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Originally Posted by SailinAway
So that 2" of movement transfers the weight of the vehicle to what, exactly?
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The parking pawl in your transmission. A little bit of metal designed for that function.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SailinAway
And why is the problem of the locked steering wheel worse when the wheels are turned hard to one side?
Also, what is exactly this "pin" that can break if you turn the steering wheel too hard? I had to put a frightening amount of pressure on the steering wheel to unlock the ignition.
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It's an anti-theft device intended to keep the steering wheel locked if the car is "hotwired" and started by some method other than turning the key switch. In the grand scheme of things, it's a weak mechanism. I've had to (legally) hotwire a car before when a friend lost their keys. A little bit of force ont he steering wheel breaks the pins, then a few back-and-forth turns of the wheel freed up any remaining bits of the interlock and the wheel moved freely.
The force is worse when your wheels are turned because the pin drops into position once the ignition is turned off. If that pin drops and then there is force on the steering wheel from the car coasting a bit you cause it to bind up. When the wheels are straight if the car moves that movement is not also trying to turn the steering wheel, so there is no binding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SailinAway
One thing that may have helped (not sure) is that I started the car remotely to see what would happen. That seemed to make a tiny improvement that worked, no idea why.
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Your power steering pump was being driven by the engine, giving you assistive force in turning the wheel.