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:

    Cylinder head - removal and refitting (engine removed)
    Note: The cylinder head bolts must always be renewed after slackening, and a new cylinder head gasket and camshaft cover gasket must be used on refitting. If the engine has recently run, the cylin ...

    Battery - testing and charging
    Testing Standard and low maintenance battery 1 If the vehicle covers a small annual mileage it is worthwhile checking the specific gravity of the electrolyte every three months to determine the s ...

    Road test (Every 12 000 miles (20 000 km) or 12 months)
    Instruments and electrical equipment 1 Check the operation of all instruments and electrical equipment. 2 Make sure that all instruments read correctly, and switch on all electrical equipment in ...