'Seemingly' Un-centred Steering Rack

[hayashi]

Car - AE86

motor / part in question - Steering Rack

problem - Uneven exposed rack end/inner tie rod threads

Here's a strange one:

Inner tie rods have vastly different exposed threads, leading me to believe that the rack is uncentred
Wheels seem to hit the chassis turning right, but not left

HOWEVER...

Steering wheel has the same amount of turns left to right, so it is centred.
AE86's don't have lock stops on the control arms, so it would use the actual rack bottoming out as the 'lock stop'.

What could be causing this strange phenomenon?

[tottacrolla]

I can't help you with what is causing the problem but I can tell you that when I evened up the threads
each side on my '86 it made a massive improvement in the handling.
To get them equal I counted the exposed threads each side, added them up and then divided by two
to get the average and then set each side at this number.

[lolwat]

there will be more threads on one side due to the steering wheel not being in centre, make them even then remove your steering wheel(if you have a boss kit and aftermarket wheel) and centre it

[whips]

Don't worry about the threads been even,go full lock and check the gap from tire to chassis rail,then do the same for the other side with the opposite lock,make these 2 gaps the same (add together and divide by 2)
now your true lock is even side to side you will have to take steering wheel off and straighten it.
recheck toe and your sorted.

[hayashi]

The wheel is already in the centre, as there is equal amount of turns *of the wheel* lock to lock. It's my understanding that if I were to do any of the above, it would change the amount of turns of the wheel lock to lock, so won't that mean the rack is now off centre?

Are there any lock stop devices in the rack itself? Cause the only thing I can think of is maybe on one side the lock stop is broken, so there is more extension of the rack on one side compared to the other.

[lolwat]

what stops the rack is the rack ends, and you will run out of teeth on the rack shaft

[tottacrolla]

It has been a while since I did mine and I seem to remember the most important thing was to ensure the
track rod end inner ball joints lined up with the TCA inner pivot bolt when the steering was in the straight
ahead position, any discrepancy here will cause bump steer as the TCA and steering arms will be working
at different angles.