Steering Wander

[PSmith]

Well, just ordered my parts from Mohawk to correct my 'wandering wonder'.  Getting a Bellcrank bushing and two Drag Link ends and the bushings to tighten-up my kingpins.. 

This is a good winter project - laying on the 'cold hard ground' and fumbling with ice cold tools.  It'll be Great !!

Looking forward to the new 'feel' of the wheel.   

Also making sure that the toe-in is pretty close to zero or just a 'smidge' IN.  In my measurement system, a 'smidge' is equal to a barely preceptable distance.

As it is now- I have 'anticipation steering' - you know where you want to go and you 'hope' turning the wheel 'this way' or 'that way' will get you there.

phil

[Ed Hackenbruch]

If i remember right, the PO told me that he adjusted the toe-in to 2 degrees and that was too much, so he changed it to 1 degree, and that was the best setting for this bus.

[Joe Camper]

I can not count how many times I have seen buses that have had a tremendous amount of front end repairs to eliminate wander to find most of it was eliminated by taking the play out of the steering box.

I'm not insinuating anything here just adding my 2 cents.

[bevans6]

My bus, with a Sheppard integral steering box, benefited greatly from centering the steering box.  Pay close attention to that when you fit the drag link.  Mine was a full inch out.

Brian

[luvrbus]

On most of the bus I been around the wandering is caused owners changing tire sizes to save a few bucks



good luck

[PSmith]

I'm not expecting the wandering to disappear completely, but taking out the VERY OBVIOUS worn parts causing the slack is going to help a lot.   The bellcrank's angular play is quite a bit-  while the idler arm bushing seems fairly good..  The drag link end near the bellcrank is quite sloppy - - while the gearbox end is slightly loose (so I'm changing both ends ).. the kinpins are getting attention because the pass side felt a bit sloppy when prying on the wheel with my wrecking bar

Thanks for heads-up on the drag link adj.  I planned on checking all the geometry just to be sure.

If it wanders when I'm done- then it won't be because I didn't take care of the obvious stuff.


Checked the steering box play and I'm quite happy with it. 

So - if some a$#hole didn't sneak some 'out of spec' or 'cheapa$$' tires on the bus while I wasn't looking, then things should be ok.  


phil

[Len Silva]

Don't forget the other end of the bus.  Worn bushings in the rear suspension can also cause wandering.

[luvrbus]

Phil, Steer Safe makes an adjustable bell crank for the GM buses a little pricey but they work good,and FWIW tires do make a big difference in wandering where you believe it or not makes no difference to me.
I have saw so many buses with directional tires on the front mounted wrong and people could not keep the bus between the white line and the ditch


good luck