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Replaced springs and dampers and now steering wheel isnt centered

anticon

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#1
I spent most of the day today swapping out my stock springs and dampers for some swifts and b8s. Now my steering wheel is about 5 degrees off center. Overall everything went pretty well, it just took longer than i had hoped for. I also put in camber bolts in the front. I adjusted then to have the most negative camber they would give me. Is it the camber bolts causing the problem? I was hoping to break the springs in a little before i got an alignment but now it seems like i better get it straightened up asap.
 


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#2
I spent most of the day today swapping out my stock springs and dampers for some swifts and b8s. Now my steering wheel is about 5 degrees off center. Overall everything went pretty well, it just took longer than i had hoped for. I also put in camber bolts in the front. I adjusted then to have the most negative camber they would give me. Is it the camber bolts causing the problem? I was hoping to break the springs in a little before i got an alignment but now it seems like i better get it straightened up asap.
If you look under your pedals at the steering column you will see there is 1 x 10mm bolt you can loosen, straighten the wheel then tighten.

Get an alignment after you drive a few 100 miles.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #3
It tracks straight. I just noticed my brakes are now pulling to the left a little. I did give all the painted calipers a good wash but i cant imagine that did anything.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #4
So has anybody else had this issue when installing springs? I've never done it before and I'm a little worried I screwed something up. I had to disconnect and reconnect some sort of tie rod linkage across from the weight on the upper part of the front struts did I not do it right? Does anyone have a diagram of the steering sytem?
 


Hijinx

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#5
Loosen both strut bolts (don’t take them out) on both sides, and then retighten them - bottom bolt first.


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kevinatfms

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#7
Always get an alignment after you change any suspension angle. You lowered the car which changes the initial toe reading, camber reading and scrub reading.

Get an alignment and tell them what camber angle you want to have. With that, they will zero toe the car(by adjusting the tie rods) which will straighten the steering wheel.

DO NOT unbolt the column shaft and try to recenter it. It is centered on the rack from the factory for a reason. If you offset the rack to the column splines farther than allowable, you could extend the limit of the clockspring(in the steering wheel) or extend the steering rack travel past the limiting block which can de-spline the rack internally. Both would require you to replace either part.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #8
Loosen both strut bolts (don’t take them out) on both sides, and then retighten them - bottom bolt first.


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Thanks I will give that a shot.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #9
Always get an alignment after you change any suspension angle. You lowered the car which changes the initial toe reading, camber reading and scrub reading.

Get an alignment and tell them what camber angle you want to have. With that, they will zero toe the car(by adjusting the tie rods) which will straighten the steering wheel.

DO NOT unbolt the column shaft and try to recenter it. It is centered on the rack from the factory for a reason. If you offset the rack to the column splines farther than allowable, you could extend the limit of the clockspring(in the steering wheel) or extend the steering rack travel past the limiting block which can de-spline the rack internally. Both would require you to replace either part.
Thanks, I had a feeling that adjusting the steering wheel was not the right answer. I was curious how the alignment shop would make the adjustments (I am working on learning how steering systems work in general, and specifically for this car) and found this discussion http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/wheels-tires/212872-steering-wheel-isnt-straight-when-wheels.html. This makes sense, basically by replacing the front struts I moved where the tie rods connect and thus need to readjust the tie rod nuts to center the steering wheel and the toe on the car.

Now I need to figure out why the brakes are pulling, I am a little worried that somehow during the install I messed up a brake line, although I was very careful to support rear axle when replacing those springs and shocks. It barely pulls,I don't really notice if my hands are on the wheel, but if I take my hands off and brake it pulls.
 


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#10
Thanks, I had a feeling that adjusting the steering wheel was not the right answer. I was curious how the alignment shop would make the adjustments (I am working on learning how steering systems work in general, and specifically for this car) and found this discussion http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/wheels-tires/212872-steering-wheel-isnt-straight-when-wheels.html. This makes sense, basically by replacing the front struts I moved where the tie rods connect and thus need to readjust the tie rod nuts to center the steering wheel and the toe on the car.

Now I need to figure out why the brakes are pulling, I am a little worried that somehow during the install I messed up a brake line, although I was very careful to support rear axle when replacing those springs and shocks. It barely pulls,I don't really notice if my hands are on the wheel, but if I take my hands off and brake it pulls.
If you took the calipers off to do the front be sure you didn't twist up the left side brake hose when putting it back on the car. Pinching the hose will not allow the propper amount of fluid out of the caliper causing a drag.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #11
If you took the calipers off to do the front be sure you didn't twist up the left side brake hose when putting it back on the car. Pinching the hose will not allow the propper amount of fluid out of the caliper causing a drag.
I didn't remove any of the calipers during the installation. I did wash them.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #13
Well luckily it seems like the pull during braking went away. Another thing is I didn't mark any alignment on the top plate of the front struts would this make any difference? It seems like they are just flat plates so it wouldn't matter, but I saw somewhere else where you should mark them and install them in the original orientation.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #14
I finally got time to reinstall the front struts. I was getting a clunk on the passenger side along with the steering wheel not being centered. It turned out the passenger side top plate wasn't quite on right. When reinstalling the struts I tightened the nuts working my way down from the top. I also made sure the wheel was centered when I tightened the final two nuts on the struts. Harbor Freight spring compressors are a pain but get the job done, they took a lot of paint off the springs in the process though.
 




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