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94 Legacy SS Steering wheel not centered on rack?

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 1:50 am
by k3rb3ros
I recently replaced the steering rack on my 94 SS as a preventative measure since it has 240k on it and the engine is already out. I suspect that the steering wheel is not correctly aligned relative to the rack because the wheel turns a different number of turns from center to left vs right lock. But I was careful to match the configuration (both steering wheel and tie rods) of the old rack with the new. After bolting up the new rack and testing I learned that the steering goes 1/4 turn to the right more than to left before locking this concerns me.

When I swapped the racks I carefully marked the position of the rack relative to the steering wheel and strapped the steering wheel in place while it was centered. I then took the old rack out and matched the steering wheel position and tie rod position. Although I never verified that the old rack didn't do this same thing. When the steering wheel is centered the wheels are centered but from a centered position to left lock takes 1.5 turns and from a centered position to right lock takes 1.75 turns. My Outback only turns 1.5 times from centered to lock both ways so maybe this is a quirk of 1st Gen Legacy racks.

Is this a quirk of the steering rack on 1st gen Legacy's or is this an indication that the steering wheel is not centered on the rack?

For those of you that own a 1st Gen Legacy SS how far from center to lock does your wheel turn both ways?

How bad does the wheel need to be misaligned before I risk damaging the clock spring?

Is there any way I can verify the clock spring is not damaged?

Assuming this is an issue what is the best way to re-align the rack relative to the steering wheel.

I have linked to a video illustrating the (issue?) as its way simpler to just watch the video then try to explain this in detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnHWiby ... e=youtu.be

Re: 94 Legacy SS Steering wheel not centered on rack?

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:43 pm
by Legacy777
That's a very interesting question and I honestly don't know. I've never looked/compared things on my Legacy, I'll have to do that.

Re: 94 Legacy SS Steering wheel not centered on rack?

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:31 am
by k3rb3ros
Does anyone know?