The steering column system on my toy car is , frankly, horrible but it has worked OK for several hundreds of miles now. The actual steering column shaft ( an OEM Ford unit to meet regulations) points roughly at the pinion on the rack housing but a chassis part is in the way! So the linkage has three UJ's and two shafts. One is in free space , the other is held centrally by a uniball joint.
Rough sketch here
![Posted Image](https://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4986/img024ul.th.jpg)
It has worked OK, heavy but to be expected with 550kg on 265 section tyres and a dinky stering wheel. Then I had the rack refurbished and when I re-installed it I was "clever" and reduced the UJ angle at the rack end ( UJ3 in the pic). Result - almost impossible to steer and very "lumpy " wheel feel.
Why? - I think because when I reduced UJ3 angle I increased the UJ 2 angle and as this has the biggest angle it has dramaticaly increased the steering wheel load variation.
So I think the right thing to do is to INCREASE the angle of UJ3 next to the rack as much as space will allow so as to reduce the biggest angle in the linkage , UJ 2, as much as possible.
The angles are changed simply by rotating the rack housing around its lateral axis - i.e twist it clockwise in the sketch.
Any commants ( apart from how bad it is - I know that!)