Slack in Steering Wheel

[joel]

car is 89 300E. lately, i noticed that whenever cornering
my car, the steering wheel is slow in turning back.
hence, i have to help it back to drive straight. what gives?
thanks for any help.

btw, steering fluid level is okay. tie rods are tight.
wheels are balanced and alignment is at specs.

joel

[Kyle Blackmore]

Hi Joel, if the alignment was done recently was it a proper thrust alignment. If the shop thought they could do it without the proper adaptor it might cause it to not return to center properly.Has the steering box been adjusted lately ? If it's too tight then that would cause this problem also,and lastly, are your tires properly inflated and the wheels the proper offset (i.e-custom wheels).Good luck.

[joel]

thanks, Kyle no work has been done prior to this
condition. will check tire pressure but tires and rims are stock.

[sbourg]

If this behavior corresponds to the weather, you might try removing the steering damper and checking it for binding. Also try a drive without it for comparison. If moisture got past worn seals, it could be shot.

If that isn't the problem, I would jack the front tires off the ground, and preferably support the car under the lower control arms. This can be a pain to do, but allows a similar geometry to driving for testing some components. In particular, check for rotational friction that comes from damage or wear to the strut or lower balljoint. This is easiest to do if you also separate the tie rod ends. With the ends disconnected, you can also check the centering friction of the steering box (engine off).

Steve

[joel]

could be the damper since the tire shop
rechecked my tire rods. thanks steve.