Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)
I had been doing 55mph through many miles of twisty mountainous bends on the way to the Art Deco festival in Napier.
Arriving in Napier, I pulled up to go round a roundabout when suddenly the car started wobbling uncontrollably. As I went to steer round the roundabout, instead of my steering input taking us round the curve, the steering wheel itself moved in and out of the column! I forced the wheel back down and slowed to walking pace and managed to get to our hotel. From there the car was towed back to Auckland on a flat deck.
What had happened was the 7 tooth box bottom thrust bearing had lost all its rollers into the grease space. How they could escape from between the races is a mystery, since there were no warning symptoms of anything coming loose. But previously, every now and then on tight low speed parking maneuvers I felt a clonk, which I thought was a loose fitting key on the steering wheel and insufficient bite on the associated taper. I had fixed this, but maybe there was more to the clonks than just this.
Before the trip I had the car at an alignment garage, where everything was found perfect on the laser machine.
See photos attached. The rollers can be seen laying free in the grease along with serious wear particles.
SAJ in NZ