I have been trying to remove the slop from my steering...
My steering box was allowing about 1.5" of steering wheel free play. So I ordered a rebuilt box... it arrived and it had the same play as the original.

I'm thinking the next step is to have a local machine shop make custom bushings and washers with tighter tolerances. (when you feel the pitman arm move there is a slight deflection upwards, but mostly sideways).

Here is a video of the play in the rebuilt steering box shaft.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RupQQ...ature=youtu.be

Is this slop normal, and anyone else have it? (And have any of you fixed it?)

(I know about Gary R for rebuilding, I'm planning to follow his rebuild how to- I'm hoping Jim Shea or others will chime in and tell us if this is too much slop, and normal for old, poorly rebuilt boxes, or if I should just be content with 1.5" of steering wheel play)

Thanks-
Nathan

 

The rebuilds are iffy; just shims, bearings and seals. No consideration of internal gear waer. You have just found this out. That 1.5" play is just simply dangerous!

Gary R. bought out the part supplies of Corvette Steering when the owner passed away recently. Thus he has the only supply of original internal gears left that will reduce that slop. I have one of his boxes and blueprinted perfectly.

I will not post a link as Steve (VetteBuyer) will jump all over me. But this is an important issue for C3 owners with high mileage like me. You want to get these repairs right. EBay does not cut the mustard.

Borgeson for ~$750.00 is your other option. I chose not to go that route because of the need to cut the steering column and some installation complications re brake proportioning valve interference and more. AussieJohn will disagree with me but that is fine. There are work-arounds.

I think it is within rules to suggest a search on DC?

 

Quite frankly, in my oipinion your video does not look like excessive movement of the pitman shaft. I think there is some deflection in the gear as well. I don't recall how many miles on your gear but very possibly just a thrust bearing and sector shaft adjustment might be all that is needed.

I would get hold of Gary directly and ask him to look at your video. He has all the hands-on experience.

Jim

 

Neptune72,
I worked in the Steering System Section, Product Engineering at Saginaw Steering Gear Div, GMC; then Delphi Saginaw for 39 years before retiring in Feb 2001. I was supervisor of the flexible coupling, power steering hose, and hydraulic seal group from 1970 through 1986. So I have some first hand experience with a lot of my products that are on the C3 Corvettes.

Saginaw is now Nexteer. There was just an article in the Saginaw News this morning that indicated the Dodge Ram 1500 light duty had issued a purchase contract to Saginaw for electric steering for 2013. Nexteer (Saginaw) will be providing 90% of the steering systems for North American full size pickups by 2013.

When Saginaw was a Division of General Motors, there were a lot of companies (particularly Ford) that had a policy of not doing business with any of their direct competitors. Since the spin off from GM, Nexteer now produces all of the Ford F-series and Mustang steering columns.
Jim

 

Mine was doing the same thing it had about 2" slack when turning from left to right with the steering wheel and all i had to do was loosen the nut on the top if the Gearbox and tighten down the screw and then tighten down the nut again....It makes the Gears mesh Tighter and gets rid of the Knock sound and also got rid of the slack.

 

That isn't a steering feel dial... it adjusts the steering lash and there's an appropriate way to set it. You could well be ruining your box by adjusting it randomly.

 

[QUOTE=

Borgeson for ~$750.00 is your other option. I chose not to go that route because of the need to cut the steering column and some installation complications re brake proportioning valve interference and more. AussieJohn will disagree with me ........... END QUOTE>

Paul,

Do you really believe that the steering column needs to be cut? Sure, on a '63 to '67 with the non-collapsible column (and shaft), but all '68 and on Corvettes had collapsible shafts and columns. Including yours.

I fitted a Borgeson box to my '74 coupe myself and all I had to do was collapse the shaft about two inches. This still leaves plenty of collapsibility in the column/shaft. To do this I placed some insulation tape around the exposed shaft about two and a half inches down from the column's end. Then I placed a piece of wood against the end of the column and hit the wood with a hammer until the shaft had slid up around two inches, i.e. with about half an inch between the tape and the column's end.

Then I trial fitted the rag joint and found this gap to be about right. So I fitted the rag joint and steering box and removed the tape. I had no problems with interference with the prop. valve or brake lines and neither will you, unless your valve and lines have been tampered with.

I have now removed the factory prop. valve entirely and had a line made up to go from the front end of the rear brake line to the Holden master cylinder that is now mounted to my Hydroboost. As for the two factory front brake lines, I just bent them around and fitted them to the two threaded holes in the MC. The brakes are now PHENOMENAL!!!

Of course, the Holden MC has the prop. valve built into it, so I have saved several kilograms and lowered the COG of the car about 1.04 millimetres. Photos to come.

I hope that this clears it up for you Paul, as I'd hate to think that you continued to believe that the shaft has to be cut to fit a Borgeson box.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

1). This is the address for a Microsoft Word paper on adjusting your manual gear - in car. Gary does not agree with this procedure but it will get you into the ballpark if you are carefull.
http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/?p=810

On the aluminum top cover (or cast iron on 1960s vintage gears) there is a screw and jam nut. The real trick is inspecting the threaded portion of the screw that is (or is not) sticking out of the nut. There should be three full threads showing above the nut. That would mean that there is sector shaft adjustment available. Less than three threads usually means that the gear needs to be rebuilt and not just adjusted.

2). The steering shaft of an energy absorbing, collapsible Corvette steering column (1967-82) is designed to telescope in a severe frontal collision. There is a lot of overlap where the tubular lower shaft and the solid upper shaft come together. There are two small plastic injection pins that hold the two shafts at their design length. These pins shear and allow the shafts to telescope. You can shorten the shaft as aussiejohn mentions without having any safety concerns.

Jim