Steering Box Alignment

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71Twister440

71Twister440

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Happy New Year all,
I am currently in the midst of a few upgrades and repairs on my 71 duster 440 car. I have the motor out and figured it was a good time to replace the steering box with a short ratio, figured since its just a weekend car with decent power I can get away with 16:1 ratio cause I wanna be able to drive the balls of the thing and get it back to center. quickly, As it is right now I look like a 16 year old when I get the car squirrly cause you gotta chase the wheel back and forth so many times. Anywho, I have the old box out , I am going with a Universal joint and a 16:1 box form PST(unless someone comes up with a better idea)... my two questions are:
1. With the u joint should I weld it to the steering column or should I drill and roll pin it in two locations?

2. Alignment with the new box. Any tricks or tips on getting everything aligned on the column and pitman arm? Cause once the motor and headers are back in the car , as we all no there is no room for hands to gt in and remove/get everything realigned easily.

As always thanks in advance for any advice and help, hope you all had a great holiday!
 
I went with a double d on my end. I ground down the shaft by hand to get the right dimension and then drilled a couple of small countersinks where the set screws go. Rod

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I just gotta this as gently as I can: if the car is squirrely, I wouldn't necessarily blame it on the steering ratio.
Have you thought about what makes the car get sideways and when? Calm the chassis... calm the steering input.
 
AJ/FormS said:
I just gotta this as gently as I can: if the car is squirrely, I wouldn't necessarily blame it on the steering ratio.
Have you thought about what makes the car get sideways and when? Calm the chassis... calm the steering input.
Click to expand...
Heavy foot!!! Lol I guess I lobbed that softball up for someone to hit, squirrly was maybe the wrong choice of words, its when its sideways (by choice) just to many turns to bring it back straight as smoothly and quickly as id like. Im not saying its 100% the ratio, but regardless getting rid of the factory ratio is a good start and im confident its a large part of it. Car drives straight, handles amazing, just want a more responsive steering input.
 
Mine gets sideways by choice too, but not squirelly; I control it with pedal inputs, and use very little steering at all. Unless when showing off; then I might throw some steering into the mix.
One time tho, on a full lock drift, I came around the farside, and BAM!, there were the coppers. I stopped the car, shut it off, hung my head in shame, and tried to get rid of the smile that was sorta glued to my face; I was having so much fun, and my passenger was laughing uncontrollably.
Well the cops stroll over, one on each side of the car, and the one on my side, smiling says " you know you can't do that here,right?" after a short pause, still smiling, he says "but you sure do it well." After another pause, he says, "you know I'm gonna have to write you up, right". About this time the dust had settled, and I got the smiling under control, and responded with some lame words, like "where then?" "Just take out of town", was the answer I got.
That cost me $359 smackers. I was a lil,more careful after that,lol.
 
In general... the shaft at the box has a master spline. If you work the box counting rotations stop to stop, come back to center of count and master spline should be seen on the top. Column shaft should also have a master spline at steering wheel end that goes to top.
Pitman arm goes where it will with center link centered. If wheels aren't close to centered maybe the tie rod adjustments are skewed.
 
I think I mis-understood.
Yes, I agree, the 16:1 powersteering ratio is better than the 24:1 manual box. And the icing on my car, is a 13", thick-foam, steering wheel. Steering is a one handed deal, while I anchor myself in the RX-7 bucket, and hang on to the short shifter stick with the other. My box has had the reaction spring count massaged, so it has a lot of the over-boost eliminated.
So yes, your new PST 16:1 box will be miles ahead of the manual box.

The only caveat is figure eights. My re-built Federal pump (the round filler-tube model) could not keep up, even with an oil-cooler and a smaller drive pulley. So I ditched it for an old (oval-tube) Saginaw I had kicking around,and problem solved.
 
AJ/FormS said:
I think I mis-understood.
Yes, I agree, the 16:1 powersteering ratio is better than the 24:1 manual box. And the icing on my car, is a 13", thick-foam, steering wheel. Steering is a one handed deal, while I anchor myself in the RX-7 bucket, and hang on to the short shifter stick with the other. My box has had the reaction spring count massaged, so it has a lot of the over-boost eliminated.
So yes, your new PST 16:1 box will be miles ahead of the manual box.

The only caveat is figure eights. My re-built Federal pump (the round filler-tube model) could not keep up, even with an oil-cooler and a smaller drive pulley. So I ditched it for an old (oval-tube) Saginaw I had kicking around,and problem solved.
Click to expand...


I have factory 24:1 manual steering am going 16:1 manual....better get my *** back in the gym it seems
 
RedFish said:
In general... the shaft at the box has a master spline. If you work the box counting rotations stop to stop, come back to center of count and master spline should be seen on the top. Column shaft should also have a master spline at steering wheel end that goes to top.
Pitman arm goes where it will with center link centered. If wheels aren't close to centered maybe the tie rod adjustments are skewed.
Click to expand...

Roger , thank you, was just looking for that basic starting point so I dont have to take things apart a buncha times
 
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