Trunnions or Steering?

[Bobsprott]

I am fairly new to Triumphs so please bear with me. I have noticed a few months ago that the steering wheel (after market 3 spoke connected to boss by 6 nuts and bolts) had over time moved as if it was slipping on the splined shaft. I straightened things out a few weeks ago but it has done the same again. (Car only driven about 50 miles). I have also noticed that after about a quarter turn to the left the steering seems to stick slightly. If I let go of the wheel it doesn’t centre but by applying slight pressure it continues to move OK. 

I have jacked the car up and the steering seems to perform well. There doesn’t seem to be any play at all and there is none of the stickiness. In fact it seems very smooth in both directions. I also applied a degree of pressure on the wheel at both locks but there was no movement of the wheel on the shaft.

I attended the last “twiddle day” and mentioned this and Pete said it could be trunnions. I have since oiled them. I have owned the car, a Vitesse 6, for about 2 years and the documentation I have shows that it underwent a complete restoration about 20 years ago to a reasonable standard and has only covered less than 5000 miles since. The reason I mention this is to find out whether trunnions or steering parts would wear out in this length of time with this level of use age.

Any recommendations on what I should do or the order of things I should be looking at would be gratefully received.

[Pete Lewis]

Bob, the boss may be the wrong size for the shaft, its a spline onto a taper , there  is no way it should unitentionaly  move round on the shaft   , 

Have you checked the front toe in  ,  errors will cause poor steering reations

I doubt if the trunnions or rack have a problem after 5k use

Do check the uj down near the suspn  turret  worn bushes in this  can cause shift and lock ups.and alikely cause .

Pete

 

[Gully]

Have you checked the rack isn't slipping in its mountings?

Gully

[KevinR]

Does the car have solid aluminium steering rack mounts or rubber or polybush mounts.

There are quite a lot of badly machined aluminium mounts out there and they don't always grip the rack tightly.

The aluminium mounts also don't have a "feature" to stop the rack from slipping side to side, so if the clamping force is insufficient then the rack will slip.

[NonMember]

That sounds like what my Toledo did when the steering column coupling lost a bolt. That's the only bit of a Toledo's steering that's common to the Vitesse, too. I think that's what Pete meant by "the uj down near the suspn turret".

[Bobsprott]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will check things out and let you know the outcome. My son and I are off to a local “cars and coffee” meeting this morning so I will see how it performs. Unfortunately I won’t be driving!