Okay, I just got my tie rods and drag link bar in front of my Disco 2 replaced because it was way over due and I had loose steering and was told that is what I needed to do to fix the looseness. I still have about 2 inches of play on my steering wheel left and right before the truck reacts. I was wondering what my next step should be to adjust this. Should I try adjusting my steering on the steering box next? If so, is it easy to do. I have the rave and it seemed quite confusing to me. Do I just loosen the nut on top of my steering box and turn the hex screw clockwise 1/4 turn at a time? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

With your mileage, you first want to check all your bushings and ball joints for wear, if they are OK , then yes the box may have some slack in it and may need to be adjusted, but if it is over tightened you can kill it so do not over tighten it.

 

Hey mx468, did you get the loose steering fixed or solved?

 

I needed to replace all the ball joints on my D2, so I had the shop do the upper and lower ones, as well as the tie rods, etc. They noticed the gearbox was “leaking” and recommended that I replace it. Although I had never had any issues with steering and hadn’t noticed any fluid loss, it was dirty, and I trusted the shop, so I gave them the go-ahead. They aligned and balanced everything.

I got the Rover back with some extreme play in the steering. After having to wiggle through some 18-wheelers on the toll road, I turned around and took it straight back to the shop. They said they had maxed out the adjustment screw and that was as good as it was going to get.

Now, disappointed and a few grand out, I find myself ordering another gearbox. The shop says this could be the fix, as the first replacement may just be defective. I’ll be taking it back to them this coming week and will update y’all.

If you have any insight or advice for these perhaps not so experienced Land Rover-specific mechanics, feel free to give me some input. I can see them probably giving up if this next job doesn’t fix the issue.

 

1. You're posting on a ten year old thread.
2. There are many discussions of steering mechanisms on this forum, including diagnosis of bad units.
3. The RAVE manual set contains step by step instructions on how to adjust and tighten the steering box. It is a simple process that you should be able to do yourself.
4. Steering play isn't necessarily the steering box. One of the new pieces that was just installed could be sloppy.

 

thanks