Just got my steering column rebuilt and reinstalled. Dash pad back in and steering wheel put back on. Oh man, forgot to line up the steering column with the position of the wheels. The steering wheel is 120 degrees to the right.

Is there any EASY way to realign the steering to allow installing the steering wheel correctly without having to disconnect it from the rag joint?

 

Straighten wheels and unbolt the steering box form the frame and the coupling form the column. Straighten steering wheel and reinstall. A little easier than moving the column around to disengage it.

 

Another way to do it (this is what the service manual said to do):
Get the tires point straight ahead.
Loosen the holding clamps on the tie rods, and rotate the tie-rod.
Normally, this is done with the wheels off the ground to adjust the alignment.
However, with both wheels on the ground, turning the tie rods will cause the steering wheel to rotate.

This is how i straightened my steering wheel a few months ago.

Some things to remember if you go this way:
1) don't have the steering column locked. The wheel needs to be able to spin freely.
2) in order to keep the wheels aligned, you need to turn each tie rod the same amount. I adjusted one side, counted the number of revolutions, and then rotated the other side the same mount.
3) one of the tie-rods is reverse threaded. If you rotate one side clock-wise, then you must rotate the other side counter-clock-wise. I made sure that if i rotated the driver's side "front-to-back" that I also rotated the passenger's side "front-to-back".
4) if you have power steering, then you may have to use trial and error. I started out 45 degrees to the right. With the car off, i adjusted the tie rods until the steering wheel was straight up. Started the car, drove a block, and suddenly i was 45 degrees to the left. Went back home, adjusted until the wheel was 1/2 to dead center (about 22 degrees off), started car, drove, and it was perfect.

Good Luck!

 

There was a thread about proper alignment of the steering system some time back, which contained a Jim Shaw paper detailing how to align everything correctly. I did a search and found it here: http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...Rev18MY061.doc

The paper caught my attention because when I had the steering box and linkage replaced at a local Corvette specialty shop, they obviously hadn't read the paper and so my shaft is at about 11:30 and not at 12 o'clock as described in Jim's paper. I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Pete

 

Hard to beleive that anyone at the least familiar with most steering system sould botch up this install.....it's all on common sense, really...

the steering wheel has stamped notch marks to align by,....the wheel needs cancell the turn signal equally from r/l positions....so then IT is centered and the wheel square up....

then to put the rest of the system together as normal...and in a shark it will align with that flat on top as I recall, but you still can get a tooth off to r/l and still have the bolt shove home...

some tests required...

 

Here is the address for the Corvette Steering System Centering Paper at the www.corvettefaq.com websight.

http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...Rev18MY061.doc

Jim