I’m currently fine tuning items on my 71 after a long restoration. All steering and suspension items have been replaced or overhauled. The steering box was sent out and “blueprinted” by a reputable rebuilder. I’m getting an amount of steering “free play” that seems excessive to me. Is it necessary to make any adjustments or take slack out of a rebuilt steering box?

if measured at the 12:00 position on the steering wheel I would estimate the distance of free play at one inch. It’s not a complete deadband from turn to turn but doesn’t seem correct. I’m familiar with drive by wire, rack and pinion, etc and understand it he difference in feel and response, etc.
KC

 

So you mentioned all your steering components have been replaced, that's good. I'm sure someone in here will tell you to adjust the little nut in the cap on top of the pitman shaft, but this does not "fix" steering play. What you want to tighten is the "nut" beneath the rag joint. It needs to be preloaded at 5-7 inch pounds. Knock the retaining ring loose, then give the nut a turn and see if it was loose. It's possible yours was not adjusted properly. It's also possible your rebuilder didn't rebuild much.. Hope that isn't the case.

 

This is not the correct information

 

When you say blueprinted, is this one of my boxes?

I don't recognize your handle but if it's one of mine, I want to know who you are so I can check my file on the build. Do NOT make any adjustment to the box at this point.

 

GTR 1999, I couldn’t find my receipts but I’m 99% sure this is one of your rebuilds. It was done about seven years ago and probably has ten to twenty miles on the car since being restored. I haven’t made any adjustments just doing some research first. With the car stationary the rag joint is going almost “lock to lock” in the area it is allowed to move within, I’m equals the amount I’m experiencing on the road. I only snugged the rag joint bolts up without any measurements during assembly.
KC

 

send me your name and I will look up the build

 

I got your PM with your name, thank you. Since you kind of opened the door posting about this here, here is where I will reply.

First off, your description sounds like me. The box, if the box is the actual issue, doesn't sound good. People may think I sent you junk from your description and that is something I won't do- BUT I never say never and that is why I wanted to pull your file- ASAP. I don't know of anyone who blueprints boxes other than myself. There are plenty of rebuilders, none build like I do. I actually build for some vendors/vette shops as well- they don't tell their customer I did the work.

So, I just went through my records. I keep files on everyone I work with, as anyone who has worked with me knows. I have no record on you, going back MANY years. I ran your first name in my records, every person with the same first name came up, except nothing on you. So, unless you bought the box from someone else who claimed it was one of mine, it is not my box. If that was the case and you have a name, again I will check it.

Now, there are some out there, both in the past and present day who copy my work, claiming it to be the same and it's not. It is usually low-ball junk that fails or is bad out of the packaging. I am not saying this is the case here, but I would not build a box without any record at all, even for my own car.

The last check I do when I blueprint a box is to mark the high lash position and then check that position for lost motion & arm position. There is no lost motion in any box I build or don't leave my shop. However, I have repaired the work of plenty who have been sold rebuilt boxes and let me tell you, they are not good.

I can't offer you any advice since who knows what was done to that box. Many builds today are nothing but painted and greased, setup wrong from the start or have bad gears.

You cannot set the preload accurately on the car and the preload is not going to change with position as lash will. True center and lash should be one and same in a textbook world, in reality they rarely are, and you need to know where it is to get a box that is truly Blueprinted, along with my other mods. To correctly do this you need to:

1. Remove the box
2. Have the correct tools to measure it
3. Understand what to look for, how it is supposed to work, and then how to address it- this you are not going to get from any manual and I am done posting my procedures since some took advantage of that.

A perfect recent example. I just finished up a 78 box on Saturday, looked great, dialed in better than anything you can buy on the market, but it didn't pass my own inspection. I broke it down to correct it. This was an usual box from the start and there is no one out there I can call for help when I have a new issue, I have to figure it out and correct it, which I did. Point being many pop these out in a couple of hours, regardless of quality and most are clueless on the correct dial in.

If you post a picture of the box maybe I can see something that will help.

Incorrect adjustments will wreck the gears in short order, that is why I told you not to touch it but it's your call. Correctly dialed in these boxes perform better than new. Done fast and cheap-..... well, you get my point.

Good luck.

 

Ok, after digging thru several boxes I found a receipt showing my steering box was rebuilt by Bairs. I never thought the issue was the steering box but wanted to clear that up. The search goes on!
KC

 

It may very well be the box. The only way you're going to know is to pull it and check it. As mentioned, the center, high lash and arm position need to be known and then you can see what is going on.

 

besides loose lash box, idler arm can add excessive wheel movement.
I would put a dial indicator on box arm and slightly move steering wheel to see
how much backlash is showing?

 

I’ll see if I can measure the movement. It looks like the “free play” is in the steering isolator though. The OEM steering isolator “rag joint” is in really good shape. It holds the normal shape when the steering is turned but the steering does go stop to stop which equals what I’m feeling in the car.
Should the steering isolator allow the rod to go stop to stop before turning?
KC

 

If its an original 53 year old rag joint I would be suspect of it, no matter how good it "looks"

 

if it is a stock steering box there is an adjustment screw. It can help to remove some play.


This is a typical steering box in the photo.

 

Don't adjust it.

Remove it from the car and adjust it correctly, or send it to @GTR1999 to have it re-rebuilt.

Post a video if you can!

 

Heres what the OP WROTE

I’m currently fine tuning items on my 71 after a long restoration. All steering and suspension items have been replaced or overhauled. The steering box was sent out and “blueprinted” by a reputable rebuilder. I’m getting an amount of steering “free play” that seems excessive to me. Is it necessary to make any adjustments or take slack out of a rebuilt steering box?


Loosen lock nut on adjustment screw turn in (clockwise) to remove play.

 

So I have to ask, have you done this before and if so exactly how did you do it?

 

I will take the bait and point out Ive done it on my steering box as well as the lower adjustment which honestly was the one that needed adjusting on my box. Ive adjusted the smaller upper adjustment on other boxes though on things like tractors, golf cart and such and its VERY easy to over adjust them and cause permanent damage to the gears inside. its a VERY touchy adjustment. The lower adjustment I found to be much easier to determine was loose and I just tightened to remove play and I could "feel" when the slack was taken up on that one..
I made a smaller adjustment on my uncles 76 also a few years ago as well with no problems.
While im sure the proper rebuild would be better long term and a blueprint job would be even better, for me it just didn make sense as I had planned to eventually upgrade it anyway. I also understand and agree a person can easily cause permanent damage trying to do these adjustments themselves.

I adjusted the box on my 74 about 5 years ago and while it did remove the play I had there. I did swap the system over to a borgeson this summer mainly because I was tired of the leaks, I prefer the faster ratio and variable feel of the newer systems and I was installing tubular A arms. I also got fantastic deal on the kit for $500 last year.

 

Not trying to bait anyone but that limited explanation of lash adjustment, for someone who has no clue about this, could result in wrecking the gears. Same goes for trying to set the preload on the car, will be about as close as New York to LA. Seen it many times over.

The procedure that was posted here for years is completely wrong. It is not rocket science but it has to be done correctly, or it will have impacting results later on.

With that said I will move on. Those that want to adjust their boxes can do as they will, any way they want.

 

If you've read the thread, you'll see that @GTR1999 didn't rebuild this box, Bair's did. Before potentially damaging anything, the OP should see if the box really is the issue, and not just blindly do an adjustment.

My box (that @GTR1999 rebuilt) was marked on center, and has no play. A quick video of what is going on under the hood (and under the car) might show where the play is coming from. I bet it is NOT the box by itself, though it may be that the box is not on center. The adjustment you suggest won't fix that.

 

Im going to jump on my sword here. What I find on this forum is a lot of fragile egos. I’m not suggesting the information given is wrong, but a lot of people who come to the forum are not looking for the text book information, worse case scenario problem solving.

A lot of the problems that people encounter owning these cars were common occurrence repairs on any given day up until the mid 90s. A lot of people (shade tree mechanics), car enthusiasts, and all mechanics in the 1960s possessed this knowledge.

There were Carburetor shops, distributor shops, Paint shops everywhere. It appears some members here consider themselves the arbiters of information on these C3 corvettes. When any car enthusiast from that time period understands the information given here applies to any make and model in this time period. Yes there are some specific nuances to a Corvette like small, not easy to access spaces to make repairs and the independent rear suspension.

No one should be challenged when sharing information here at The Corvette Forum. If a simple fix is suggested, and works out for someone, the hobby becomes less complicated. I know a lot of you watch Road Kill Garage, these guys understand how everything functions and make their seat of the pants repairs based simply knowing how it works. The complex repairs can be made later.

I bet a lot of C3s sold today that have set for a least 20 years are victims of simple repair's. No one needs to justify their C3 acumen by telling us how many years you have been doing whatever, where ever.

I want to mention one more thing, I see everyone likes to tell other posters when they are replying to an older post. When someone is searching on line for an answer to a problem they are having, these older posts show up in the search results. Some of these posts speak to their given problem. It should not be shunned to ask questions continuing an older post. I know many of you mention, “start a new post”, my question is why? If there is new information or technology available, this will come out in the new information given in the continuation of the post.I know everyone wants to be the guru, but being an arbiter of the information and challenging everyone like a rooster is going to kill the existence of these older Corvettes