I was in the middle of doing a oil pan diy and when removing the rack and piņon from the steering shaft I forgot to mark the positions before removing and now they are all out of alignment from turning the wheels accidentally. how would I align the rack and steering column shaft from scratch?
Like Turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and then turn the rack to the left by hand then connect them back up? or is there a proper way
I'd straighten the wheels as good as possible. I've used a piece of wood with a laserpointer taped to (hold it on the side of the rim by hand) it for a similar situation to help kind of find out if the wheels are straight. Not 100% accurate.
Then bring steering wheel in neutral position and connect it together. See from there if it needs a little more to one side or not.
Forget what the measurements are, but pretty much center the rack by getting both sides of the rack arms equal lengths. Then center the wheel... You get the point. Really, it doesnt matter. You can move the wheel to match the rack. Whats most important is getting the alignment to match the center of the rack. Everything else can be adjusted with no matter.
I did this procedure recently when installing a Z3 rack. I centered the rack as close as possible, then connected the wheel in the centered position. After that I string aligned the toe using the tie rod adjustments.
String aligning is quite easy but requires a helper to hold the other end of the string. I also like to take a quick drive up and down the road to check alignment with the straightness of the steering wheel.
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