B serious

I think there's a typo here...the bolded portion makes no sense.

A friction disc does not dictate pedal feel.
And the PP design has not changed.
And you can't compare a pressure plate to a disc, as they're different parts...

9KCanuck

This is hopefully the last question I post to this thread...

When driving the car straight, the steering wheel wants to sit cocked to the right about 6-8 degrees. The car drives perfectly straight, no issues with the steering otherwise. I made sure that the horn still works, as do the CC buttons. So presumably this means I have not busted the clock spring.

When I put the car back together, I absolutely lined up the marks I made on the coupler... but, since I had spun the steering wheel side of that linkage this way and that, my suspicion is that even though it's lined up, it's off by a rotation or 2. Or more? I don't know what the ratio is.

So to resolve, is it easiest just to disconnect that linkage again, and give it a turn or two and watch the steering wheel? OR... is it somehow my alignment? Maybe dropping the sub-frame has thrown that out of whack?

EDIT: actually, I guess I previously got some feedback on this dilemma. So first I'll try undoing the linkage, turning it one revolution till the lines match up again. Presumably the steering wheel would still be 'out' by the same number of degrees though, no? I do wonder about the alignment, too.

windhund116

Have you gotten the alignment checked out? It this one of those --- "the steering wheel is off, one spline, on the steering shaft" --- things?

starchland

Part # did change for the PP. Drive an early Ap1 and a later car and you will feel the difference. The change was documented on this site.
same thing happened to me, after reassembly, it appeared to be off a tooth even though shaft was lined up with the marking and I never disconnected the shaft or so it seems. Car drives straight, subframe shifted? Who knows

B serious

Center the wheel.

turn to the right lock. count the rotations

Center the wheel.

turn to the left lock. count the rotations.

same amount of rotations or no?

9KCanuck

No, not yet. I pretty much got the clutch in, insured the car and then drove it for a bit today.

I'll double check the coupler. Maybe it is off by just one spline, and that could account for it? We'll see. Thanks for the reply.

9KCanuck

I'll give this a try, thanks.
Someone else mentioned that if you have sensitive hands, you might be able to feel the clock spring reach its limit while carefully turning the wheel.
In that case, I assume this is best to do while the front wheels are off the ground.

noodels

Note -Problem can be the spring doubles over itself and creases the flat wire ribbon.

Car Analogy

Are you due for an alignment? Might be easiest to just have that done, since it'll correct steering wheel angle.

Its either off a spline, or subframe shift. If its subframe shift, you aren't going to easily correct it.

9KCanuck

Thanks for all the replies.

I was off by one (maybe two) splines. So now straight on the wheel = tires pointed straight. It is a bit tough to judge the alignment of those marks, and I just didn't pay close enough attention on my initial attempt.

While I did that, I also noticed that turning right encountered resistance earlier. So my guess is that I had in fact rotated the steering wheel end at least one revolution while they were decoupled. So I rotated the steering wheel side once the opposite direction and then lined up my marks. I *think* this has done the trick... hopefully it's back where it all was originally.

Oh, and before I get too excited about that, another thing I noticed: the steering wheel locks slightly sooner turning to the right than to the left. I checked this before I decoupled things again today and after I had rotated it and bolted it all back together... same behaviour. So seems to me this left/right lock position is independent of the steering wheel end of that linkage. That's hard to put into words, but perhaps you know what I'm on about. If the lock should engage at exactly the same point turning left or right, then could be I still have an issue.