I am planning on having my original front suspension rebuilt this summer. It is an obvious maintenance issue that should have been done by previous owner. The day I drove the car home I noticed the steering was a little loose and when i got over 55mph, that looseness became scary and the car liked to float around.

The first night , when I got home I looked at the suspension and noticed parts of the rubber bushings on it could be broken off by hand. So there is an obvious issue there.

But since the car is original, I assume before I have suspension I should check the steering rag joint and gear box for issues?

I have a copy of Jim Shea's rag joint repair document already but should I be concerned about the gear box and is there an easy test for checking it also?

Im adding a picture of my rag joint to have you guys give your opinions.

p.s. Just noticed something while previewing the picture. Since this is a 69 and early cars were different than later, is the input shaft showing at the top of this picture?

If so, am I looking at a 69 car with a "(GEARS WITHOUT A FLAT ON THE INPUT SHAFT)"?

The car was made about March 15th.
thanks
jim


I have a 69 427 4 speed w/ac and manual steering.

 

I have a 69 also, I purchased all the parts for the steering for the car, All new or rebuilt.
purchased from Zip and ecklers. If this is something you need let me know, I will put a number together. After taking the car apart I went a different direction. (Rack)

 

Had this pic from another thread somewhere, maybe it will help.
Your rag joint is shot
Good luck

 

Started working on it last night. Sprayed it with a a lot of penetrating oil. Gave it a a few hours a attempted to loosen the 12 pt bolt on the steering gear side first.
Bolt would budge so I let it soak in some more pb blaster and will try again tonight.

One thing I did notice was when I had the socket on the bolt I could actually reach the steering wheel. There doesn't seem to be any movement at all in the coupler. If I turn the wheel the ratchet would move. Maybe it would be different when the car is in motion?

I had to give up trying cause the bolt was making me worried that I was putting to much force on it, Has anyone ever had one of these bolts break?

jim

 

You definitely need a new rag joint but if that box is original it probably needs a rebuild as well. I had my box custom blueprinted/rebuilt by Gary Ramadei, GTR 1999, no longer on this forum (I can give you contact info if you want) on my 78 with 60,000 original miles and the difference before and after the rebuild was amazing (my box was in very good shape no less). During the rebuild, Gary adds a custom olite bushing on the box shaft internally that eliminates all play...MUCH better than when the box was brand new from the factory.

 

How do you test how bad your gear box is if it is at all? I assume iff I ever get the coupler off I can grab the gear box shaft that would be free of the coupler and try to move it? How much movement is normal ?
I dont need race quality steering. I would like it to be at least back to factory though.

jim

 

Jim,

I can give you Gary's info and you can speak with him directly...he will spend as much time as you need and give you expert advice....Great guy!!!

 

That would be awesome. Just got the 2 pinch bolts out tonight, was worried I was going to break them off. Sprayed the heck out of them and they came out. I think the next step is to to either move the steering wheel or grear box, im going to the gear box.

 

Interesting side note. When I removed the stubborn pinch bolts. Thier threads had red material on them. Maybe some kind of thread locking material? Anyone have any ideas?
Sorry picture is a little blurry,
jim

 

My late 69 bolts looked the same as yours.

Tracdogg2 rebuilt my steering box better than new.
He is in Garland, Texas and does Corvette rear end parts also.

C3's are susceptible to front end and rear end problems which can make your car wander the road.

 

How late is your 69? My vin starts with 34xxx Nov. build.

 

357xx

 

I am thinking what is on the threads of the pinch bolts is what Jim Shea says in his coupler repair paper on page 8.

He says ".The pinch bolt has a torque prevailing nylon patch on its 3/8-24 threads. "

What purpose is the nylon patches on the threads and what problems will I have if I re-use these bolts after a clean up and the nylon isnt all intact?

thanks
jim

 

[QUOTE=xpoc454;1591590479]I am thinking what is on the threads of the pinch bolts is what Jim Shea says in his coupler repair paper on page 8.

He says ".The pinch bolt has a torque prevailing nylon patch on its 3/8-24 threads. "

What purpose is the nylon patches on the threads and what problems will I have if I re-use these bolts after a clean up and the nylon isnt all intact?

thanks
jim[/QUOT
You can safely reuse the pinch bolt many times over the life of the vehicle.

Here is the scoop on the nylon patch. The connection to the gear and to the steering column is a critical safety item. There was concern that someone (assembly plant worker, dealership mechanic, backyard mechanic, etc) could assemble the bolt just finger tight and forget to torque the bolt to spec. The bolt would appear visually seated but could work its way out of the connection with time.

By placing a nylon patch on the threads, it is impossible to install the bolt with your fingers when the patch meets female threads in the flange. You could visually see that the head of the bolt was no where near the flange.

Someone has to use a socket wrench to run the bolt through the plastic patch. Assuming someone has already used a wrench to seat the bolt, we further assumed that they applied some amount of torque to finish the connection.

Jim

 

I am going for the gold tonight and try to remove my steering coupling.

I am going the route of completely replacing the coupler. I plan on attempting to do this by moving my steering gear instead of the steering wheel.

If all goes well, I am wanting to go ahead and remove my manual steering box (leaving the pitman arm on). So I can inspect it, clean it, adjust it and/or decide it needs a rebuild.

What locations do I need to carefully mark with marker/chalk so to re-assemble correctly?

If I read Jim Shea's paper correctly, If I am replacing the coupling marking anything with it won't be useful. Is there anything I need to be aware of for marking if I remove the steering box with pitman arm still attached>?

thanks
jim

 

Thanks.

 

Got to work on removing or moving the gear box. I didn't realize it but the bolts are round top bolts.
There are 3 bolts, 2 front ones that are vertical to each other and one solo one toward the rear of the car. The rear one is hard to get to with headers.

I've read that you can remove 2 of the bolts and pivot the box to get the flex coupler out Can anyone suggest which two work the best?
(Picture added.)

Once I remove the coupler I would like to remove the entire gear box to clean it up and check and see if it needs rebuilt or just adjusted.

I plan on removing the 3 bolts holding it in and also use a pickle fork where the pitman arm attaches to what I call the main steering arm.
Thus leaving the pitman arm on. (picture added)

3 questions.
Will this do anymore arm than necessary to the joint I pickle. (I plan on having the entire suspension rebuilt after I am done with steering anyways).

Will the gear box be able to removed up through engine bay easier or down?

Is there any orientation of the tires and gear box I need to have marked when I remove it for ease in putting the box back in?

Any other last second suggestions appreciated.
thanks
jim

 

Center the steering wheel and front wheels and remove the key so the column locks there.

Take the bolts out of the rag joint and tap it with a hammer to make it slide aft on the steering column, note that both shafts in the rag joint have the flat part facing up.

Remove the pitman arm nut (1 5/16) and washer. Borrow a pitman arm removal tool from the local parts store and press it apart from the steering box. (I left the pitman arm on the car)

Remove the three nuts (9/16) from the steering box, drive the bolts out toward the frame, and pull the unit out. I don't know the amount of clearance on the big block and whether or not you have headers. No problem with the small block though.

I did not mark anything while pulling it apart because the pitman arm shaft is master splined with 4 large grooves that will only fit the pitman arm one of four directions so it is easy to line up when reinstalling it.

 

I made it to the next stage!
I removed the pitman arm after renting 3 pitman arm pullers. First one was to small, 2nd was broke and third time was a charm. I removed the 3 bolts for the gear box and I got off the pinch bolts real easy couldnt move the coupler off the steering column or gear box. I ended up leaving half the coupler on the gear box and half on the steering column and pulled the box upwards after the pitman arm was off.
I seemed to have one of the early (march 15) 69 corvettes that doesn't have a flat spot on the gear box shaft.

I haven't figured out how to get the other half off the steering wheel shaft yet. It seems you have to somehow spread the pinched section but i haven't figured out a way that is strong enough to spread it. If I don't spread it as I did on the gear box portion, that part gets stuck on the lip.

Adding some pictures but currently working on cleaning it up some.

Now that I have the gear box on the bench and am cleaning it. Is there a way to check it for need of adjustments?

thanks
jim

 

Does anyone know if there is a way to check the grease level and condition with the gear box out of the car?

Also, is there out of car test I can do to check to see if my looseness I felt in my steering was the box and not the old coupler or old front suspension?

thanks