Hi All,

I have read a few articles on the torque adjustment of the stearing box.
If one does not have an inch/pound torque wrench, is there a feel way of getting close to the 5-8 in/lb at the ends, and 14 in/lb on center?

Thnanks

Ed

 

What I do is simply adjust in 1/8 to 1/4 turn steps. Do NOT turn it much more than that without test-driving the car !! If it 's too tight, it will cause the steering to hang when you change lanes, and decrease the return-to-center after you turn a corner.

 

Well, I guess you can rig up a fish scale but that's not how I would do it. I dial them in to the exact range I want and I can tell you it's too fine of an adjustment to feel by hand. The important thing is to get the center adjust correct or you're going to wear out the gears quickly.
If you need more help let me know. Are you rebuilding this or just adjusting it on the car?

 

Hey,

It was rebuilt. When I got it back, the threads were durty on the worm gear adjuster, and the nut would only go to a certain point. Took me awhile to figure it out, as it would not hand tighten to take out the slop.

Looks like they did OK, as I took it back apart, and double checked it with all the good informtion on the net.

So from what you are saying, I better find some one who has a in/lb torque wrench.

I see that bicycle shopes advertise a couple of torque wrenches that do this light range of torque. So that would be my best bet from here. There is one that goes from 0-60 in/lb.

Thanks for responding

Ed

 

I would have called the rebuilder to correct the problem. Since you have it apart look and see if it was rebuilt. Look at the gap between the lash screw and t slot- should be under .002" Look at the bushings, are the bronze or do they have grooves cut into them? The originals are grooved the aftermarket are not. What amount of sideplay is there between the pitman shaft and bushings? if original then you'll have over.007" most likely, if replace around .005"-ok but not good enough.

Good luck,
I hope you got what you paid for.

 

You are right, I should have brought it back. The truth is, one of my sons does a very large volume of business with the machine shop. So the cost to me was $0.00. Usually when you tell that to someone, they say ya right they did a good job yah.

They should not have let it out of the shop with the fine threads in the nut end of the case having a little something inside the thread. Even when I cleaned it, I could not tell what was in there. What ever it was, it was very very small.

Upon inspection, they installed new parts where they should have. New races, bearings, bushings, seals. The box hand tightened is very tight, with no slop. My dad years ago was a tool and die maker, so I still have all of his tools. All but a touque wrench for this light adjustment. The rebuild appears to be fine, just need the torque wrench form here.

Guess I am just the type of person, that has to get inside things. Have kept my 68 porsche(shouldn't mention that here??) going for over 28 years now, and now trying to help one of my sons with his 76. He had a couple of 944's for a few years, and wanted to have a nice basic vet to see if he would like them. So far yes. My son has gone through the whole front suspension, and this is the last step to getting it in shape. The engine/Carb are OK for now. Just did the weights in the dist for now, and that turned out fine. He has had it a year now. The car is in pretty good shape. It was not abused looking around underneth, it was just not well kept up with various items.

In fact just called the same son at work, and lo and behold, they have a in/lb torque wrench. So all it well.

Appreciate your response and advice.

Have a good day

Ed

 

Good to hear Ed. Good luck but it sounds like you have it under control. I'm glad it wasn't mass rebuilt box as those have their problems- at least the ones sent to me did.

 

Thanks for your advice.

Maybe you guys will convert me too?????

Have a good one.

Ed

 

This is one job you really need to do right. Feel doesn't cut it.

If you were rebuilding 5 boxes a day your feel could probably get it right 4 out of 5 times, but you'd still want to verify that all is to spec for every one you did.

 

Very true, I've built a lot of boxes and still wouldn't do it without the 0-30 dial T.W I have. I read in CF magazine a few years ago a story on rebuilding rear bearings and that's exactly what they printed- the guy doing the job could tell when he had the correct endplay by feel,sorry I've been rebuilding vettes and machine tools for far too long to but into that one. That's when I stopped taking those magazines seriously and let the subs expire.