Steering System

Function of Steering System

Control of front wheel (sometimes rear wheel) direction. Transmit road feel (slight steering wheel pull caused by the road surface) to the drivers hand.
Maintain correct amount of effort needed to turn the wheels. Absorb most of the shock going to the steering wheel as the tire hits holes and bumps in the road. Allow for suspension action.

Steering System
Turning the Car (when turning, front wheels dont point the same direction)

Inside wheel turns at a smaller radius, hence the inside wheel turns at a steeper angle then the outside wheel.

Steering behavior The requirements in terms of steering behavior can be summarized as follows: 1. Jolts from irregularities in the road surface must be damped as much as possible during transmission to the steering wheel. However, such damping must not cause the driver to lose contact with the road. 2. The basic design of the steering kinematics must satisfy the Ackermann conditions: the extensions of the wheel axes of the left and right front wheels, when at an angle, intersect on an extension of the rear axle.

3. When the steering wheel is released, the wheels must return automatically to the straight-ahead position and must remain stable in this position. 4. The steering should have as Iow ratio as possible (number of steering-wheel turns from lock to lock) in order to obtain ease of handling. The steering forces involved are determined not only by the steering ratio but also by the front suspension load, the turning circle, the suspension geometry (caster angle, kingpin angle, kingpin offset), the properties of the tire tread and the road surface. The steering ratio is the ratio of how far you turn the steering wheel to how far the wheels turn. For instance, if one complete revolution (360 degrees) of the steering wheel results in the wheels of the car turning 20 degrees, then the steering ratio is 360 divided by 20, or 18:1. A higher ratio means that you have to turn the steering wheel more to get the wheels to turn a given distance. However, less effort is required because of the higher gear ratio.

Rack-and-pinion Steering
Basically, as the name implies, the rack-and-pinion steering consists of a rack and a pinion, The steering ratio is defined by the ratio of pinion revolutions (steering-wheel revolutions) to rack travel. Suitable toothing of the rack allows the ratio to be made variable over the travel. This lowers the actuating force or reduces the travel for steering corrections. Rack-and-pinion steering is quickly becoming the most common type of steering on cars, small trucks. It is actually a pretty simple mechanism. A rack-and-pinion gearset is enclosed in a metal tube, with each end of the rack protruding from the tube. A rod, called a tie rod, connects to each end of the rack. The pinion gear is attached to the steering shaft. When you turn the steering wheel, the gear spins, moving the rack.

 The rack-and-pinion gearset does two things: It converts the rotational motion of the steering wheel into the linear motion needed to turn the wheels. It provides a gear reduction, making it easier to turn the wheels. On most cars, it takes three to four complete revolutions of the steering wheel to make the wheels turn from lock to lock (from far left to far right). The primary components of the rack and pinion steering system are: Rubber bellows Pinion Rack Inner ball joint or socket Tie-rod

Recirculating-ball steering
The forces generated between steering worm and steering nut are transmitted via a low-friction recirculating row of balls. The steering nut acts on the steering shaft via gear teeth. A variable ratio is possible with this steering box,

 Instead of the bolt directly engaging the threads in the block, all of the threads are filled with ball bearings that recirculate through the gear as it turns. The balls actually serve two purposes: First, they reduce friction and wear in the gear; second, they reduce slop in the gear. Slop would be felt when you change the direction of the steering wheel -- without the balls in the steering gear, the teeth would come out of contact with each other for a moment, making the steering wheel feel loose. Power steering in a recirculating-ball system works similarly to a rack-andpinion system. Assist is provided by supplying higher-pressure fluid to one side of the block.

Power Steering
Power steering helps drivers steer vehicles by increasing steering effort of the steering wheel. Hydraulic or electric actuators add controlled energy to the steering mechanism, so the driver needs to provide only slight effort regardless of conditions. Power steering helps considerably when a vehicle is stopped or moving slowly. As well, power steering provides some feedback of forces acting on the front wheels to give an ongoing sense of how the wheels are interacting with the road; this is typically called "rad feel"

Power Rack-and-pinion
When the rack-and-pinion is in a power-steering system, the rack has a slightly different design. Part of the rack contains a cylinder with a piston in the middle. The piston is connected to the rack. There are two fluid ports, one on either side of the piston. Supplying higher-pressure fluid to one side of the piston forces the piston to move, which in turn moves the rack, providing the power assist.