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GVR-4 Getting Steering Wheel straight after pedal assembly replacement

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4gfun

Supporting VIP
2,009
55
Dec 10, 2007
Ask Me, Virginia
I had my pedals rebuilt and I am struggling to get the steering wheel centered. There is no spline key that goes back into the steering yoke so I am forced to guess where the center is.

I *guess* alright. I have guessed twice and there is nothing like taking a guess and finding out you are wrong.

Every time I pull the steering wheel, pull the driver's seat for more room and pull the bolts is an opportunity to drop the steering column on my jaw, wreck my leather seats, or tear my plastidip.

How do I get this right the first time?

I center the steering wheel close to where it locks and go down the road only to find that the steering wheel is WAY WAY off.

I think it would be insulting to have to pay some pimply faced kid to have to align the steering wheel after all the hard work I have done already (and you don't know the half of it).

Thanks for any tips!
 
The wheels will center themselves when you drive(going down a straight road no hands on steering wheel). What i do at work when i drop subframes with racks is put the stering coumn back on the rack with no bolt. Drive in parking lot and let the wheels straighten themselves then pull up steering column and center steering wheel. Its usually pretty damn close. Them i perform an alignemnt to make it perfect.
 
The wheels will center themselves when you drive(going down a straight road no hands on steering wheel). What i do at work when i drop subframes with racks is put the stering coumn back on the rack with no bolt. Drive in parking lot and let the wheels straighten themselves then pull up steering column and center steering wheel. Its usually pretty damn close. Them i perform an alignemnt to make it perfect.

Not in my case. Are you sure that steering wheel will center itself after some time? It is nerve racking going down a windy country road with the tires going straight and the steering wheel facing 50 degrees in the wrong direction.

I think that we might be misunderstanding here. I don't see how I can get around lining the steering wheel pretty much correctly initially.

I am doing something VERY wrong and I am usually awesome at lining things up by eye.

Thanks.
 
Maybe i didnt word it correctly. When ur driving down the road straight your wheels are straight. They align themselves to track with the rears. Your steering wheel though may be way off. so what you do is

drive down a parking lot going straight( no hands on wheel). Just cruise at a fee mph
Stop the car without moving the steering wheel
Now center your steering wheel/column on the steering rack without moving the tires.
This will get you close but you still will need an alignment to make it perfect.
 
Maybe i didnt word it correctly. When ur driving down the road straight your wheels are straight. They align themselves to track with the rears. Your steering wheel though may be way off. so what you do is

drive down a parking lot going straight( no hands on wheel). Just cruise at a fee mph
Stop the car without moving the steering wheel
Now center your steering wheel/column on the steering rack without moving the tires.
This will get you close but you still will need an alignment to make it perfect.

I think I got what you are saying, I can be slow.

I mounted the column back up with just 2 bolts and there isn't enough room to get the splines in (at least on my GVR4).

Seems like the only way to do this is to get the splines in first and then mount it. Constant fight of test mount/dismount if I have this right. :barf:
 
why not just pull the steering wheel itself snd set it on straight once the wheels are straight?

I was considering this but read that you can mess up when the turn signal returning to it's original position after a turn if you are not reasonably close...and for some unknown reason I cannot get reasonably close. Steering wheel was perfectly straight before pulling the pedals.
 
Just tried a 3rd time. Complete aggravation. Insert straight but go down the road and it's a mess.
 
If its anything like a 1g dsm then you can move the steering wheel all you want. The clock spring is behind it and seperate. I didnt even think about that. Prob a lot easier to just unbolt the wheel and move it
 
If its anything like a 1g dsm then you can move the steering wheel all you want. The clock spring is behind it and seperate. I didnt even think about that. Prob a lot easier to just unbolt the wheel and move it

I moved it with great hassle, but it moved. Do you have any suggestions as to how I know it's reasonably straight? The roads here are tipped to the right like many. I have an alignment policy, but absolutely dread taking it in for an alignment because they want to do 50k other things to the vehicle when it's there.

If I get it straight where I am satisfied with the way it is tracking, does it still need an alignment afterwards to avoid tire wear? Like I said, it was fine before. I followed the FAQ for pedal replacement and it does not warn you to mark the splines as far as I can remember.

Does all of this junk mess with toe? Curious because that's all the alignment guys seem to know how to mess with anyways.

Thanks for all of this so far!

EDIT: Wow, I asked this question over a year ago. This car has been down forever....lost motivation...it happens....

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/removed-steering-column-alignment-now-required.498726/
 
Last edited:
Best way by far is what i do,

Get it all bolted up what your doing. Adjust all your outer tie rods in to max! For this part you can measure a distance between the tire and an inner face equal to both sides to make sure the fronts and at the same distance, then see what the steering wheel does, adjust the steering wheel to central (by removing the wheel of course) be safe for air bag!!!

This also centers your rack which is very helpful also, then without moving the steering wheel adjust the tie rods out to get as straight as possible doing equal turns on both sides, this will allow more adjustment across both and you now have a pretty darn close central rack, (if all is done right)!

I do my own alignments so i have been here many time while learning but its by far more rewarding to do it the long way first time around,
 
Edit: ec17pse beat me to it, heres my version.

Of course you should get an alignment, even if it feels straight, but I never did and haven't noticed any unusual wear after several thousand miles.
When installing my depowered rack (3 times) this is what I did:
On a 2g you have to be careful of the clock spring and the plastic cover on it, I cracked mine and it was a PITA to reattach with the steering wheel on. Not sure about your car. Anyway, turn the wheel all the way to the right (again not too far, ask another GVR owner what the exact lock to lock turn ratio is, so turn it half of that, say 1 1/2 turns) then either tie it to something or have a buddy hold it still.
If not already done, loosen the brackets holding the rack enough to separate the rack from the steering yoke as well as the bolt on the yoke, pop it loose. Then either pull the tie rod and knuckle so the rack is all the way right or use pliers and turn the stem on the rack (don't damage the splines) all the way right. Then carefully push or pull (using the tie rod) the rack onto the yoke. If the splines aren't lined up exactly you may have to wiggle the yoke a little and tap with a wrench.
Now I did this with my tie rods popped loose (use a ball joint separator not a pickle fork) but if your alignment was reasonably straight before this you should be close. After you put the wheels on turn the steering wheel lock to lock a few times and look at the wheels on the ground. With everything straight measure the distance between the same treads on the front and back of the tire. If the distance isn't the same (toe in is generally frowned upon on our cars) adjust your inner tie rods gingerly until it is. Take her for a drive and adjust a little if needed. If she pulls to the right with the steering wheel straight either loosen the right inner tie rod or tighten the left or both (keep measuring to make sure) and vice versa. Get an alignment if you don't know what your doing. I've done so much suspension work on my dsms I'm pretty good at adjusting then by now.
 
4gfun - you never messed with the tie rods so your alignment is the same. Only thing you changed is the angle of the steering wheel to the rack. If it drives straight and the wheel is straight then your alignment is the same as before
 
Thanks guys. Very helpful posts. I appreciate you helping me get things back together. Reading through your posts. In a nutshell, I am definitely going to stay as conservative as possible and take heed to these posts when the time comes.
 
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