Hello All,

In my quest to save money as Im currently "between jobs". I have as I normally do, my own work. However after trying to change the motor mounts this morning, I gave up. I don't have all my tools here(quite a bit are still in storage) and the room under the car as others know sucks.

So after calling many shops, many would not do it as they will not install customer parts even though they are factory Jag units, cant do it until some time next week(it was bad and causing other issues) or are just too darn $$.

So I find an NTB shop that is willing to install both for 2 bills and can do it today. After basically showing them how to do it, I leave and come back to find it done.

However as noted elsewhere they had a tough time getting the shaft off to move the rack and in doing so when they put it back together it is a tooth or two off and my steering wheel is a bit off. They showed it to me under neath where they scribed before removal and it looks good but obviously it is not dead on.

Im putting new tie rod ends on this weekend and getting it aligned. Is this going to be a problem? It seems like it turns lock to lock fine and dont see any diminished turning radius.

Am i screwed by trying to save the proverbial dollar or will this be ok?

Thank you!!

Chris

BTW good thing I had both changed the drivers side I knew was smoked(complete separation) and the passenger side was begining to separate. Much much better now.

 

Once aligned, you may have to remove steering wheel and align and re-install. Not so easy on the newer cars with airbags.

 

Removing the steering wheel isn't too difficult. Look at the threads for "clock spring"
replacement. Short version. Move the seat full aft for more work room. Disconnect the
battery to disable the airbag. Use a flashlight to locate the screw on the column shroud and take out the little screws. Spend 1-5 minutes locating the one you dropped..
Remove the airbag. Mark the steering wheel location with a marker pen. Remove the nut and the steering wheel comes off without the use of a puller. Move it a tooth or two and then reinstall everything. The entire task in under 30 minutes

 

Should I see if the can remove the rack and try again? What happens if they straighten the steering wheel and then align the car with the steering wheel straight? This seems like a lot of work. When I went in there, the steering wheel was a bit off from the last alignment and obviously its worse now.

Thank you

Chris

 

My bet is that all will be cured when you get to the alignment shop. Just tell them ahead of time that the wheel is not straight and they will make the necessary adjustments. No need to remove the steering wheel.

 

Hi Chris,

The photos at the link below, from fellow forum member xjay8, should be helpful:

XJ8 HALF WOOD WHEEL CHANGE Photo Gallery by Max Heazlewood at pbase.com


You'll be fine just moving the steering wheel a couple of splines to re-center it. Make your initial alignment marks on the steering column and wheel as small/thin as possible since the splines are very fine and thick/wide alignment marks will be too vague to help you know how much you have actually adjusted the wheel.

Having the alignment shop adjust the tie rods unequally may be a less-desireable approach since, presumably, it could pull the steering rack slightly out of its on-center position and affect the steering feel and performance when driving a straight line.

Cheers,

Don

 

Ok, after a little fight with the tie rod ends(13 years worth of not moving lol) I got them changed with some Moog units and took it in to get aligned. I told the shop of the occurrence and told them if it didn't seem right to just align the car with the rack centered and I would worry about the steering wheel. They aligned it without any problem and said that there was no concern. They felt that the little it may or may not have been out of whack was not to be concerned about..

Thank you everyone for your input and help! It made me sleep better that's for sure lol.

Chris

 

Good one Badbenz94

 

Chris,

Glad you and your Jag are back on friendly terms!

Cheers,

Don

 

+1 After a an alignment the steering wheel can be a little off centre. The correction has always been done in my case by the aligners. You could 'centre' the wheel before the alignment to find it still needs correction after the alignment.

Good Luck.

 

All the earlier XJs had a centralizing hole in rack.

 

And with that, I had a "moaning" sound that I thought was a ball joint or tie rod(hence why I replaced it), unfortunately it is the rack itself. It makes the noise when turning to the far left....figure since I don't have a job right now, it will have to wait.

I know I am far from the only member that seems to have this luck, car has 90k(just turned,owned it since it had 43k miles) and I figured based on how I drive(miss all potholes even the sewer access holes and how gentle I am going into drives and entrances off the street it would last a lot longer. Oh well. Still cheaper than a new car and looks that can't be touched.

Chris