Hi. I am new to the forum. I have a white 76 L48 that I have owned since 1983 (3rd owner, 114,000 original miles) The knowledge and information here is awesome. Before I get in to my problem I would like to thank Mr. Jim Shea for the articles on Corvette steering he has posted to the web. I followed his instructions for replacing the steering coupler (rag joint) to the letter and had no problems whatsover.
Now to my problem. I had the front suspension rebuilt with a VBP #41553 rebuild kit (poly). At the same time I had the power steering rebuilt with a VBP #22851 Power Steering Comp. Kit. The shop that did the work has been in business over 50 years here in Tampa, and no stranger to Corvettes. When driving, the car is a little hard to steer to the left but the wheel returns by itself normally. Steering to the right is a little easier and the wheel returns normally, but frequently when I start to turn to the right it acts like "power steering on steroids" causing oversteer. It seems to happen when making a fairly sharp turn and doesn't seem to happen at all when making mild turns (like lane changes). I bled the system per Jim Shea's article, and then very carefully balanced the control valve with the Power Steering Cylinder unbolted from the frame. The car tracks straight ahead when driving on a flat road. I talked to Gary at VBP and he didn't have any ideas, just told me to bring the control valve back and they would check it out and give me a replacement. Thats the last thing I want to do unless absolutely necessary. Thats why I had a shop do the work, this was one area I didn't want to mess with. I have an assembly manual and a couple of shop manuals and everything looks like it was installed correctly. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance

 

before pulling the valve back off I would rebalance it. There is a proceedure in here, in the shop manual and on Jims site, get that right and I bet the problem goes away

 

I would try and balance the valve one more time. There might have been just a small amount of air left in the system when you balanced the valve the last time. If balancing doesn't work this time, it's time to send the valve back.

Good luck,
Jim

 

I balanced the valve as per the manual and had the same problem as you. I fine tuned it by leaving the cap off, turned the valve clockwise at first to see if I was going in the right direction. After doing this a few times the steering would stay centered. You don't have to raise the car each time you do this. A 3/8 inch rachet with an extension and an 7/16 socket will allow you to turn the adjusting nut by just reaching under the car. When turning the adjusting nut, only turn it slightly, less than a quater of a turn. I would however shut the car off each time just as a means of safety.
Hope this helps
Good Luck
Steve

 

Good advice from all! I will try balancing the valve again, there may have been a little air left in the system as Jim suggested. If not I guess I'll have to take it back to VBP. They really are great people to deal with. I'm lucky I'm only across the bay from them. Thank you to all who responded.