Series 3 Steering wandering and funky feelings since doing Offside Swivel etc

Hi I wondered if anyone could offer any advice.

I recently changed my swivel housing, top pin, railko bush, halfshaft bearing etc on the O/S and then I did the preload weight with a digital measure and shimmed it up.

Nice job No play at all left, right or up or down. Fanstastic and I was very happy! Previously it was pitted and I had various play going on.

But my problem since completing the job is my steering just seems too light and there is a lot of vagueness and play.

Like you can drive and wiggle the steering wheel an inch left to right in the middle without it having an effect on and still driving straight. But that may have been there before and isn't really the main issue I noticed, which is that the steering seems to be more of a battle, like I am always drifting on or off the road and having to constantly correct things or steer one way more than the other all the time on certain bends or roads.

Maybe I was just used to the very solid and stiff way it was before, but it used to seem very planted and there was no drift or constant correction.

Anyway I had a brainwave. I thought "well maybe if the shim preload weight on the O/s is now correct to the manual, possibly the other side has a lot more resistance..."

So my thought was should I increase the resistance on the Off side and actually remove some shims?? Or do I leave it as the green bible says - could it be coincidence or something else??

Thanks for any help

what was the preload you added and have you checked the rest for play ,the steering box and all joints

My steering is pretty much as you describe, I thought it was normal.

Col

It helps if you have someone wiggle the steering wheel then hold each each ball joint/ drop arm from steering box onwards for relative movement , my mot man found a loose pinch bolt on steering box drop arm which caused a lot of play in mine.

You could also jack up each front wheel and give it a rock about

Do the preload again, something like a bearing seat or bush may not have settled the first time and do all of the above.

I had a wandery feeling, but I'd been laying underneath upsidedown for too long trying to find the play.
As above get someone to move the free play while you feel each joint. Mine has had 3" (or more) of dead play at the sterring wheel rim and its been driving me to distraction (and the next lane in the M4 roadworks - a serious issue) so yesterday I set to. Got son to turn steering slowly while i lay underneath (hence wandery feeling) and found to my surpise that all (ALL!) the play was in the steering box. I have adjusted this very carefully so was rather suprised. Set out to get ot the bottom of problem and found the aduster screw was getting thread bound and while feeling like it was home was not. Spent a good 10 mins gently working the aduster while turning the steering and at hand tightness it went in another 1/2 turn. Play now down to 1 1/2" which is fantastic and probably equaites to +/- 6" of contraflow M4 lane wander not the 2ft we had before, should help my blood pressure too.

Wayward steering is all part of the fun.

Col

It's probably the steering box needs adjusting you probably didn't know how bad it was till you fixed everything else.

I had similar experience with mine. I replaced all steering ball joints and rebuilt the hubs. It's improved but on county lanes and odd cambers, it still needs plenty of input to proceed in a straight line.

I think most Series Landrovers have actually done 10% less miles than the clock says - you do more miles weaving and driving in a generally ****ed manor as opposed to driving in a straight line!

Don't overlook torquing up your U bolts correctly - front and back. These commonly work their way loose over time.
Also, my steering improved further with new shocks and shock bushes - simple job and relatively cheap to buy.

Probably unlikely, but have you had the tracking checked since you put it all back together?

Steering on my 88 is not bad and I feel confident going at speed.
Any one having a series which is hard work to steer in a straight line must have a problem with the steering components.