Turning the Car How Car Steering Works

Each front wheel must follow a different circle

Turning the Car

inside follow smaller radius that tighter turn than outside wheel line perpendicular to each wheel will intersect at center point of turn 2 most common types
rack-and-pinion recirculating ball

Rear wheel drive

Front wheel drive

geometry of the steering linkage

Ackermann Geometry

Ackermann Equations
R = (B/2) + [L / tan(in)] out= arctan{ 1/ [(B/L)+(1/Tan(in))] }
R - Radius of Turn B - Distance between front and rear axle L - Distance to convergent point of steering linkages in - Angle of inside wheel turn out - Angle of outside wheel turn

Rack-and-pinion Steering
gearset enclosed in metal tube each end of rack protrude from tube tie rod connects to each end of rack tie rod connects to steering arm on spindle pinion gear attach to steering shaft When gear spins, the rack move

2 object of rack-and-pinion gearset

converts rotational motion into linear motion provides a gear reduction steering ratio
ratio of steering wheel turn to wheels turn

steering ratio
Example- 1 steering wheel revolution (360 degrees) results in 20 degrees of car wheels turning then steering ratio = 360/20 = 18:1 higher ratio = more turn steering wheel to get less wheels to turn but less effort lower ratio gives the steering a quicker response

Power Rack-and-pinion

Part of Power Rack

contains cylinder with piston in middle piston connect to rack with 2 ports of fluid Supply higher-pressure fluid to one side forces piston to move and also provide power to move rack

Recirculating-ball Steering

Power Steering

rotary-vane pump

How vane-pump work

pump is driven by the car's engine via a belt and pulley pull hydraulic fluid from return line at low pressure and force into outlet at high pressure amount of flow provided by the pump depends on engine speed

Rotary Valve
device that senses the force on the steering wheel torsion bar twists when apply torque top of the bar connect to steering wheel and bottom of bar connect to the pinion or worm gear amount of torque in torsion bar equal to torque of driver use to turn the wheel The more torque the driver uses to turn the wheels, the more the bar twists

As the bar twists, it rotates inside of spool valve relative to the outside. inner part of spool valve also connect to the steering shaft amount of rotation between inner and outer parts of spool valve depends on torque of driver applies to steering wheel