Steering wheel - alignment

1 Owing to the fact that the steering wheel is located on a hexagon shaped steering shaft, it may be difficult to obtain perfect steering wheel alignment due to lack of fine adjustment.

2 It is therefore acceptable to adjust the tierods to give unequal lengths.

3 Check that the front roadwheels are in the straight-ahead position and that the toe setting is as specified.

4 If the steering wheel is more than 30° out of alignment, remove it and centralise it as much as possible on its shaft.

5 To adjust the steering wheel through a small angle, carry out the following operations.

6 Release the tie-rod balljoint locknuts.

7 Turn one tie-rod clockwise and the opposite one anti-clockwise by the identical amount. For every 1° of steering wheel angular error, turn each tie-rod through 30°.

8 Once the steering wheel has been centralised (front wheels in straight-ahead position), retighten the tie-rod balljoint locknuts.

9 Although the toe setting should not have altered, check the front wheel alignment as described in Section 27.

    See also:

    Compression test
    1 When engine performance is poor, or if misfiring occurs which cannot be attributed to the ignition or fuel system, a compression test can provide diagnostic clues. If the test is performed regul ...

    Choke control cable - removal, refitting and adjustment
    Pre-1986 models Removal 1 Disconnect the battery earth lead. 2 For improved access, remove the air cleaner unit (Section 2). 3 At the carburettor end of the cable, loosen the cable clamp bolt, d ...

    Engine/automatic transmission assembly - reconnection and refitting
    1 Reverse the procedure described in paragraphs 1 to 25 of Section 8, noting the following points. 2 Check that the engine adapter plate is correctly positioned on its locating dowels. If necessa ...