Most car services refuse this service, since such a malfunction is insignificant, therefore, it is very cheap. For this reason, it is recommended that you learn how to tighten the steering rack yourself. After the first try, you will understand that the process of adjusting the rail is elementary and does not require professional knowledge.
On many foreign-made cars, when driving over ledges or pits, recoil is not transmitted to the steering column. This is achieved thanks to the power steering and steering rack damper. While the first device is found on almost all cars, the second is found only on some models.
The steering rack damper is designed for two-way shock absorption. It is often installed on SUVs and expensive premium cars with rear-wheel drive. The device helps to maintain the steering position when driving on gravel or overcoming difficult terrain.
On the VAZ 2110, such a device is not provided, but it can be purchased and ordered for installation in a car service. It is not recommended to do the installation yourself, since the damper must be reliably strengthened and the steering rack protection equipped. Otherwise, the steering gear will quickly loosen, and you will have to spend a lot of money to restore it.
Installing a damper on a VAZ 2110 provides certain advantages. When traversing uneven terrain, steering recoil is reduced by up to 30 percent. At the same time, the suspension noise level is reduced several times. If there is no balance, when braking at high speed, the vibration of the wheels stops giving feedback to the steering wheel.
VIDEO
Any mechanism in a car is not eternal, so when driving on an uneven road, at one point a knock may appear, which gives to the steering wheel. Or while standing still, there may be a knock when turning the steering wheel. These are the first signs that it is time to repair the steering rack.
After disassembling and cleaning, it is necessary to make a "defect" of the parts, and determine the degree of replacement:
- the body is visually inspected. For chips, cracks, and so on;
- inspection of shafts for burrs, wear, scratches and the like;
After identifying the defective parts, you can start assembling:
- a new plastic sleeve is pressed in;
- new bearings are pressed in;
- shafts are inserted and assembled;
- liberally lubricated with a suitable lubricant (lithol, fiol, uniol)
- a preliminary adjustment is made (the adjusting sleeve is tightened to the stop, then loosened until the shaft can be turned by hand);
- put on and fix the rubber boot (preferably using a new one);
- install steering rods with tips without tightening them;
Which muffler to put on the link.
1) At the beginning of the operation, you will need to hang both front wheels from the car, for this operation you may need either one or two jacks (Just instead of one jack, you can also use block blocks), after the front part is hung out, remove from both sides of the wheel of the car. (You can find out how to remove a wheel by studying an article for this called: "Changing wheels from a car")
Note! Do not forget to stop the car with the handbrake, just in case, and put more bricks under the rear wheels, just in case!
2) Now you need to remove the adsorber, if you have one, because it takes up a lot of space and if you do not remove it, then you simply won't have access to the steering rack. (For information on how to remove the adsorber from the car, read the article: "Replacing the car adsorber")
3) Then, in the very central part of the rail, unscrew the two bolts, which are indicated by the number 10 in the diagram above, which attach the steering rods to the rail, but take into account the fact that these bolts are still locked with locking washers, which you will need to bend (you will see them immediately ), so that they do not interfere, I unscrew these bolts for attaching the rods to the rail.
Note! For convenience in unscrewing, you can still move the steering wheel all the way in any direction, because when the steering wheel rotates, the rack also moves and thus choose the exact moment when it will be easiest for you to unscrew these mounting bolts!
4) Next, climb into the salon under the place where your pedals are installed and there you will find the universal joint retaining bolt (Indicated by the red arrow), if you need to bend part of the carpet (Carpet is what the floor of the car is covered with, it was not there before, instead of it people the linoleum styles themselves, but this is in old cars, in new ones, a carpet is used that covers the metal part of the body) if it covers this bolt, but when you unscrew the bolt, insert a large screwdriver, or the chisel into the groove indicated by the blue arrow and expand it so that the rail is removed from the car.
5) Well, at the end of the operation, unscrew two (on each side) nuts that attach the rail to the car body, these nuts fix it in its most extreme part, that is, in the left and, respectively, in the right, and when they are turned out with you, then you can pull the steering rack towards you (you will remove it from the studs) to remove it after that from the car.
Note! If it is not convenient for you to unscrew the nuts from the engine compartment, then you can, in its lateral part, in the place where you have a telescopic stand (the spring of the stand is indicated by a blue arrow), unscrew all these nuts (One of the nuts is indicated by a red arrow for clarity) fastening the rail and then just remove it from the car! (Pulling out the rail through the engine compartment is not very convenient, so try to pull it out through the cutout where the telescopic stand is installed, you can see this cutout in the photo below)
The spring of the telescopic strut is shown with a blue arrow and the rail fastening nut is shown with a red arrow.
6) Something else to add, usually new racks are initially sold assembled with steering rods, if you also have these rods on the rails (if you do not understand what these rods are about, these are shown in the diagram and indicated by numbers 11 and 6) then in this case, you will have to remove the old rods from the car (the instructions are simply aimed at removing only the rail itself and therefore at the beginning we did not say anything about removing the rods), if you do not know how to remove them, then in this case, study the article titled: "Replacement of steering rods on VAZ 2109 cars." (Do not pay special attention to the VAZ 2109 brand, because the cars of the Samara and Samara 2 families are very similar to each other, and therefore the traction is removed in both places in the same way)
The rack is installed in the same way as it is removed on the car, but only in the reverse order of removal.
To tighten the VAZ 2112 steering rack you will need a special “17” octagon key. To find an adjusting nut, a lift or a pit is not required, you can reach the nut by sticking your hand under the vacuum brake booster and feel the key recess in this place:
The steering rack of the VAZ 2112 is tightened counterclockwise (when viewed from above). We tighten the nut until it stops, and then loosen it by two divisions (24 degrees), which provides a clearance of 0.12mm. between the nut and the rail stop. We check the ease of movement of the rail, the absence of knocks and jams.After that, the threads of the crankcase are punched (crimped) at two points (without damaging the nut) and marks are applied with paint that fix the position of the nut relative to the crankcase.
If the steering rack is adjusted correctly, the extraneous knocks should disappear, the steering wheel will become sharper and after turning it should automatically return to the center position. If the steering rack is overtightened, then in the extreme positions of the steering wheel the rack will bite, and the steering wheel rotation will be more difficult than before.
If, to solve the problem, it was necessary to repair the steering rack, then the steering rack will be tightened in a vice. You can determine the backlash of the steering rack by swaying the rods (mustache). To reduce the backlash in the steering rack, turn the nut counterclockwise by about 10-15 degrees, and then check the backlash again. If necessary, tighten again until the play in the steering rack disappears. The output is different in each case, so there is no specific tightening torque. At the end of the work, do not forget to close the nut by wrapping the crankcase thread.
The drive gear engages with the steering rack and is mounted in the crankcase on bearings. A stop made of cermet, sealed in the crankcase with a special rubber ring, presses the rack against the gear with a spring. Loosening of the nut is prevented by the circlip. The tags located on the boot and steering wheel housing facilitate assembly of the assembly.
The main reasons for the wear of the steering rack are our roads, or rather, the constant shaking on bumps and dusty streets. If you are not a fan of slowing down in front of holes on the road, you need to be prepared for the rake to start knocking very soon. And if you do not want to find out at one terrible moment that this node is leaking, then check the integrity of the anthers on the rail as often as possible. One has only to miss a small hole, as dirt begins to get inside the steering rack, which quickly leads to wear of the seals. And there will be a leak.
To a greater extent, the performance of the hydraulic steering rack does not even depend on the conditions on the road, but on the drivers themselves. Some drivers leave their car in the cold with inverted wheels in winter. This causes the hydraulic steering racks to fail. They constantly forget to change the hydraulic fluid in the power steering system in time, which can also lead to premature wear. At this point blame yourself, as they say.
The most common faults are wear on the stem, slide and seals. Due to the high labor intensity, all work with the steering rack is expensive. But do not pull the hair out of the crown of the head if you find knocks in the suspension, noticeably giving off to the steering wheel. It may just be that the ball joints on the tie rod or tip are worn out. Consider that you got off easy if you really are. Steering rods for Japanese cars are relatively inexpensive today. And the market for these parts is very well developed, here you always have a choice between the more expensive original rod and tip, or cheaper, but also quite high-quality South Korean counterparts. The situation with the owners of German cars is much worse. Especially from Mercedes-Benz. The cost of steering assemblies for a "German" is high, and it is quite difficult to acquire them. However, to date, Russian auto mechanics have learned to restore ball joints without destroying the product body.
Do not despair, even if it turns out during diagnostics that the steering rack is knocking. Most slats are easy to adjust. During operation, the bearing fastening may loosen, for this reason the rack knocks. This defect is quite amenable to regulation. And this procedure takes 20-25 minutes. But if the bearing is not tightened on time, then after several months the torments of hell are guaranteed to you. We'll have to disassemble the rail, order a repair kit and overhaul the unit.
The rail should be thoroughly washed, then disassembled. Measure the wear of the stem and bushing, check the condition of the seals.The bushing (horizontal rod sliding bearing) most often suffers. The thing is that no other country can boast of such disgrace on the roads as in Mother Russia. That is why the overwhelming majority of foreign cars are designed for excellent roads, and therefore materials for the manufacture of bushings are used cheap. As a result, the bushings lose their shape after a few strong enough blows. On some cheap cars, these parts have a fairly decent clearance from the beginning, that is, the steering racks begin to knock at a certain steering position almost from the very beginning.
Video (click to play).
The majority of "Japanese women" have a steering rack resource with proper operation of about 150-200 thousand km of run. The resource of the steering rack that has undergone a high-quality repair will be approximately 70% of the resource of the new unit, so if you choose the right auto mechanic for repairing the steering rack, you will not need to contact a car service again with a similar malfunction.