This weekend at VIR the #38 260Z had some serious steering rack issues.

The car behaved well in practice and qualifying. Jeff started the ECR1 on Saturday and did a fantastic job of moving through traffic. The car behaved well and seemed to have no problems other than the dreaded hot re-start issue.

I got into the car at the 45 minute mark or so and then had a couple of laps under caution. Car was okay. Once the course went green I had about 2.5 laps with a “good” car, and then everything went south.

Coming into turn three I tried to turn left and the car didn’t turn much at all. More steering input got the car to turn, but I had to put a full 120 degrees wheel input in to make the turn. This problem continued to various degrees all over the course and for the rest of the race. I seriously thought I’d have to come in but I managed it after a bit. During the uphill esses you’d have to put in about 110-130 degrees left wheel sometimes to make the second left esse. Left turns were far more hairy than right turns, but in either one you never knew what to expect for steering. To make turn four required slightly more than 180 degrees of input, arms fully crossed.

Sunday morning we investigated the car in the light and found a loose jam nut on the driver’s steering arm. The Parrishes helped us get that fixed and string the car and we thought all was good for the SARRC.

The SARRC kicked off and I was happy on the pace lap with the way the car felt. However, at Oak Tree on the outlap the problem came back worse than before. Same symptoms, but, the effects in corners was more pronounced and the car was extremely hard to drive. Lap times suffered but I managed to finish the race.

I checked the car again at home and there are no loose tie rod ends. It seems I have some sort of steering problem that can develop after the car gets hot? I’m not sure exactly what is going on. The rack seems stable when examined with a helper turning the wheel. But maybe it will not stay stable when warm?

This thread I started back in June and we ended up putting some metal shims in the bushing and it seemed to hold well. At least it held last month at Roebling.

Steering Rack Issues
http://itforum.improvedtouring.com/forums/...showtopic=11681