the power assist in one direction or the other on a mopar steering box is dictated by the Valve Assembly manifold position on the steering box, the bit that the pipes go into.
under it, there is a tiny direction lever/ jiggle pin, which dictates how much assist is diverted to left and right.
you need to balance the position of the valve assembly so that you get 50% for Right and 50% for left.
this can only be done with the box on the car and pressurised by the pump, which may well be slightly different pressure from any other pump, which may impact where the best position for the valve/manifold is. the position setting is unique to the situation.
This is part of the work to fit a new power steering box to the car
if it came with a valve/manifold fitted, good chance it won't be in the right place
if it didn't' and you just put yours on, there is a good chance it won't be in the right place
of course there is also a chance that it is and really you have a faulty steering box, but gotta tick all boxes and check everything
with the wheels off the ground and the engine running and you hands and feet and animals and children well away from the steering wheel or road wheels
undo the bolt for the valve/manifold part slightly and tap it 1 1/6 of an inch one way or the other,
this will cause more powerful assist one way and less powerful assist the other
knock it too far and the box will auto steer violently left or right and you would to have to physically fight it to go the other way. this is why nobody should be near the moving parts.
you are looking to position it so that with the engine running the steering stays centred.
Once done and only if you are not in DRIVE, give it a rev, if the increased pressure seen at the steering box due to higher engine and pump RPM makes the wheel move, you still have some fine tuning to do.
if when at idle and with some revs-on, the steerings stays dead centre
time to take it for a test run....
do up the valve/manifold bolt to spec. drop the car, drive it, and see how it is
A new or newly rebuilt box will be stiff enough in the middle to make it really quite awkward to turn if you grab the input shaft and try to turn it with your hand with the steering gear fresh out of the box.
when I build a manual box i use a socket and small ratchet, to run it full its full range of motion because its such a pain in the *** to get through the middle stiff bit by hand.
Mopars have no steering damper, they depend on the "twisted rubber bush" reaction of the steering idler (always installed with wheels dead ahead) and the stiff bit in the middle of the steering box.
An incorrectly installed new idler can make it very hard to steer one way.
The stiff bit in the middle of the box stops sector tooth and ballnut tooth chatter, caused by road vibration and feedback, eating their complimentary parts away, when driving dead ahead on the freeway. a loose box wears itself out quicker than one set to specification due to vibration induced erosion of the sector and ballnut teeth.
They use the same/very similar sector/ballnut mesh, set-up specification, in both manual and power boxes you set em up "stiff in the middle" the same way.
if you have been adjusting the sector mesh via the threaded bolt and lock nut on the top cover you could have lost the adjustment set at the point of rebuild.
you would normally add a fraction of a turn in.. after about 20K miles
do not undo or try to adjust the worm screw preload by messing with the headset of the box around the input shaft.
This bearing preload for the worm is set with the box dry, with nothing else inside but the worm screw and ballnut/piston.
i.e before the sector shaft is installed.
Dave
