Ok, heres what happened. We were out on a small dirt track with some friends. I was flyin' thru there like no one business, doin' great. I decided to let a freind drive, and he was ok for a while, but then this **** happened. Escentally he lost the car, slammed the brakes, and hit the edge, which is railroad tires sticking out of the ground about 12", spaced about 7" apart. The front tire was the first to hit, and then the side of the car swung around and hit also. I'm not concerned about body damage, as it is easily buffable. Now, I, trying to keep my-self controled, could do nothing but keep my mouth shut and cool off for a while I was so pissed. I got in the car to drive, and was almost sure I would be needing a new alignment job for sure. Nope! I tried driving the car, and there seems to be a "dead spot" I guess you would say.? I'll try and explain better. Imagin the wheel is all the way cranked to the left. As you turn it right, there is resitance felt and the tires turn (I think both turn), but as I get closer to center, there is a dead spot where the steering wheel turns, but the wheels don't turn. Then as you get farther to the other side, they grip again and the wheels turn. (once again, I think they are both turning)

Ok? So whats going on? Is the rack stripped, some steering gears? Tie rod? What??? The alignment (visually) doesn't seem to be off that much.

Keep in mind, I haven't even got to check out anything on the car yet. At this moment is it 2 a.m. and I really need some help on this to figure out what I'm going to do tomarrow first thing. (I can't let my parents find out. They would be mad enough the car was wrecked, I would be livin' on my own with no car if they found out someone else wrecked it) So please guys, respond with anything that may be helpful in any way quickly!!! If I don't get it figured out, or at least find out what to do to figure out whats wrong, I will have to leave it at a shop tomarrow morning because it absolutly has to be fixed by tomarrow afternoon. Thanks guys! Save my ass!

That's why I don't let anyone drive my car up my driveway, let alone on a dirt track...

Most likely messed up the steering rack and/or tie rods.

Are you sure it wasn't already there? Whenever I do something stupid with my car I get paranoid for a little while and start to notice all these little things that have always been going on and are normal for my car that I've just tuned out... My GT has a dead spot like that when the steering is centered, but I also have almost 160,000 miles on the steering rack and tie rods. Not a good thing, but nothing to freak out about.

I'd go with Standard's evaluation. I have a dead spot in my steering rack. It was a rebuilt one from the Fiero Store. It is an 88 which is hard to find rebuilt ones and imposible to find new ones. Since I don't go on a track, I just live with it for now. Plans in the future to replace it.

Something has gotten bent.

Umm. Ya, this never had this problem before, at all. This is a HUGE dead spot, like 1/4 out to each side of center is completly dead. Its almost undrivable its so bad, so I would have definatly noticed it before if it were there. So what is the best thing to do? Just replace the rack with a reman job? Will the tie rod need to be replaced also? I have never messed with the front suspension, so I am not sure how everything works up there. Are there gears on the shaft going into the rack? Could they be stripped out? Thats kinda what it feels like, to me anyway. Because, if the steering rack was stripped, shouldn't I just be able to spin the steering wheel freely unit the wheels turned themselves far enough to one direction to catch? I don't know, I might start messin' with the car today.

Hey, do rebuilt rack and pinion assemly include tie rods and steering shaft gears? I looks like it from the picture, but not sure. I checked online at Advance Auto, and they have one for $127, so thats probally what I'll do. How long would it take to change out? Can it be done overnight? Is it a real pain in the ass to do?

[This message has been edited by Seanh (edited 06-15-2001).]

Most reman racks come with inner tie rod ends. All you need to transfer or replace with new are the outers and of course an alignment job.
Sounds like you have the problem nailed and Auto Zone can get the reman racks for you.

Iv made a discovery while driving the car this morning. The dead spot is not in the center, like I first thought. It more or less follows the wheel. So if you turn it left, when you try and steer back to the right, you have to turn the wheel about 1/4 of a complete spin before it takes and the wheels start turning. I took the tire off this morning, and found nothing out of the ordinary with the controle arm or suspension. I though I would have bent the controle arm too, (and I still make have a litte) but it doesn't look to obvious that I did. So do you guys still think a reman rack and pin assembly will cure the problem? To me, it doesn't even feel like the wheel is turning anything when I hit the dead spot, its just pretty much limp and spins in either direction with absolutly no resistance until the wheels catch. I need to know if I should order the rack because it has to be in by 5 today to get here tomarrow morning. Thanks!

I had a friend with a car like that, had about a 2in free spot on the wheel, turned out to be some adjustment on the stearing nuckle.

Interesting. This is about the same thing I have. Mines slightly larger then a 2" gap, but still about the same thing. I was thinking it might not be the rack, but then again, its only $137, mines got 122K on it, and that accident last night couldn't have helped it out any.

if it happens on every rotation of the steering wheel, at the same location, then you most likely have a tooth or two knocked off the pinion (the gear at the end of the steering wheel shaft).

if its only at one location from full left to full right on the tires pointing, then its most likely a tooth or two on the rack.

id be surprized if you can smack teeth off like that and not bend something somewhere else in the front end, so when you get done your front end might need to be aligned.

if its off you may not be able to tell simply by driving it - it might feel okay, but your tires will be pointing in different directions (slightly) and will wear out way faster than they should.

BTW how does a fiero handle in the dirt? There is a place north of Buffalo we use to go when I was 17 -18. It was dug out 12 feet down to be a landfill, but they could not use it for that for some reason, so its been sitting fallow every since (the last 30 years at least). Its about a mile long and a quarter mile wide - and we use to be able to take jeeps, VW bugs, and motorcross bikes in there and ride em around all day. We called the place, 'The Flats'.

had some of the best mispent days of my youth there. A freind of mine tried off roading a 72 cougar there and one of his front wheels fell off. Not just the wheel, the axil, brake rotor, ball joints - every thing - I think it was left dangling by the tie rod.

with the motor in the middle a fiero should be a great off road / dirt track machine - in fact I think I have seen photos of fieros set up for back road roadrallys.

BTW one of the requirements of being a parent is you MUST be a child first before you are allowed to become a father - so if you find yourself in a pinch on this, your dad might be more understanding than you expect. If my kids only do half the 'stupid things' i did when I was a teenager, i will consider them saints.

I ordered the entire rebuilt rack and pinion assembly, so it will be here tomarrow morning, and hopefully installed by tomarrow night. I'm going to remove the rack tonight and drive my Porsche to work tomarrow, and finish installing the new one tomarrow night.

My Dad knows nothing about cars, thank god! Or they would actually know the just sharp turning doesn't really total a rack and pinion assembly. I just told them the car developed steering trouble, and we hit a railroad tie on the road home because the car was pretty uncontoleable. (Ok, those 2 things actually happened in the reverse order, but who needs details?) My dad would have threw a fit about this. Now my mother on the other hand proabally would have been pretty understanding, but they wouldn't let me stay out late like that ever again.

BTW, I thought the Fiero handled pretty good on dirt. We were taking corners pretty sharp and the backend liked to slid out, but if you know how to drive and slid, theres no problem. What happened last night is he took the turn way too sharply and then straightened out to avoid hitting the ties in the middle, and couldn't turn sharp enough again to miss the outside ties and BAM. Oh well, I was getting kinda lonly not working on the car for this long time since I got it running again. Thanks for all the detailed help. I'll let ya know what happens.