CSL Steering slop question

[razi]

Hi,

Question about the manual steering box on a '72 CSL. What is the normal amount of freeplay on these? My steering has about a 15-20 degree (2") of slop before the steering bites. I had the car up on a lift and the wheel bearings and tie-rods seem to be fine. i.e. there is no looseness at all. Is there something I can check on the steering box itself? or is this normal for these cars?

I've never driven another CSL and the only car with a manual box of comparable vintage I can compare it to is a '78 911.
The 911 has exceptionally tight steering in stock form, and mine is even more direct with the 'turbo' tie rod upgrades.

 

[Honolulu]

tighten your steering box

Well, this has been gone over numerous times, guess another recent arrival can't/won't use the search function.

Razi: on the top of the steering box is a slotted screw inside a 19mm thin nut. Loosen the nut, and with the wheels straight ahead, just barely snug up the screw. Then snug the nut without turning the screw. You're done.

Every German car I've ever had (7 VWs, 15 or 18 BMWs) has had the same arrangement. Likely your P-car does too.

This assumes that your steering linkages are all good, thus none of your ball joints, tie rod ends, center track rod have much slop in them. Gotta check 'em all, I just went under a nice 325i where everything was shipshape- except for one tie rod end with ALL KINDS of slop.

 

[gazzol]

My advice is the same as Honolulu with the addition of:- Jack the car up so both front wheels are off the ground. When you've done adjusting turn the steering from lock to lock and check that it doesn't tighten up anywhere. Keep tightening the adjuster a bit at a time till a) it goes tight. b) the steering tightens up. Then back off the adjuster a bit.

gazzol

 

[pmansson]

Having just installed a manual CSL box in my CSi, I noted that the steering had the 20 degrees play that you mention. I checked with my CSL and found that it is much tighter. As I had my instruments out on the CSL yesterday, I thought I would install the poly disc under the dashboard, adjacent to to one of the U-joints.

I now discovered that it has no such disc. I checked in the White Parts Boods, and found that fuel-injected CSLs have just 2 steering columns and 1 U-joint, and no (original) rubber disc.

Therein lies, perhaps, the extra play on the rest of the cars.....

Did you, after tightening according to Honolulu, decrease the 20 degree play ?? I will try this tomorrow.

 

[pmansson]

The car in question just spent a day with my expert BMW mechanic. As I have the fixed (neg) camber plates from Jeff Ireland, he said that I need a toe-in of about 1,5mm or 12 degrees.

He tightened the front right wheel bearing a little too.

The box, which he had serviced a while ago, didn´t need any tightening.

The end result is absolutely incredible. I have never drives such a tight car. Even at 110 MPH. Nothing moves anywhere!!

He also fixed the common E9 issue of lateral play in the pedals, with that annoying noise when you release the clutch.

 

[Honolulu]

waitaminnit...

pmansson...

you can't mean 1.5 mm is the same as 12 degrees of toe-in. Mutually exclusive... I think there's a decimal point missing and probably it's 1.2 degrees... confirm?

 

[sfdon]

usually 2mm is right [.08"]

 

[sfdon]

BTW- toe-in expressed in degrees would be 18 seconds-not- 12 degrees.
Your choice-
2mm
1/8 inch
18 seconds

 

[pmansson]

I saw my note in the car today.
My very skillful mechanic here in Switzerland claims that with the fixed camber plates (+5/8 degree neg. camber, )from Ireland Engineering)), I should have a total toe-in of 2,6mm or 17-20 secs. The reason being that the advantages of increased camber comes at a price in that the stablility decreases. He fixes this with increased toe-in. This will make the car very very stable, at the cost of wearing the tires slightly.
He may have set it slightly less than 2,6 mm in the end?

However, when I speak to my equally talented mechanic in Sweden, (who is responsible for a modern competition Porsche 911) he is adamant about 0 toe-in. The reason being that it drives much better into the curves (and saves the tires). Admittedly, it is less stable at speed, requiring both hands on the steering wheel. He sets the competition cars to toe-out in order for them to "dive into the curves". This obviously makes them a bit unstable on the straights.

I might try the zero toe-in on my CSL, (which is not the car in question in this thread.