Life’s been busy this last week. I’ll update as soon as I can!
Improving the steering was one project I addressed this week. First, I worked through both Heim joints and the quick-steer, cleaning and lubing as much as I could. Then, thanks to Rob Stafford’s suggestion, I modified the power steering pump, first by drilling a slightly larger hole through the servo valve, then I lengthened the spring that controls the actuation rate. I felt this was the least invasive of the modification options.
Here is one of the links I relied upon: https://www.pirate4x4.com/threads/modifiying-saginaw-power-steering-pump-revive.2712489/. I would call the improvement drastic, but it does seem to have improved the steering. I figured making this change was easier and made more sense than trying to remove the quicksteer, which will be a bigger project.
I also spend some time looking at the rear axle, as I thought it had shifted. After making additional measurements, I concluded that my initial estimations were wrong. The axle hadn’t moved; when at the race, I’d mis-measured. Anyway, I was happy to make a dumb mistake, as it meant I didn’t have to address the issue.