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3112h steering issues


landlord2210

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I was out playing around with my cultivators in the field. I noticed the steering was reallyloose to wear the slightest bump (dirt mound or rock) would cause the wheels to crank all the way one way or the other, with little movement in the steering wheel. Once I got back to the garage it seemed to have made the steering looser than before. So after some tinkering I noticed the main front end bolt was really loose giving the extra play so I tightened it which made it the steering like new and I also tightened a little bolt on the front spindle on the carb side. I was wondering what that was for and how tight should it be? After all that I took it back out and it's a lot better but the wheels still like to kink one way or the other. It's got the stock wide front tires. I'd like to know what would work best to stop this from happening. I was thinking of getting different front tires. Or if I go crazy get a power steering system for it or maybe a steering stabilizer. Any thoughts or opinions? Anyone ever do a power steering system on a fdt?

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If you jack the front end up so both wheels are in the air, check the tie rod ends for play. If they are excessive it will allow the toe adjustments to drag one side or the other. The bushings inside the tie ends are replaceable if worn, but sometimes they are beyond specs. I cut and welded heim ends on mine to fix that but it is a little more involved to do so.

On some variations there is adjustible drag link ends as well between the axle and the pittman arm. If the axle itself is largely wobbly from the back pivot it will need a bushing modification on the crossmember that it plugs into. The vertically oriented spindle bushings are replaceable as well if the camber wobbles.

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Yah all the bushing look good and tight. No more than a 1/4" of play in the steering. It still wants to kick the wheels all the way to on side and rip the wheel out of your hands when it comes to a dirt mound while turning. I'm thinking of changing front tires to something different like a trip rib or ag.

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quote:Originally posted by landlord2210

Yah all the bushing look good and tight. No more than a 1/4" of play in the steering. It still wants to kick the wheels all the way to on side and rip the wheel out of your hands when it comes to a dirt mound while turning. I'm thinking of changing front tires to something different like a trip rib or ag.


id="quote">
id="quote">This is typical for a manual steer tractor. I've seen older farm tractor steering wheels fly to full crank when a tire came in contact with a solid object. That's why Dad taught us to operate with the thumb over (not under) the steering wheel. Grip wasn't as tight but wasn't as likely to break a thumb either.
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To answer the question about the tire alternative, you will not gain a benefit from a wider tire patch because it will add leverage away from the center line of the steering spindle.

Granted it is hard to perform, but the ideal way to solve that issue from a strictly scientific standpoint is to increase the camber of the axles in relation to the spindles to bring the wheel contact into a centered position. At that point the wheel would not have a leverage to 'yank' with. The more accesible way to deal with it would be to extend the tierod a little bit to add toe-in. This was touched on earlier in asking about the tie rod bushings, but to modify for a hair of toe-in would cause it to self-right(like a car). It wouldn't take very much, possibly as little as 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

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