1989 328 GTS ABS steering binding

Hmmmmm...you have fixed the only two components normally suspected....bent shaft possible???

 

That's the clue...and the solution will be found when you drop the shaft u-joints and inspect them. There are two possibilities: One or both or the u-joint is seizing, or the u-joints angles are not aligned properly (to one another) on the steering shaft. The first problem is more common, the second less common....unless some yahoo pulled one of the u-joints in the past due to a problem and re-installed it out of phase with the other joint.

David

[email protected]

 

When I was having my car repainted I had the dash out and drove it to the paint shop with the steering wheen tilt adjustment bolts loosened. I found that at one extreme end of adjustment (can't remember if it was up or down), the column joints bound on a piece of metal supporting the dash.

It was scary, I couldn't steer! But, really easy to diagnose when I looked under there and saw the two parts hitting.

Probably not your problem, but who knows.

 

I don't know if your car would have the same configuration as my '78 GTs, but when I had the spare tire surround out recently there was a cover, that when removed, gave access to the steering shaft from above. It would make working on it much easier.

TomB

 

Is it binding, or is the effort required to turn the wheel just varying a little as it is rotated. If it is the latter, that is normal, due to the design of the joints that Ferrari used. Having these joints "in phase" and "out of phase" makes a difference. If you Google universal joints, you can learn about the effect.

If it is binding, try lowering the steering wheel position using the adjustment that is available, to reduce the angle of the joints. Perhaps the joints do not have enough angularity available. Are they exactly the same parts as original, or are they a different brand?

JR

 

Perhaps a dumb question, but have you tried slowly turning the wheel with the front end off the ground on jackstands? How about disconnecting the u-joint at the rack and determining if the binding is in the steering column or the rack? Often time, it helps to test one piece at a time. With the joint disconnected, you can move the rack by turning the front wheel by hand to check for binding at the rack or tie rods. Likewise, with the joint disconnected, you can turn the steering wheel by hand to check for binding in the column. If both are smooth, the problem is in the joint or the alignment.

 

I have noticed that the angle of the steering u-joint at the firewall on my '89 328 is really extreme. Just by observation, I'd call it a questionable application of the angle a U joint can deal with. If a conventional u joint is angled just beyond its design limit, it binds every 1/2 turn or thereabouts so it seems to me a logical place to look - I'd bet that since these cars were more hand-made than machine made, there could be enough variation in the placement/alignment to cause some cars to have the problem you are experiencing.

But in any case, let us know what it was.

 

Good article on multiple universal joints used in steering:
http://www.stockcarracing.com/techarticles/scrp_0603_steering_shaft_installation/index.html

Note the warning about joint phasing or indexing.
"Anytime the project concerns assembling U-joints to a shaft, you must correctly index them. This means the yokes should be in the same position on each end of the shaft..." This could easily have gotten misaligned at some point and ignored thereafter.

If this were my problem, I'd disconnect sections starting at the rack to find exactly where the binding happens.

 

Unfortunately, the car and I are nearly 3000 miles apart for the winter. It lives in MD; I live in Mexico City and I won't be there until late April. So I can't take any pics and I don't have any pics on the computer of that Ujoint. The car is an ABS car. I don't notice any particular binding as I turn the wheel though the steering itself is quite stiff - normal from what folks say but seems a bit heavy to me compared to other manual steering cars I have owned, including several a lot heavier than this car.

 

Have you verified that the lower and upper joints are absolutely completely identically phased together on the shaft? A thousand other cars have the same angles and don't bind every 180. But other cars aren't 1 spline off rotation between U-Joints.

 

What was the verdict?