The steering wheel on my '79 isn't straight. It's off counterclockwise. It's centered on about 10:00 instead of 12:00. The horn cap is also off in the counterclockwise direction from the steering wheel - rotated even further to the left than the steering wheel. I took the cap off, but it has 3 notched that line up with the shims below, so it has to fit where it is. Maybe the shims are out of place too? The tilt works, but the telescope doesn't. I'm guessing the star nut is too tight.

Any other suggestions for these issues? I'd like to get everything lined up straight and get the telescope to work.

 

How straight does it go down the road? Could just need an alignment, or the steering wheel was mounted 1 screw hole off.

 

Quite likely the wheel has been removed at one point and installed 2 or 3 splines off center. Each spline is worth about 10 degrees. The other cure is to re-adjust the tie rod ends at the spindles. One turn out on one side, and one turn in on the opposite should be close.

 

Not a lot of information to go by, but if the steering box, control valve (PS), or the steering wheel has been replaced or played with, then who knows where it is now. There is a chisel mark on the end of the column that should be at 12. 79 boxes have a D-Flat on the input, that should be ground at high lash, not center in most cases. That flat should be at 12 as well. Straighten the wheels and check to see where these points are. Most corvette steering boxes are not dialed in on center. One reason many have sloppy steering.

 

Thanks guys. It pulls to the left slightly, but not enough f to get the steering wheel straight. It’s probably a combination of friend alignment and wrong spline on the steering wheel.

 

This may solve your problem if any front-end (PSCV, cylinder, ball joints, tie rod ends) work has been done.

 

As GTR1999 says, my first move would be to check that the flat on the steering box input shaft is at the top when the wheels are pointing "more or less" straight ahead. That will give you a clue as to where the steering wheel should be. If the flat is at 12 o-clock, then you can move the steering wheel. I'd be reluctant to change tie rod settings if the flat is not at the top.

 

My steering wheel was off by a few degrees but I was not ready for an alignment yet. I rotated the tie rod sleeves an equal amount left and right until the wheel was straight. That got me close enough at that time.

Down the road, Gary remanufactured my steering box so I needed to do the whole linkage adjustment over again. I found my steering column was originally off by about 1 spline from the factory. Time to get the tools out. I set the gearbox flat at exactly 12:00 first. I could pull the column and move the rag joint flange at the bottom to correct it properly OR try to pull the steering wheel hub off and move it 1 spline. Pulling the wheel hub was enough to get it perfect and it was just easier for me so I did that instead. Now the box was at 12:00 and the steering wheel is at 12:00. The front wheels were no longer straight ahead so that was the next thing to address. I made 2 slip plates out of some greased floor tiles. I put the front wheels up on ramps first then jacked up the tires to slip in my greased floor tiles under the wheels. I used a steering wheel clamp from Ebay to hold the wheel exactly at 12:00. I ran strings from the rear tires up across the front tires and adjusted the tie rod sleeves so the front wheels were both as straight as I could get them by sighting down the strings. I measured the toe and fine tuned that for about 1/16" by slightly rotating both tie rod sleeves equally. The test drive showed it was definately more than good enough until I could get a full 4 wheel alignment. Car tracked straight and the wheel was at 12:00.