Switching to Manual Steering

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Old box is out, new box is in...I've disassembled everything in the process...I'm scraped and filthy but making progress!

All that's left is to hook everything up and see if I actually centered the steering box/arm correctly. So...a few more hours of work?

I love this car like a family member...and it's a damn good thing. :D

Thanks again!
 
adriver said:
Be sure and center the turning of the box before putting the arm on. (duh)
It has four master splines as I recall.
Click to expand...

So quick question on that. Is there a standard procedure for accomplishing this

My thought was that I'd need to loosely connect the arm to the box and the rest of the linkage and make sure it's all centered before buttoning everything up...which of course may require pulling the column off of the box again (or pulling the steering wheel, I suppose)...am I creating more work for myself?

Thanks...
 
The quick and dirty:
You know, count the turns without the column hooked to it.
Put the box in "the middle" and the pitman arm should go on pretty close to where it hooks into the drag link.
I'm expecting your steering wheel may be "off center" once you start going down the road.
But it may not be.
That is a function of where the "toe" is set in relation to the steering wheel.
(When they do an alignment they "center" your steering wheel and then set things)
You can change where the steering wheel is when you are going down the road by moving the tie rod ends an EQUAL amount.
If it comes to that we will scratch our collective heads and help out.
I just had to do this because I changed my pitman arm and it changed things on my daily driver.
It's all good now.
 
Thanks! Sounds straight forward (no pun intended).

I'm hoping to be up for a road test on Wednesday night. I will keep ya posted.
The help is massively appreciated.
 
With the wheels set straight ahead and the steering gear centered ( count total turns lock to lock then 1/2 of that back to center) the master spline on upper shaft should be right there on the top or mighty close. Adjust it to the top, ( and where there is a master spline at steering wheel end, it will be right on top too. ( You probably haven't pulled the wheel though, shouldn't need too ). Just for the sake of knowledge, that tiny notch in the box coupling edge denotes that internal master spline position and the master spline position at steering wheel, if there is one. From what I've read, Not all year models have a master spline at the steering wheel end. All I've seen did have. Some folks have rebuilt the box coupling and put it back together 180 degrees wrong. That's the easy way to get steering wheel upside down. Anyway...
Reposition pitman a click left or right if req'd to straighten the wheels and tighten it on. How your Mancini kadapter between box coupling and steering gear plays into all that OEM spline stuff... I don't know.
 
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I'm thinking about retiring so I have more time to finish working on this car. :)

I spent a good 20 minutes making sure the box was centered, connected the column to the adapter to the box, bolted the steering column back up, bolted the starter back up...ran out of time. I should only need another hour or two so it will take me 10.

So I'm worried that the adapter might be a tiny bit off. With everything bolted up from whence it came, I can't quite get the slot for the pins to be 100% clear on both the shaft from the box and the column at the same time...there's a little corner of the splined section still visible. Has anyone used one of these before? I don't think I can adjust the position of the column...If I could back the column out 2-3mm, I should be ok.

Is putting washers on at the firewall mounting plate a bad idea? That might do the trick.

thoughts welcome.
 
The firewall plate should be clamped to the column tube thus adjustable. I can't provide pics or details of that clamp, its bolt size, etc... Sorry
So long as you're not jambed to bottom or top of box coupling ( it has some lengthwise travel in it ) it should be fine. It does sound as though your kadapter has the shaft tight to the bottom of the box.
Maybe get the split pin in while column mounting hardware loose then set up column final position, adjust plate to firewall if req'd.
 
Back again with another amateur mechanic question...

I had the bolts for the steering box a bit more than finger-tight until I got everything lined up...After figuring out the issue with the adapter (yes, I had to move the column ~2mm) and got the pins inserted, I went to tighten the three bolts that hold the box to the K-Member...and while two go in fine, the one on the outside (the side with one bolt) I've got a problemo. I'm afraid that I might be about to cross-thread it!

The bolt threads in fine about 1/3 of the way and it starts to get tight. I have no idea how this could happen...the bolt looks fine, I cleaned some grime out of the threads which made no difference.

What do you guys do in this situation? It's a really inaccessible spot...I don't have access to a borescope and I'm floundering around under jackstands that aren't nearly tall enough to be comfortable.

Advice welcome. :D

Otherwise, she's ready to go...
 
On second thought, I think I may need to gradually cross-torque them like you do with wheel lug nuts. It didn't initially look like this would matter but I can't think of what else I might have done wrong.
 
Those bolts are supposed to be special interference thread. You shouldn't be able to screw any of them in very far with your fingers although some might go a little further than others after multiple cycles.
Theoretically, In this 3 bolt offset gearbox mounting example, One attach point could receive more stress than the other 2. I've mentioned before that Chrysler did have a problem here. Their mechanical engineering short sighted. Tricycles roll over too easily. All the 4 bolt assemblies out there stay together. Anyway.. Yes torque clean flat surfaces together evenly.
 
Thanks once again, Redfish... so loosening up the two successful bolts before trying again with the third made no difference. The alignment didn't seem to be affected...and still, that bolt still felt wrong.

So as a special interference thread...does this mean that I should just forge ahead and keep tightening?

It sounds like this mounting point needs reinforcement...interesting. I'll look into this along with the subframe connectors and torque boxes.
 
The flaw isn't in the structural sense. I'm not sure how one would reinforce if it was needed.
The issue is 3 nuts welded inside. That welding could distort the roundness of the nut and/or flatness of the plate they are welded to. The triangle pattern wasn't the best plan either.
If long bolts went all the way through the K, tubes welded inside ( like lower arm attach ) would be needed. Anyway...
The bolts should go back the same way they came out. If switching the bolts from hole to hole doesn't make a difference, you know there is some distortion in the 1 nut, distorted/stretched threads. ( I will guess that it's the one that stands alone above the lower arm attach point ) If I was sure its not cross threaded, I think I would forge ahead.
To run a tap through that nut would remove some metal, maybe at only 1 or 2 stretched threads which likely wouldn't be enough to cause a failure but we can't know before running a tap through it. I struggle with these type decisions without hands on.
 
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