How to make sure steering wheel is centered on the rack?

[ATK 143 1 Cars]

Getting round to making sure my alignment is spot on. Pretty sure the steering wheel has been off and on in the past, so how do you go about making sure the steering wheel is on the right splines before having the tracking done?

 

cheers

[Ozymandis 98]

Count how many turns total rotation for lock to lock, then turn the wheel to the middle of that number and the wheel should be straight, if its not then pull it off and move it round on the splines until it is.

 

Chalk mark on the middle of the wheel boss adjacent to the column cowl, and corresponding chalk marks on the cowl at either end of its travel are how i do it, its simple. The splines are coarse enough to see if Your one spline out when centred between your two end marks.

 

Tip for getting the wheel off, loosen the nyloc nut until finger tight  but dont remove it, then grasp the wheel firmly and rag it up and down like a madman  it always pops off the splines and the nyloc stops it hitting you in the face.

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Ozymandis

[jackherer 543]

You can see it visually just by turning it to each lock and looking at the angle the wheel ends up at, obviously it should be the same each side, or in other words one side should mirror the other. As said above one spline out moves it by enough degrees to be obvious.

[welshpug 1,682]

I tend to set both track rods to the same length and see where the rack sits when driving in a straight line.

 

I'm not certain they turn the same number of turns each way.

[Ozymandis 98]

Iv`e had that thought too Mei, some of the racks I measured had slightly different length track rods which is what I put it down to. But after setting them the same I still had to move the wheel a spline. I no longer get too anal about the wheel a fraction out so long as it drives properly.

5 hours ago, welshpug said:

I'm not certain they turn the same number of turns each way.