steering binding in one direction?

[magnumdust]

Ran into a problem with a car about a week ago. The steering will bind while turning the wheel clockwise. It will stick pretty hard and i'll have to jerk the wheel to make it continue in that direction. It only binds in that direction.

I thought it might be my crappy hedman headers binding, but when i duplicated the problem in my driveway, i found that nothing in the linkage was binding.

Is my power steering box going out, power steering pump?

 

[6pk2goDemon]

Is there grease in the the upper and lower ball joints ?

 

[kennygene]

Did you check for binding with the weight on the wheels? It sounds like its binding on the headers to me. Look closely at the headers and see if the idler arm or pitman arm have been rubbing. Mine had the same problem with cheap headers.

 

[magnumdust]

Did you check for binding with the weight on the wheels? It sounds like its binding on the headers to me. Look closely at the headers and see if the idler arm or pitman arm have been rubbing. Mine had the same problem with cheap headers.

Yeah i checked with weight on the wheels. There is no header binding. I replicated the problem, then had my dad hold the wheel so the steer was in that binding position and then i looked under the car to see where I thought it would be binding.


And yes theyre is grease in the balljoints, the front end is rebuilt minus my swaybar bushing/bumpstops.

 

[berlins]

I had that once on a 65 dart and it was the idler arm, bushing was shot and it moved up
and down when driving. My 67 kinda does that now and it is the idler arm bolt(top side) nut and carter pin running on the exhaust manifold a little.

 

[6pk2goDemon]

Drop the pitman arm down off the steering box. Start the car, turn the wheels and see if it's still binding.

 

[green1]

Usually idler. Double check with front end down.

 

[wjajr]

Check steering box bolts for tightness to frame, and or cracked K member at attachment points.

 

[cudamark]

Drop the pitman arm down off the steering box. Start the car, turn the wheels and see if it's still binding.

Yup, that's a good test. You might want to start with this one though......jack the front up so the wheels are off the ground. Start the engine and see if the wheel wants to turn to one side by itself. If it does, the control valve might be bad or out of adjustment. If the wheel stays straight, pull the pitman arm like 6pk2goDemon said and see if the box still binds. If it does, the box is bad....if it doesn't, there is something in the linkage binding (very rare). Disconnect one piece at a time until you find the problem part. The pump won't cause those symptoms....it just creates a flow of fluid....it doesn't decide which direction the fluid flows.