The Tour has worn him out !!!!

I don't know if anyone can shed any light on the problem, but after travelling about 100 miles from Westward Ho ! I started experiencing steering wheel wobble from very low sppeds and my car had a tendency to pull to one side as well. A friend of moine came round and I took him out but the problem would not replicate itself. He jacked the Mini up and we had a look, which revealed a swivel on one side not being too bright and he detected a bit of play in the steering rack. He doesn't think these issues are related to the problems, so does anyone have any bright ideas ??????


Sal

that sounds like the problem. a little play in the rack is ok ish but ideally should be almost none.
if your swivel pins are loose and worn then that is the most likely cause.
if it was wheel balancing then it would be more noticeable at higher speeds, but its worth getting those checked to be on the safe side.

forgot to add...

grease up all the grease nipples, so that grease is starting to ooze out. wipe up any excess and take it for a spin. if it helps, then its going to be swivel joints.

Thank you very much for your replies. Another school of thought is that the brakes are getting hot and one of the calipers is sticking on, hence the pulling to the right.

that would be the reson for pulling to the right.

It sounds quite feasible, doesn't it ? So it's going to happen all over again if I go on a long journey and it all gets hot. I do know someone who has got a spare caliper though. At least I was able to do the weekend with no problems, which is the most important thing.

well we left essex 4.am got there about 11a.m  did the fish and chip run.. then had to go home....dont ask! got back at 1.am next morning.... is that a record! and coming down to torquay friday for a wedding in mini again

Quoted from S6

well we left essex 4.am got there about 11a.m  did the fish and chip run.. then had to go home....dont ask! got back at 1.am next morning.... is that a record! and coming down to torquay friday for a wedding in mini again

could well be! i did do the sunday run, drove home to sussex to drop a friend off, then drove back to do the monday run, that was 2 years ago and im not that stupid to do that again

I just wish I'd stayed down at Westward Ho ! Then I could have gone straight to the Great Dorset Steam Fair from there on Friday. It looks like there are some fellow nutcases racking and stacking a very large number of miles here- sheer madness, but the best fun you can have !

The caliper is totally shot- seized, so I went to a friend's place and he's freed it off a bit and cleaned it up and greased the pads. I went to Dorset this weekend and everything was OK. I have a new caliper and a set of pads on order. The annoying thing is that this friend has an engineering background and a lathe in his shed and he has made stainless pistons for his bike calipers. He doesn't have any metal big enough to do Mini ones.