Ever wondered how some cars respond so well to the driver it because the steering system great handling makes you feel safe and in control a proper steering system mechanism is necessary to effectively control the vehicle with safety during its entire speed range without much effort it should also be able to tackle wide variations of road surfaces bumps and bounces to the vehicle it is the basic feature of the vehicle to be steered straight and maintained at that position or turned at the driver's will without putting much efforts to do so it is also necessary that the moving vehicle is under drivers perfect control in order to avoid any accident the system allows a driver to use only light forces to steer a heavy car steering is also possible by the turning of the rear wheels which is generally used in low-speed slow floor vehicles for lifting and transporting the heavy parts like in the forklift so in this video we will explain how a car steering system works and how the simple act of turning your steering will makes the car corner and also we look into steering basics acromand steering power steering and four wheel steering later in this video the most conventional steering arrangement is to turn the front wheels using a hand operated steering wheel which is positioned in front of the driver via the steering column which may contain universal joints to allow it to deviate somewhat from a straight line other arrangements are found on different types of vehicles for example a tiller or rear while steering tracked vehicles such as bulldozers and tanks usually employ differential steering that is the tracks are made to move at different speeds or even in opposite directions using clutches and brakes to achieve a change of direction do you know steering a vehicle is pretty easy stuff it seems so simple but it's really not let's take a look at what your vehicle's moving parts are actually doing a group of parts called the steering system transmits the movement of the steering wheel down to the steering shaft to move the wheels left and right although car wheels will don't turn at same angle as you turn the steering wheel the steering shaft rotates the pinion gear the teeth of the pinion gear and the steering rack interlock as the pinion rotate this rotation will push the rack when the rack moves the attached rods and steering knuckles act as pivot points and turn the front tires for examples rotating the steering wheel to the left will push the rack to the right pivoting the front tires to the left the more you turn the steering wheel the more rack is pushed and the sharper the turn will be little confusing well don't worry you don't have to be a mechanic to steer a vehicle but we wanted you to have visual of exactly that is occurring when you make that turn of the wheel although there are many moving parts and words you have never heard of with little effort and the help of your steering system it's easy to steer your vehicle when we turn the front wheels all the vehicle wheels turn in that direction but why does the car follow a precise curve after steering instead of proceeding in a straight line to find the answer to this question we need to know the physics of the wheel for a wheel to a work effectively the velocity of the wheel at the contact point should always be zero this will make sure that there won't be any slippage between the stationary road and the wheel at the contact point but how can a moving will have zero velocity at a point on its surface this condition is possible because it has two separate types of velocities acting on it one is the rotational velocity of the wheel and the other one is a translational velocity of the wheel here you'll notice that the rotational velocity of the car is inclined but the translational velocities is straight both the velocities have different magnitude and directions due to this the velocities will not cancel each other out and this will lead to skidding the only way to avoid this skidding and achieve the zero velocity condition is to make sure the translational velocity is also inclined and equal in the direction this is only possible when the whole car turns with respect to a particular center point but there's a problem when the whole car is turning the two front wheels of the car will not be covering the same distance here all four wheels meet the perfect conditions of rolling for such a perfect turn the perpendicular lines from the front wheels should meet rear-wheel axis at a common point here you'll notice that the wheels of the car have different parts of motion in the rear wheels this is done with the help of a differential gear and in front wheels this is done with the help of a design principle called the acroman steering if you observe carefully you will note that the angles turned by the left and right wheels are not the same this is done to compensate for the different distances each of these tires travel without slipping this means that for perfect steering the left and right wheels should turn at different angles steering basics to obtain a good alignment it is necessary to understand the following factors camber caster kingpin inclination toen and toe out camber it is the angle between the vertical axis of a wheel and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or rear when the wheels are tilted outwards at the top is called positive camber and if tilted inward then it is called as negative camber an equal camber angle is provided on both the front wheels with the positive camber wheels become vertical under load on the tire will have full contact with the road and the tire wear will be uniform if the positive camber is excessive than tires outer edge will wear out faster if the negative camber is excessive the tires inner edge will wear out faster the caster angle is the angle formed by the forward or backward tilt of the steering axis from the vertical when viewed from the side of the wheel a backward tilt is known as a positive caster and a forward tilt is known as a negative caster if the caster is not equal on both sides it will cause the vehicle to pull to the side of the wheel having a lesser caster angle the main purpose of caster is to maintain directional stability and control to increase steering stability and to reduce drive effort to turn the vehicle kingpin inclination the angle between the vehicle line and center of the kingpin or steering axis when viewed from the front of the vehicle is known as kingpin inclination it must be equal on both sides it is greater on one side than the other the vehicle will tend to pull to the side having a greater angle the main functions of kingpin inclination is that it helps in self-centering of wheels after taking a turn to provide directional stability and also it reduces steering effort towing and tow out front wheels are slightly tilted inward the distance is less at the front and more at the rear when it is measured at the height of the hub level then it is called as toe in if the distance is more at the front and less at the rear then it is called toe out and now let's find out how a four bar steering and ackerman steering mechanism works the four bar steering mechanism consists of a fixed link that is connected by two short pivot links and a tie rod there are wheels on both sides of the steering when the car turns only the tie rod moves in this if you rotate the steering wheel to the right the tie rod moves to the left and if you steer the vehicle to the left then the tie rod moves to the right like an opposite direction in this mechanism the slip angle will be the same the slip angle is the angle created from the center line of the wheel if both angles are equal then the vehicle will not turn properly it's because if a car completes a full turn the vehicle must be in motion of circle when the four wheels rotate on the axis of the center point it is known as the true rolling condition the true rolling condition is the front wheels are rotated with a minimum slip to turn the car in this situation the outer wheel of the car will have to travel more than the inner wheel for this reason we have to rotate both the wheels at different angles in acromand steering the tie rod length will be reduced as compared to four bar steering as a result both the operative small link will be inclined in a way that its axis will be connected to the rear axle center when you turn the vehicle the wheels will be turn at the different slip angles when you release the steering the vehicle's straightening force helps to bring back steering to its initial position in this mechanism the wheel turns at the different slip angle the four wheel center axis will meet at the instantaneous center point at both sides which helps to turn the vehicle with the its true rolling conditions power steering system the power steering is a system that reduces the effort required of the driver to turn the steering wheel without power assist the steering of most vehicles would be extremely heavy particularly during low speed maneuvers such as pulling into a parking spot turning a 90 degree corner in the city or driving in a crowded gas station the first power steering system fitted to a production car was in the 1951 chrysler imperial and the competition quickly followed suit there are three types of power steering systems are available they are hydraulic power steering electric power or motor driven power steering and electro hydraulic power steering hydraulic power steering uses hydraulic fluid that's pressurized by a pump driven off the engine electric power steering system or eps uses electric motors that draws energy from the vehicle's electrical system to provide the steering assistance instead of hydraulic system yes you can drive without power steering that does not mean you should driving without power steering for a long time can damage your pump which be a lot more expensive to repair and also parking and quick steering become extremely difficult the electric power steering is more efficient and works to the point it improves fuel economy by a few percent as the electric motor only draws power when needed it eliminates the hydraulic fluid maintenance and it also enables a variety of features steering is a system employed by some vehicles to improve steering response and to increase vehicle stability while driving at high speed or to decrease turning radius at low speed in an active four-wheel steering system all four wheels turn at the same time when the driver steers in most cases the rear wheels are steered by a computer and actuators the rear wheels generally cannot turn as far as the front wheels at low speed the rear wheels turn opposite to the front wheels reducing the turning radius is sometimes critical for large trucks tractors vehicles with trailers and passenger cars with a large wheelbase so that's it thanks for watching if you still have any questions let me know in the comments do you know suspension is one of the most important function in your car but which type of suspension system will help your car to run smoother and more comfortable