on the BF frame. I was only saying that they were not (about 1" difference). It could very well be that they are off more than that on the stocker. Will be interesting to see.

I'll have to remove both racks when I do the V8 swap. It will be 10 years from now (I am dreading working on the car for hours every day) but when I have them both off I'll snap a picture and post it.

So when are you picking up the car?

It is sitting in the driveway (well, in the yard - too many cars over here) right now!

Ended up getting it for $3300...

I guess I should bring the engine hoist back up then. We we starting the swap?

The plan is to drive the ugly one for a couple of weeks (I don't have much seat time with it) so the bad stuff sticks out (i.e. car is too low, engine leaks oil, etc). I want to figure out what the PO did wrong with the car so I can take care of it before everything is back together. I think I am going to try to lift the engine up instead of dropping it in. I'll have to investigate it a bit first though. If you want some V8 swap experience I'll give you all you can handle.

You got my email and number, I am 100% game for learning how to do a V8 swap.

I had a similar problem when I first depowered and installed a rack. The steering column itself seems to have travel limiters. If you remove the rack from the car, the steering wheel will only go so far in each direction before it hits its stops. The solution is to center the wheel relative to its stops before attaching the steering column to the rack. At least, that worked for me.

The column is not hooked to the rack and the problem still exists...

In that case, get a used rack and depower it. Used racks are fairly cheap and then you can rebuild/depower it to your satisfaction and just swap it with the one in the car.

I went one step further and bought another car. BUT.... That doesn't explain what is wrong with the current setup. Why can this not be fixed?