How I solved the problem of my P38 pulling to the left (tracking)

I've owned three p38's and they have all pulled to the left, my current one was the worst with it wearing the front tyres quite badly.

I took it to a garage for a hunter 4 wheel alignment and the mechanic says all the bushes and bearings are worn and its “beyond repair unless I get all the suspension fixed first”

I got him to show me the worn parts on the ramp. Whilst there was a tiny amount of play, I didn't believe that it would cause such a pull (Given my Dakar is running 35" mud tyres and has more wear - yet still drives straight)

First of all, I purchased a laser tracking gauge - as I thought all this was going to take a lot of time to solve, I didn’t realise how easy the fix was actually going to be.

I did a little reading up and came across people talking about ensuring the steering box is centralised - I checked mine and sure enough it was out quite a bit - recentralising it fixed the problem and the car now drives straight as an arrow - here’s how I did it:

I started by disconnecting the input shaft and then sat in the car and centred the steering wheel, using the ignition lock to keep it in place (or get someone to help)

Then I centred the steering box by rotating the input shaft until the marker on the side of the input shaft aligns with the arrow on the steering box.

Next I reconnected the steering shaft to the input shaft to the box and tightened the UJ.

I then visually checked the alignment of the nearside (UK) wheel to make sure it looked vaguely correct., followed by the offside(UK) wheel - adjust this with the rear draglink only.

Now check your tyre pressures are equal.

After the rough eyeball setup, I fitted my tracking gauges to set the tracking and set it to “0” , i.e. no tow in or tow out.

Next (with the clamps for all the adjusters still loose) I went out for a drive. Holding the steering straight ahead, the car still drifted slightly to the left. So I stopped and adjusted just the front drag link from the box to the nearside wheel. I repeated this a few times  until it drove straight when the wheel was straight. Remember to only adjust the front draglink, the rear draglink only changes the tracking (which we know is correct)

So essentially you are aligning the wheels to the central position of the box(and therefore steering wheel). Once I was happy with it, I locked the front adjuster.

Then I came back to the tracking - I think the official figure is a very slight tow out, But it seemed to drive the nicest when the wheels were set pretty much at zero - try a turn or so either side of straight of zero and see what it drives like.

The mechanics in the garages using these digital systems don't seem to appreciate that the tracking is only adjusted on the rear draglink and piss around adjusting both and get totally lost.

If you have a tame or patient garage, then you can avoid buying a tracking gauge.  The key thing is to get the box aligned, then set the tracking. Then drive the car and fine tune the front draglink to the steering box to ensure it drives straight.

Then finish up by double checking the tracking and fine tuning that by driving it.  

I can honestly say this is now the best driving P38 I’ve ever owned.

P38 steering box (UK offside). There’s an alignment mark on the input shaft that aligns to the box.

Track-rite laser tracking tool from Motorsport tools:

http://www.motorsport-tools.com/laser-wheel-alignment-tracking-gauge-car-toe-in-out-gauges-trak-rite.html