Took the 72 in to work this morning. First thing when I got on the highway I noticed the front end seemed sloppy, not pulling to one side, but back and forth and constant correction of the steering wheel is required to stay straight. Steering wheel has always had quite a bit of play in it, but out of the blue it is really a pain in the *** to control. Steering box worn out, suspension issue, anything ideas?

 

Could be several things. I would start by doing a quick check of your toe-in. You can check it with a tape measure, across the front of your tires, and then across the same place in the rear of them. It is not precise, you need an alignment shop to be precice, but you should see about 1/8" shorter dimension measuring across the front of your tires.

If that is fine, then jack up the front end, and grab each front tire and see if there is any play in it at all. Should be no detectable movement in the wheel itself. If so, find out where. Look closely at the lower A-arm ball joint. Those go out first. Then look at the A-arm bushings, both of them.

Look at your tie rods. Any play there at all? Everything tight?

Next, find the transfer shaft that the tie rods are connected to, see that "L" shaped bracket that connects to the frame on the passenger side? It has a bushing in it as well, some have a grease zerk. Have someone move the steering wheel while you look at it. If it moves, say more than 1/8" you should replace it. Easy to do.

If any of the above, you should probably think about a front end rebuild kit from Van Steel, they run them on sale here on this forum on occation. I did it this past winter on my 78, and am VERY glad I did it. If you do, get their video also, well worth the money.

Good luck.
-Kev

 

Another place you might want to check is the bushings in the back end. Worn-out trailing arm and strut-rod bushings will make the back-end sloppy and the car hard to keep straight.

I just finished replacing all the bushings in my 81 and it drives like a new car now.

 

Check your suspension and alignment. A good alignment shop will check all that as a prealignment check. Also look at the rag joint. Have some one turn the wheel with the tires off the ground and see if you have any "lost" motion in the shaft at the rag joint or at the input shaft of the box and the pitman arm, When turning the input shaft the pitman arm should be moving at the same time and there should be no gap when you turn it the opposite way.
If you need help with the box PM me your email and I'll walk through it for you.
Gary

 

Taking the lash out of the steering box will help considerably.

 

How do you adjust a steering box? What does take the lash out mean?
My 79 seems fairly tight never had a problem, however if there is room for improvement would like to take a shot at it. I'm running the original steering box. The front suspension has been redone with the exception of the upper control arms.

 

You can use Jim Shea's in car procedure here:
http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/GearAd...-Rev21FE04.doc
Just be sure you don't overtighten it.

 

If this is a sudden thing, you may have a tire going flat. All the items mentioned above will cause the need to constantly correct. Joe

 

Usually true ... but I've had some tie rods go quickly due to hitting
a bump or pot-hole with some force. I'm betting tie-rod end here.

 

Dont drink so much beer.

 

I'm going to put a new steering box in since it is has always had a lot of play and then see if that improves it...If it is still sloppy, then I know I need to rebuild the whole front end.

 

LOL..if you drink the right amount of beer, the steering will correct itself!!!

 

I replaced everything but the box and it's doing quite well now.....lots of factors at work on the front end.

 

The steering box will not require a new front end alignment - new tie rod ends will. I would check those tie rods out first - easy to tell if they are worn and much easier to replace them than the steering box! Once you are sure that the greased parts of the steering system are all good, you can always put in the new steering box. You can also make a small adjustment to the gears in the steering box right now to try to reduce slop... You just need a wrench and a flat-head scredriver...

 

UPDATE...Put new steering box in. Car handles like brand new. Probably need new front end at some point (car is 33 yrs old after all) but this fixed my immediate problem. I love driving the car again.