How about some 4-cyl car steering questions?

[22touring]

Years ago, a mechanic installed caster wedges under the front axle of my '22 touring because he thought it would give the car more straight-ahead steering stability.  Does anybody have any strong opinions concerning these, yay or nay?

 

I was thinking of removing the spring shackles in order to lift the springs up off the axle so I can clean and paint the axle.  But what locates the axle fore-and-aft on the spring, anyway? Do I have to mark the axle's position on the springs carefully in order to avoid putting it back together crooked?

 

I think the lost motion in my steering is probably due to a worn sector gear.  Can anybody explain how you can turn the sector 180 degrees in order to put some unworn sector teeth into the "straight ahead" position?  I've heard of many people doing this, and I tried doing it once, but I couldn't figure out how to do it and had to button the steering box back up the way it was! Is there a trick to doing the job?

Edited September 10, 2016 by 22touring (see edit history)

[keiser31]

My 1931 DB has the shims/wedges and should stay in order to eliminate "death wobble" I had a HECK of a time with that problem because someone had installed two broken wedges on each spring. My front end alignment guy took the broken wedges out and left in the good ones (one on each side) and all is perfect with my ride/steering. I believe most of these have a locating pin for the springs.

Edited September 10, 2016 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

Ask the www about castor = fore-aft tilt of the king pin. The wedges are to set it. Camber is the tilt of the king pin in the plane of the axle.

[MikeC5]

This thread should help with rotating sector gear.  You need to mark it at its current location (a punch mark) and then re-install such that the drag link is in the same position (or close) with wheels straight ahead.  As mentioned above, the wedge shims are the method to adjust caster (tilt of king pins).  Not enough caster will result in steering that doesn't want to stay centered so it is an important adjustment.