STEERING SYSTEM

FUNCTIONS STEERING SYSTEM

1. Turn vehicle at the will of the driver.
2. Control wear and tear of tyres.
3. Convert rotary motion of steering wheel into angular displacement of front wheels.
4. Multiply driver’s effort for easy operation.
5. Provide directional stability and rolling action of the wheels on the road surface.
6. Achieve self-lightening effect.
7. Absorb road shocks and to prevent them from reaching the driver.
Requirements of steering system
1. Front wheels should roll without lateral skid while negotiating curves.
2. There should be proper proportion between the angles turned by the front wheels.
3. Tires must have good elasticity so that on turns, these may follow an arc of greater radius than the stiff tires.
4. Wheels must automatically come to straight ahead position after negating a bend. When going straight,
wheels must maintain the neutral position.
5. Angular oscillations of wheels must be minimum.
6. System must be irreversible to a certain degree so that minimum front wheel shocks are transmitted to the
driver’s hands.
Steering layout
 Steering Wheel – used by the driver to rotate a steering shaft that passes through the steering column.
 Steering Shaft – transfers turning motion from the steering wheel to the steering gearbox.
 Steering Column – supports the steering column and steering shaft.
 Steering Gearbox) – changes turning motion into a straight-line motion to the left or right.
 Steering gear box ratios range from 15:1 to 24:1 (with 15:1, the worm gear turns 15 times to turn the
selector shaft once).
 Steering linkage – connects the steering gearbox to the steering knuckles and wheels.

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 Ackerman principle
When driving straight ahead, the steering wheels need to be parallel to each other. However, when going around a
corner, the inside wheel must turn through a smaller circle. Therefore, in order to make it around the smaller circle
without scrubbing, it needs to turn through a tighter angle than the outside wheel.
The arrangement that allows this to happen is known as the Ackermann Angle. If you draw an imaginary line
through the king pin and the track control rod end on each side of the vehicle, these two lines will usually intersect
at a point just in front of the rear axle. The angle they make with each other is known as the Ackermann angle.
The purpose of the angle is to allow the front wheels to turn through different angles when cornering. This is
because the inside wheel always needs to turn through a bigger angle in order to get around the corner without
scrubbing.

Toe in/Toe out

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• Negative toe, or toe out, is the front of the wheel pointing away from the centerline of the vehicle. Positive
toe, or toe in, is the front of the wheel pointing towards the centerline of the vehicle.
• Toe in increases straight line stability at cost of turning response.
• The greater the toe the faster the tire wears.

Toe-out on Turns(Turning radius)

• It’s the amount the out wheels toe-out when turning.
• This arrangement is referred to as 'toe out on turns' because, normally, when driving straight ahead, the
wheels are parallel. When you turn one way or the other, the inside wheel on the turn needs to turn through
a greater angle, so the wheels are no longer parallel to each other, they are now 'toe out'. This 'toe out' only
happens when turning, hence the term 'toe out on turns'.
Kingpin inclination

• Kingpin refers to the pin that couples the steering stub axle to the beam axle. Once inserted, the stub axle is
free to pivot around its center. If we put a steering arm on to the stub axle, we can control the direction of
travel of the vehicle.
• The kingpin inclination is the angle, measured in degrees, that forms the line passing through the kingpin and
the perpendicular to the ground, looking at the vehicle from the front,
• Helps in steering return ability after a turn is completed reduces steering effort .
• Reduces tire wear.

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Castor angle
• A castor effect on a wheel is when that wheel tends to line itself up naturally in the straight ahead position,
in line with the force that is pushing it. To move it away from the straight ahead position, some force must
be applied, and as soon as that force is removed, the wheel moves back to the straight ahead position.
• You experience the castor effect every time you steer around a corner, and the steering wheel tends to self-
centre once you release the force you applied to get around the corner. The angle that has this effect on the
steering road wheels is called the castor angle.
• When viewed from the side, the king pin is tilted away from the vertical. This is to ensure that the point of
pivot of the wheel, and the point of contact with the road are not the same. In other words, the wheel now
has a castor or self centering effect. When drawing a castor angle, always make sure to show the direction of
travel of the wheel.
• Excessive caster makes steering heavier, less responsive and increased effort.
• Caster is positive if the line is angled forward, and negative if backward.

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• The camber angle and king pin inclination (KPI) combine to give us one of the following:
a. Centre point steering
b. Positive offset steering
c. Negative offset steering.
• The camber angle of a wheel is the tilting away from the vertical, when viewed from the front. This tilt can be
inwards or outwards, positive or negative.
• If the wheel tilts out at the top, it is positive camber, and if it tilts in at the top, it is negative camber.

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Types of stub axles

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 Steering boxes
• To make steering of vehicle easy we require a gear reduction arrangement, for this purpose steering gearbox
came in use.
1. Worm and worm wheel steering gear

• There are square threads or worms on the steering rod end which engages in a worm wheel
• Worm wheel is connected to a drop arm .
• When driver rotates the steering wheel ,drop arm moves forward or backward resulting in motion of stub
axle.
• The arc movement of the drop arm is usually from 60 to 90 deg.
• This system is commonly used in tractors .

2. WORM AND NUT STEERING GEAR

 Steering rod end have worm.

 worm is connected with a nut arrangement
 When worm rotates, the nut is able to move
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 Movement is along the axis of column either up or down
 This move cross shaft in arc which also move drop arm
 This is used in steering all wheels

3. RECIRCULATING BALL TYPE STEERING GEAR

It consists of a worm at the end of steering rod.

A nut is mounted on the worm with two sets of balls in the groves of the worm , ball reduces the friction
between nut and worm .
The teeth of nut is meshed with teeth of worm wheel sector to which drop arm is mounted .
By turning steering wheel , the balls in worm roll in the grooves and cause nut to move along the length of
worm, balls recirculates through the guide.
Movement of nut causes the wheel sector to turn and actuate the link rod through the drop arm resulting in
desired steering of wheels .
Teeth on the nut are tapered to minimize the wear.
When the driver turns the steering wheel, the two steel ball races will roll in the grooves and make the nut to
travel along the length of the worm.
The motion from the nut is transmitted to the wheel
sector.
Advantage
•These balls reduce the friction and increase the efficiency of
the mechanism to 90%.
4. Worm and Roller Gear
 Worm and roller gear have two-toothed roller which are fastened to the cross shaft called as
roller shaft or sector shaft.
 The threads of the worm gear are meshed with roller shaft at the end of the steering tube.
 When the worm shaft is turned by the steering tube, the roller will also be moved in an arc for
rotating the roller shaft.
 The bearings are designed to resist both radial and end thrust.
 This system is used in Ford cars and American passenger cars.

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 5. Worm and Sector Type

• Worm and sector are based on the principle of transmitting the motion from the steering tube to the Pitman
arm.
• The worm is attached with the inner column of the bearing block.
• The box is connected to the level of the plug with normal gear oil for lubrication of the steering gear.
• The worm at the end of the steering shaft meshes with a sector mounted on a sector shaft.
• When the steering wheel is rotates, then the worm will rotates.
• Then the sector will also be rotating the section shaft.
• So, the motion is transmitted to the wheel through the linkage.

7. Worm and Peg Type

 The steering gear has a tapered peg in the rocker arm engaged with a special cam provided on the inner
column.

 The peg is moved along the groove for rotating the rocker shaft by rotating the cam.

 An adjusting screw on the side cover is connected for governing the backlash and end float of the rocker
shaft.

 The rocker arm is rotated with high efficiency cam and peg gear rotates by a peg in the bearings
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8. Rack and Pinion

• This type of steering gear is mainly used in cars having independent front suspension.
• The pinion is mounted at the end of the steering shaft.
• A universal joint is connected at the bottom end of the steering shaft to mount the steering box centrally.
• A rack is engaged with the pinion. The rack reciprocates sideways to give lateral movement to the front
wheels.
• Spring pads connected with the rack reduce the backlash between gears to a minimum.
• The driver effort is transmitted to the front wheel through the
• steering wheel, to steering shaft and finally to the steering knuckle.
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• The rack having ball joints at each end for allowing the rise and fall of the wheel is engaged with the pinion
mounted at the end of the steering shaft.
• A rack is engaged with the pinion. The rack reciprocates sideways to give lateral movement to the front
wheels.
• The backlash in rack is reduced to a minimum due to spring pads are placed below the rack.
Advantages
a. The rack and pinion steering provides sufficiently a low gear reduction.
b. It is also made suitable for heavier motor vehicles by power assisting.

Understeer and Oversteer

• Understeer describes a situation where you are steering around a bend, and during that manoeuvre you
have increase your steering effort to safely negotiate the bend. In other words, the vehicle is not steering
enough (understeer) and you have to increase your steering effort during the manoeuvre.
• Oversteer describes a situation where you are steering around a bend, and during that manoeuvre you have
to decrease your steering effort to safely negotiate the bend. In other words, the vehicle is steering too
sharply into the bend (oversteer), and you have to decrease your steering effort during the manoeuvre.
• Understeer is where you might describe 'going wide' around a bend. This is relatively easy to correct by
slowing down and putting on more lock on the steering.
• Oversteer is where you might describe the back of the vehicle as 'stepping out'. The back end of the vehicle
tends to swing out, and the vehicle may even spin. Of the two, oversteer is much harder to correct. As we
have seen, understeer can be corrected by slowing down and turning more. However, oversteer requires
great skill to correct. Slowing down or braking can cause loss of control of the vehicle. If the vehicle is
oversteering to the left, the driver can correct this by applying some power and steering to the right.
• Note: These corrections take great skill to apply, and the best way to avoid oversteer is to keep your tyre
pressures correctly set, and to drive slowly and carefully.

Power steering
• With increased loads exerted on steered wheels, together with steering geometry design the wider section
tyres to provide better road holding, a large effort is required at steering wheel to turn the steered wheels.
• To overcome this problem of heavy steering and also provide reasonable steering ratio response, vehicles
are fitted with power assisted steering system.
Functional requirements of power steering
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a. Reduce drivers effort.
b. Provide speed sensitive feel.
c. Fail safe(should revert to manual in case of power failure).
d. Should not adversely affect engine power.
• Advantages of power steering
a. Reduces number of turns from lock to lock.
b. Reduces drivers effort(fatigue).
c. Speed sensitive.
d. Incase of tyre burst its safer.
e. Reduction of wheel wobble.
Advantages
1) Expensive and heavy.
2) Complicated in terms of repair.
3) Reduces engine power.

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 Four wheel steering

Advantages
a. Improved manouevrability when parking or turning tight corners
b. Improved vehicle stability when changing direction in traffic
c. Improved high-speed straight-line stability
d. Smaller turning circle radius.

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