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Manual steering box questions
My 68 Firebirds original steering box is old and pretty loose, so I replaced it with a new one. It was not properly centered, and I tried to get as close as I could, but it seems to be way off. Any tips on helping me get this sorted out.
Also recommendations on shocks as well...thanks to all! |
Pitman arm is; indexed, so either the steering shaft or steering wheel can be moved to the right position. Newer vehicles have position sensors and a clockspring, your car doesn't so you can move it without hurting anything. Once you get it close, a wheel alignment will center it the rest of the way.
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What are your actual symptoms? Why do you feel like its not centered? If you replaced your old box and everything still feels loose, you might be blaming your box for an out of wack alignment or remaining loose steering linkage components.
I will die on this hill. For most of these old cars, people have bought the fun parts, but in many cases all the steering linkage is still original. The absolute best bang for the buck in making your car fun to drive is buying a kit to replace all your worn out steering linkage, pitman arm, idler arm then go get a professional alignment. Luckily for your 68 Bird thats a common vehicle and the parts arent too bad. Even if you dont want to buy all of it, if you just buy a tie rod kit before you get it aligned it will make it better. All of those joints create stacking tolerances. Thousandths becomes hundreths become tenths of play between all of the joints. Im a big proponent of these shocks. Night and day difference over like cheap KYB models. IMO these are the best comprimise between performance and somewhat reasonable price. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/b...bird/year/1967 |
The Firebird was completely disassembled and metalwork done, underside de-rusted & coated. Al new fuel system, brakes & suspension. It is a matter of getting things properly positioned. I'll get some pics taken along the way to better illustrate what I am dealing with.
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Alright, did some investigation on my situation. I had the wheels pointed straight and raised the front wheels of the car off the ground and turned the steering wheel all the way to the left and looked at the tire on the driver's side. It was making contact with the subframe and brake line! Checked passenger side, no issue. Then turned it all the way to the left again, removed the tire and checked there was any more travel of the wheel, but only moved about a half inch. Drivers side A-arm has a crapload of shims, passenger side has none. You have to have at least one shim between the A arm & subframe. It is my opinion the steering box needs to adjust towards the passenger side a small amount.
With wheels straight and steering wheel isolated, disconnect tie rods at drag link, then disconnect drag link from pitman arm. Remove steering box to get indexed properly. Re-install steering box, pitman arm to drag link. Adjust tie rods to drag link. Get a shim on each A arm bolt on passenger side, remove some from driver's side. See how it looks with wheels on, still raised, release steering wheel and turn side to side, checking tires and if they clear. Sound like a reasonable approach? |
pics...
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The shims are your caster and camber adjustment, get an alignment before you mess with them. Part of the alignment is steering wheel centering. Go to a shop that knows older vehicles, most tire shops and the like around here will just set the toe and call it done. Here's a link to David Pozzi's site with alignment specs https://www.pozziracing.com/first_ge...gnment%20specs
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If you are anywhere near NJ, I have access to an alignment machine. I've been doing alignments for 30+ years, I can get them driving pretty good. Post up your alignment sheet and I can see what is off most of the time, the exception being when the tech moves the sensor to get the alignment sheet to read right instead of making necessary adjustments.
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