Replaced steering gear, now needs adjustment?

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gdizzle

gdizzle

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66 dart. Well fun time replacing the steering gear (power).
also rebuilt the little coupler.

So before, I had real sloppy steering, lots of play, wandered to the right pretty bad if I didnt hold it straight (which meant turning a little to the Left). But it was real loose and easy to steer. I could literally make a big turn wheel all the way over, then throw it back to center with a flick on the wrist.

New steering gear in, and wow now firm feel. If I can get the steering straight, it will not wander with hands off wheel. nice. The thing is there is now a bit of play, from when the steering wheel turns to when the steering gear engages. I can even feel the gear engage if I turn wheel slightly back n forth. Is there some way to tighten the amount of play in the wheel? so instead of having2 inches of play, maybe just have 1?

the feel is great. but that little bit of play has me moving steering wheel back n forth , in little baby moves to try to get it centered so it drives straight. once I get it centered it will drive hands free straight for miles.

In the box there is a little instructions that mentions 2 screws that seem to control the centerness. Then there is also the one big bolt thingy that can be adjusted. It says it is all pre-adjusted to factory specs.
 
Who did you get the steering gear from? If it's from a parts house (autozone, napa, etc) it's likely not set to be very tight. If its from a reputable rebuilder, I would leave it alone.

It can be adjusted, but it must be done carefully or you'll ruin your box in a hurry. The 'slop' must also be checked with the engine running - when the power steering pressurizes, it seems to tighten things up versus at rest with the engine off. Some amount of lash is necessary, as a zero lash setup will wear quickly or can get stuck.

If you do decide to adjust, do it in 1/8th turn increments and don't get carried away - it will never be as tight as a rack and pinion, and you'll probably find it will be tightest in the center, or will have tighter spots in some of the range of motion...
 
I got a couple of defective p.s. boxes from NAPA for one of my Mopars. I got tired of installing and removing them, so I got a refund from NAPA and bought a Red Top steering box. (As you probably know, Red Top is one of the "high-end" steering box rebuilders.) I had it installed by one of their dealers (a local alignment shop) in order to have full "part and installation" warranty coverage. My Red Top box loosened up, too. I had to take it back to the alignment shop to have it tightened up. The owner of the shop said it was normal for it to wear in and have to be re-adjusted a little bit. It has been fine since then.

When they were building their "356" models (which used a steering box), Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche would place each box on a fixture which would operate it lock-to-lock 10,000 times before finally adjusting the worm-to-sector mesh and installing it in a car! (With a rear-engine car, it is really important to have tight steering or the handling becomes very unpredictable and downright dangerous.)
 
Mine is Duralast 6546 from AutoZone btw. i had to reuse the manifold that goes onto the large diameter hose. sorta strange that that doesnt come on the rebuilt unit. but it all fit and fluid is moving.

i am gonna try to adjust the big bolt and see what happens. 1/8 in at a time.
 
Center the steering wheel and have someone turn it lightly back and forth just until it engages the gear (where you feel resistance) while they are doing that turn the center adjuster stud in until it just comes up against resistance and lock it down there.

This method works for me every time.

If that doesn't take the play out of it then there is probably something else worn or the box is garbage.
 
I am curious, with these old cars with power steering, are we supposed to expect the steering wheel to return to center on its own after a big turn, or do we always have to turn it back to center by hand?
 
gdizzle, I've replaced quite a few power steering boxes in my old Mopars with rebuilt ones purchased from AutoZone, O'Reilly and NAPA, and a lot of them were defective. I will say that I was always very satisfied with the boxes I got from CarQuest, and I wish I could still get them, but unfortunately the CarQuest store near here went out of business after AutoZone came to town (and that was a long time ago so I don't know if CarQuest's supplier is still as good as it was).

If your steering doesn't return, suspect a defective or incorrectly-adjusted spool! Very dangerous. The box is probably defective. If you call the parts supplier, I'll bet they will tell you to exchange it for liability reasons. The problem is, who pays for the labor? That's why I had a shop install mine.
 
gdizzle said:
I am curious, with these old cars with power steering, are we supposed to expect the steering wheel to return to center on its own after a big turn, or do we always have to turn it back to center by hand?
Click to expand...

The caster settings have a lot to do with that.
My car centers (or close to it) on it's own and I am running about 3 degrees of caster.
 
thanks for the ideas. I did about 1/4 turn on the screw and it seems to have firmed it up a bit. Now the coupler has some slop to it. and it sorta clicks when it finally engages the steering gear. I can hear/feel the click in the steering wheel. I cleaned and regreased that coupler and it was pretty gunked up. Now maybe too clean, and it is moving freely in there a little. I decided to reuse the little metal squares and the spring washer that was on it. the rebuild kit I had seemed to now use the spring washers, and the metal squares were notched, so I just reused mine.... hummm.... Is there supposed to be that much slop in the coupler itself? why? I would say at the coupler it is able to turn abour 1/2 in in either direction before the worm drive starts moving. translated up to the steering wheel is about 1.5in of slop, along with a click sound/feel when it gets the gear to move
 
Did you repack it with grease? Did you inspect the inside of the coupler for wear?
 
yes repacked grease, inspected, looked good. the old gunk in there had petrified.

You guys are saying there should really be no free movement inside the coupler. it should turn with the shaft going to steering wheel immediately. right?

I think somehow something got dislodged when I was reattachin the coupler to the steering shaft. it was a bear to try to get it back onto the steering gear.

hummm...not looking forward to getting it apart again. crimping that retainer onto the seal was a nightmare.
 
..........Do u have the shoes in the proper slots, cause the can fit in the wrong way and have about 2 inches of slop........kim.......
 
I keep replaying what me and my father in law did when we put those sqaure metal peices back on the pin. The metal squares had a curve to the top, I now I think we put them in 90 degrees wrong. so that is what I am hearing when I turn the wheel, click when it hits that metal square.


dammmmiiiiitttt
 
...........yes, the rounded is to the top/outside, did u have a spring clip in there to spread the shoes out......but the coupler could still be worn....kim.....
 
well thanks Kimmer. I had installed them the wrong direction. now there is no play at the coupler. it is the older style spring clips, where there is a separate spring washer for each metal shoe. I put them on the top of the shoes.

Now at least the steering is closer to normal. firmer. issue now steering wheel is a little cockeyed and wants to pull to the right. I assume that the front end is pretty shot. I know when I removed the pitman arm, the little rubber bushing in there fell out in pieces.

thanks again
 
The large bolt with the locknut does not have anything to do with steering wheel play. Nuthin. Nada. Zilch. This is a common misconception. All it is for is to adjust the vertical play in the sector shaft bearings. Period.
 
RustyRatRod said:
The large bolt with the locknut does not have anything to do with steering wheel play. Nuthin. Nada. Zilch. This is a common misconception. All it is for is to adjust the vertical play in the sector shaft bearings. Period.
Click to expand...

There's a small lock nut and hex drive which does control sector gear lash though. I've adjusted mine and shrunk my "dead zone" to almost zero.
 
Phreakish said:
There's a small lock nut and hex drive which does control sector gear lash though. I've adjusted mine and shrunk my "dead zone" to almost zero.
Click to expand...

Same one. Since it snugs against the end of the sector shaft, it does both. But it's more for bearing play, because you will run out of adjustment tightening bearing play long before you ever take all the gear lash out. Unless of course the sector gear is SLAM shot. The lash adjustment is accomplished with shims during assembly.
 
The one I'm talking about is detailed here:
http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/steeroids.html

I thought the bearing preload was set on the worm shaft, since the sector just rides in needles (or bushings). The lash, or sector preload, or endplay (depends on who wrote the instructions, it seems) is set by changing the depth of the engagement of the sector gear into the rack piston which is controlled by that set screw (which isn't really a set screw).

Even the FSM instructs how to adjust this 'adjuster' to remove end-play.

All that said, it's not a 'fix' for a worn out box. It's used to setup a box that's within normal limits. A box with good parts in it that has this adjustment incorrect will steer like dog doo, but not every parts-house box will have good parts. Not every used box will have good parts either, and if this adjustment is flubbed, it can to go hell in a hurry. But it does seem that the adjuster IS there to remove end-play SO LONG AS the parts inside the box aren't completely thrashed. The center of travel is supposed to be the tightest point in the mesh - which is why it's so important to have a good alignment along with the box being properly set - if the center is no tighter than the rest of the travel, the sector gear and rack piston are probably trashed.
 
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