Steering issue

[secondchance]

Having finally solved steering vagueness, I thought my experiences, attempts and findings may be worth sharing with fellow ZR-oners.
About 3-4 years ago, I started to notice a bit of dead spot when the steering wheel was at 12 o’clock. Also, I felt a sensation of front tires skipping when down shifting into 3rd and opening up the throttle. Another symptom, I eventually attributed to same issue creating above sensation was front tire sounding as if it was skipping when backing out of a parking spot with steering wheel turned left or right.
Initially I thought the problem was with the steering rack having racked up around 145,000 miles. I purchased a rebuilt steering rack from Corvette Central and replaced it with help from WAZOO boys. However, this did not solve the problem. Also, steering rack rebuilt by an unknown entity was a bit troubling. So, I sent OEM rack removed to TurnOne in Saginaw, Michigan. Plan was to replace questionable steering rack and go deeper into front suspension.
When the new rack showed up about a year and a half ago and front upper and lower control arms (uppers were new/rebuilt and lower was bushing and ball joint replacement) were ready, with help from WAZOO guys, disassembled front suspension including steering rack. While disassembling, turned out lower control are rear mounts had been shifting in the bracket resulting in rubber bushing pretty much ground off completely. In essence, lower control arms have been shifting around depending on the load applied upon acceleration and deceleration. This explained sensation of front tires skipping under hard acceleration – both front wheels were going into tow out condition. Front tire skipping while turning and reversing, again, was due to A arm shifting, loading and unloading as A arm shifted.
After all this work, one would expect perfect steering. Right? Wrong! I still had abou 1/8” to 1/4” dead spot most noticeable when the steering wheel is at 12 o’clock.
Last Sunday, since I have a spare, rebuilt steering shaft from Corvette Central, I went ahead and removed the steering shaft. Wouldn’t you know it? Manual twisting at both ends revealed about 1/32” to 1/16” shifting right where the rag disc was riveted to the front piece. 1/32” at the disc would translate to ¼” at the steering wheel handle.



In summary;
• When replacing front brake pads inspect lower control arm mounting to bracket and make sure they are bolted tight.
• If you sense steering dead spot, visual inspection of rag joint can be misleading. Loosen and flip open rear mounting (careful not to trigger the air bag), grab the shaft, twist and observe its movement relative to mounting at steering rack. You will know if it’s loose or not.
Finally, I have my Z steering the way I remember and no longer have to deal with constantly correcting steering input.