Sloppy Steering...

[ralley]

Originally Posted by Howard Lefkowitz

Before you purchase new parts, shocks, stabilizers etc. you should have the king pins checked. The grease fitting's are almost impossible to get too without jacking up the chassis with the wheels on the ground. That is what my problem was. Get a front end alignment and have them check the king pins first. A good shop will always check for worn parts before doing an alignment. If you are in the Greater Washington DC area I know a great place. After you are aligned and worn parts have been replaced, including shocks, you should have no more problems with the steering.

HL: Where is the great place? PM me if you like. I don't need an alignment now--but I will.

R

[Pat370]

The 310 MO does not have Kingpins. The only Airstreams with Kingpins are the 370's with the heavy duty Gillig bus chasis. Sometimes loose steering can be corected by taking up the play in sector box worm gear. this can be done by tighting up the allen set screw on the side of the steering box. Very easy to do.


Good luck I hope this helps,

Pat 370

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Pat370

The 310 MO does not have Kingpins. The only Airstreams with Kingpins are the 370's with the heavy duty Gillig bus chasis. Sometimes loose steering can be corected by taking up the play in sector box worm gear. this can be done by tighting up the allen set screw on the side of the steering box. Very easy to do.


Good luck I hope this helps,

Pat 370

Hi, Pat is correct on this; The worm and sector gears get excessive play in them and the sector gear is adjustable. But don't overtighten the sector, just take some of the slack out of it and make sure the steering wheel is straight and centered position. The gear box has a high spot on center and must be on that spot when adjusting.

Bob

[Howard Lefkowitz]

The 345 Motorhomes have kingpins. An excellent alignment shop in the Washington DC area is:

R & S Spring Works Inc.
5001 Windom Rd.
Bladensburg, MD 20710
301-864-5805

They also do springs, air bags, universal joints, drive shafts etc. Very reasonable prices.

[Pat370]

Howard, if you look at the photos of the subject MO on post # 5 you will see that the Chevrolet chasis has a Independent A frame front suspension with ball joints and not kingpins. Only those MO's with a front I beam axel have kingpins.

Thanks for your reply,

Pat370

[Beginner]

When ever I adjusted the slop out of the steering box, I always had the wheels off the ground. The reason for that was to to rotate the steering wheel from lock to lock (left most extremity to right most extremity) to make sure that the box was still free. The wear that you are adjusting out is in one spot and when the wheel is turned to another position you are into areas of little wear, thus the box could bind up.
Just something else to consider.
Beginner

[jking]

Another comment on the Steer Safe - we have haad them installed on both of our AS Mohos - and have survived a front wheel blowout at 60mph on the interstate and two ball joint failures (three separate incidents) because the steer safe things kept the wheels straight and under control. I highly recommend them to everyone who drives a classic AS Moho.
84 310 diesel - Jamie