Before I begin, I apologise if this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find anything that matched my issue.

I recently bought my second miata, a '93 with 173k on it. I bought it on the cheap expecting to have plenty of work to do on it, and I was right. I was a mechanic for several years and rebuilt my first miata from the ground up, so I didn't expect to be stumped by anything.

Anyhow, the problem at hand it that my steering is really buggered up. I noticed when I first got the car I noticed that every once in a while the steering wheel would shift itself towards the left if I went over a particularly rough bump. Expecting the issue to be where the steering column met the rack, I checked the splines there -- no play.

Long and short of it is that the steering will shift up to 15 degrees left and right while I'm driving. The ball joints and tie rod ends are all new. It was originally power steering, but was converted by the previous owner.

I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like bumpsteer, is the car lowered significantly?

 

Not at all. Hasn't been in the life of the car as far as I'm aware.

 

It is likely within the rack. If it is a depowered rack then it is possible it was disassembled and not put together correctly. There are places on the input /pinion side where play can develop as well as within the rack portion. This is a safety concern and should be addressed immediately, in my opinion. Either disassemble the rack and find the problem or just pick up another rack.

 

Flyin Miata had a really nice write-up on how to do it on their old site, but I can't find it anymore. I haven't done it yet, but I thought I remember reading that something needed to be welded.

Correction: it was MotoIQ. http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...ring-Rack.aspx

 

You lookin for this?

https://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php

Tech Info > Suspension > Steering rack depower