Now that I have a new cooling systen, new dizzy, new tires and a new marine grade battery, the steering starts to act silly.

The steering is hard at first, then soft, then hard again. When I drive down the road it feels fine. When I take right turns, it gets hard again, then feels like it has got play then feels metal-on-metal clonky.

Any ideas? Adding more power steering fluid doesn't help. Will my mechanic be a rich man?

 

Might be as simple as the power steering belt slipping. Have a peek!

Cheers
DD

 

Man! Thank you! There is a squealing sound when I start the engine. If it's that simple, I will pee my pants.

 

And the "clonky/free play" could be as simple as the rack bushes have collapsed, VERY common.

Not as simple as a belt, but simple enough.

 

And finally, if that lots does not cure it, it could be the column UJs (see Sidescrollin's recent post).

 

. . . And, after finally, and careful here not to sound flippant . . . how rich your mechanic becomes is more a function of how well informed you become about your Jaguar (not easy, but huge help from JaguarForums here) and how well you maintain your Jaguar.

Sounds to me like you understand that and intend to do so.
If so . . . well done and best wishes,

Ken

 

1. Whee, the drawings seem to depict a Cardan Constant velocity joint.
Very classy, far above a mere "rag" joint.


2. The squealing seems to be the strongest clue, and place to start and possibly finish the fix. I fixed a similar fault in my F150 that way.


3. OTH, my 69 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser developed a similar symptom. No rack and no PS. A simple box. Ugh, a chunk of teeth almost gone! A worm drive device. Easy to replace, sorta, including the bushings. Fixed.


Carl


Carl