Giulia GT steering box

["Mark Battley" <m.battley@domain.elided>]

<So the problem - my steering has too much play making it a
<little hairy to drive the autobahn in strong sidewind in the
<driving rain. My car has the Burman steering box as far as I
<can tell, and judging from the Brookland's manual (I don't
<have the CarDisk yet) there is no adjustment screw in the
<Burman - only on the ZF box. Is this true? 

<I know you are going to say KNUCKLES but they are all new
<and as far as I can tell there is no play there - so it must
<be in the box.

I I have mentioned here before, there is another possible cause of 
vague steering for the 105/115 cars:

It is relatively common for the big nut holding the steering arm on the
output shaft of the steering box to come loose. The arm is located by a
tapered spline. If the nut is left loose for a while the spline wears, which
can mean that
even when the nut is retightened the arm may still be loose. 

What happens is that the arm slides far enough up the arm that the nut
"bottoms out" on the end of the splines before the arm is tight on the
splines. It's easy to check: reach under the car, put a finger in such a
position that it touches the nut and the arm at the same time, and get
someone to wiggle the steering wheel. You will feel any relative movement.

Possible cures include the obvious (replacement of the arm and/or box), or
more simply and cheaply putting an appropriate washer under the nut that
clears the end of the splines, or machining a rebate in the back of the nut
(I replaced mine with a Nylock).

Mark Battley
Auckland, New Zealand.

1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce

Alfa Romeo 105 series Bertone Coupe home page and register at:
      http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1806/105GTV.HTML

------------------------------