Disco I Steering Play / Dead Spot
 

I've searched around for this, and the plain fact of it is that I'm still not sure what's happening with my steering... forgive me if this has been discussed already.

I bought my Discovery only a few weeks ago (so I don't know it that well), and there's some play in the steering. It doesn't pull in either direction, but there's nothing happening between maybe 10 and 12 on the steering wheel. You can leave the wheel straight and it'll drive straight, and you can turn it left as far as maybe 10 o'clock before it'll start turning left. Turn it back again to go right and nothing will happen until it gets back to 12 o'clock again.

I'm not a mechanic at all, so I didn't know what to look for. I did find one thing, as pictured in my attached photos. I've drawn in an arrow to represent the part that I think is loose. I can reach down and rotate it in the direction pictured with my hand... it seems to match up with that 10-12 o'clock dead spot.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? As much as I love my LR, it's extremely irritating to drive right now. :(

Thanks for any help.

swivel pin preset, you will need to download the rave manual from this site and print out the directions for your mechanic.......this is a very basic design with shims that need rearranged to compensate for the slack.

Look under the sticky posts in the forum, you will find the rave download, a manual to your vehicle.

Get under the truck and have someone move the steering wheel back and forth. The play could be in your steering box, the pitman arm, or the swivel ball. You can watch the input shaft turn and see what is not turning down the line. A buddy had play from 10 to 2 and the pitman arm was really loose.

Rave manual download is in my sig.

It's very unlikely to be the swivel balls unless the swivel pin bolts are very loose and worn.
There's an adjusting nut on top of the steering box that you can use to take out slack, up to a certain point. This is the most likely culprit. pdf page 540 in the Rave covers how to adjust it.
But basically you:

1. Center the steering wheel
2. Remove the drag link from the pitman arm
3. Loosen the lock nut on the adjuster (in the center of a plate that's retained by 4 bolts on the top)
4. Have someone move the pitman arm back and forth while you turn the adjuster nut to remove slack
5. Tighten the lock nut
6. check for slack, repeat adjustment if needed
7. Turn the steering wheel lock to lock to make sure it's not binding

Another thing to check is the pitman arm (the short arm attached to the output shaft on the bottom of the steering box, which the drag link connects to from the passenger side wheel)
Also check your tie rod ends.
But my money is on the steering box adjustment.

Wow, thanks guys. Looks like I have what I need to move forward. I'll take a crack at it on my own and see what I can manage (I always prefer to learn rather than spend) ;)

I have found that to be the best kind of education, much preferred over those fancy Institutes of Higher Learning. You remember it much longer and better as well.:cool: