I basically replaced the entire steering system. Rag joint, steering gear box, and tie rods. The power steering cylinder was done a few months ago because it was leaking. This is my first time doing something this involved. Its back together and the steering wheel doesn't seem to be centered in it's travel from right to left. My guess is that when I put the rag joint back on, I was off by a tooth on the spline. When I looked at it, I thought the flat spot would line it back up. The pitman arm has to 2 flat spots and I don't think it will go on the spline out of alignment.
I could put the steering wheel in the middle position and spin the tie rod ends until the wheels are straight (I know I will have to get an alignment as soon as I get all this done) and then the car will track straight with the wheel in the middle. If I do this, I won't have equal travel left and right in the steering wheel. That will probably not ever really make a difference in driving the car.

Am I correct in my assumptions here? Is the only way to correct it to get equal left and right travel to take the rag joint back off and move it a tooth?

 

You didn't lose right to left travel,,,,
. center your steering box travel,, assemble steering links keeping it centered as best you can, , the alignment shop will take care of the rest,, ie. centering your steering wheel with box center,,, but I believe if you did this much yourself, you too can get it right,

 

Correct, I didn't loose travel in the steering I just shifted the center point. So I believe when I'm done I'll get slightly more travel left and less right. I don't really think this makes a difference. I was just wondering peoples thoughts. I really don't want to take the rag joint out and try to move it a tooth to get it back to "center". I don't think it really worth the work at this point.

 

Is it possible to get the rag joint off by a tooth ...and still get the bolt in?

Take a look at the steering box and make sure the 'flat' is up. If I remember I 'think' that's how it is when the steering box is on center.

Once the steering box flat is perfectly on-center, take a look at the steering wheel. Look at the rag joint again and make sure it's manufactured correctly. It should be 100% true. Sadly a lot of aftermarket parts aren't make to the strictest standards. If it's 'off' get a replacement unless you can compensate by moving a tooth L or R. If after making those adjustments, it is still off like 2" on the wheel, the alignment shop can take care of that, but if it's off 3-4" I would replace it. Or, if you can, move it a tooth over ...as you said.

The reason I suggest this is because steering boxes are machined to be 'tighter' on-center than off center, so you want the box to be on-center as much as possible so you don't get unneccessary free-play in the steering wheel [from the steering box being off-center]. I hope that makes sense and isn't confusing how I say it.

Another thing, did you 'center' the power steering valve after installing it, by adjusting the screw (while running), so it doesn't pull one way or the other? Or maybe yours was pre-set.

 

You should be able to get center of steering box to match steering wheel center with adjusting the steering links, and you'll be happy,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,teddy,,,,,,,,,

 

You said you did tie rods also. Are you sure this isn't where your problem is? Adjustment is very sensitive and it only takes about 1/4 turn on either rod to change toe in or out by 1/8th of an inch. Just one turn off on one side is a huge amount of toe.

 

I was going to point out before, I bought a lower steering shaft for a DD this past summer that was welded OUT of alignment. It wasn't quite enough to send it back, but I probably should have. It works fine. If it were for my C3, I would have sent it back. Surprisingly it was from ebay (where a lot of reject parts end up). If you buy a new flexible coupler, compare it to your old one for alignment and return if not 'true'. Just passing that along....

 

All great information. I understand what you mean by "tighter in the middle". That actually makes me feel a little better because when I was spinning the gear around before installing it to make sure I was in the middle position, I noticed that there was more drag around the middle position. So I think that is good. I bought a new gear box from Rock Auto. Hopefully it's good quality. Can't afford $1,000 for the Borgeson unit and if I could I would probably switch to a rack system. So, for the budget I hope I made the right choice.

I did try and align the flat the same as it was taking the original unit out. I thought I got it pretty close. Spinning the wheel after installation, I felt like I might have been 1 tooth off. That was before connecting the tie rods. Just going on gear box turns left to right stops. Or maybe the flat is just in a slightly different position than the original. That would explain it also.

When I put the steering wheel in the middle position, the wheels are turned as if it's in a slight right turn. Just eyeballing the hub shaft being square to the car. I will twist the the rods to bring back to square. Once it's all back together, the first ride will be to the alignment shop. He will probably curse me for the spreader bar installation being in his way, but oh well. At least it fit and doesn't look like it's going to hit the fan.

I did not replace the power steering valve. I had replaced the piston before. I think the valve and the relay rod are the only parts I haven't replaced.

 

You can just align it yourself and save the $70 too. Put the steering wheel just a little to right-of-straight (to compensate for the crown of a road), then tie it to the shifter so it won't move. Put a tape measure on the front tread ...and do the same to a matching set of tread blocks at the rear of the tire. You can also spin the wheel and put a chalk line on the tire, then move the car forward/back to settle the suspension. Put the tow 1/16 to 1/18" . I've done it a lot on various vehicles over the years.

There are several variations how to do the tow if you go to youtube. I always align my own tow. You can even do an entire alignment and use a cell phone to set the caster/camber. I've gotten sick of paying a shop only to find out they did a crappy job (which seems to happen to me a lot). The tow is easy. Ive been to indy car races where they align the tow as I've described above. Seen it multiple times (pit pass). But if you have a 'good' alignment shop, yeah let them do it if you don't want to do it.

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Where do you get an alignment done for $70? The place I took it last charged me $250. The place that did it before I bought the car didn't put the long shims in the rear and 1 vibrated out and allowed the wheel to flop around and push on the half shaft into the rear end and it started to leak. Still not sure if it did any real damage at this point.

I don't think I can get it done, so I will have to take it somewhere. If there is a good place that is cheaper in Charlotte/Rock Hill, I would love to hear suggestions. Right now I'm budgeting another $250 for an alignment and hoping the guy doesn't get too mad at me about the spreader bar and charge me even more.

 

I think they saw you pull up on a vette and instantly jacked the price,, proper C3 allignment should not cost $100,,, at least in NE Ohio,,, but doing front alignment is not difficult as others also said,,,

 

You changed the box and new box or rebuilt box with new gears will not line up the same as the original box. When rebuilding a box the arm center, true center, and high lash all have to be accounted for to dial in the box where it should be, yet I read all the time how all you need is a common rebuild kit to do this correctly. Not quite so as I have seen plenty of those jobs over the years and they were all bad. Rock Auto does not rebuild boxes that I know so it comes from another source. Buying parts online like this is ok if you are getting the same parts you would get elsewhere at a better price but when dealing with rebuilding service it is a whole other game.

Your box will never travel full lock to lock in the car, the box must be referenced from high lash not necessarily true center. The d- flat on the box should be checked to see if it's true center, high lash or both. I threw out, literally, over 100 new worms that had the d-flat cut in the wrong place. They were junk unless I cut in the d-flat in the correct position but then there would be 2 flats cut and that is no good. I don't expect you to know this, why would you? Those that claim this is a simple job probably don't know it either, but it most likely is why your new box is off. Do you still have the original box?