Steering Box rebuild...
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 892
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From: GA
Steering Box rebuild...
My steering box seems to have a tight spot in it.... I adjusted the top nut per the manual. When I spin the coupler it hits a hard spot in the middle of the throw circle.... I know this can't be normal. I have read some posts on acurrately rebuilding the box but I am concerned with the spacer not being dead on. Do the rebuilds at the vendors make the spacers for each box or do they just rebuild them. I would like my tolerances to be as tight as they can be... any suggestions? :confused:
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 11,322
Likes: 1
From: Living in the Hartland
Re: Steering Box rebuild... (Mr.Gearhead)
Just read a few posts on manual stearing boxes where checkig the grease level was mentioned, level was very low and adding some smoothed it out. If you have not you might want to check it (don't ask me how or I'll have to break out the Chilton's :eek: Manual).
Premium Supporting Vendor
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 4,312
Likes: 70
From: Clearwater FL
Re: Steering Box rebuild... (Fevre)
Your supposed to have that tight spot on your box and it should be right in the center of the box. You don't want it extremely tight but it daoes have to be. It's called your "high spot". Even w/manual vettes. It's designed that way more for alignment issues. When your going down a straight road, your box is on that high spot. It keeps the steering wheel from having a lot of play (left and right) and wanting to wonder all over the road.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 15,130
Likes: 3,938
From: Connecticut, USA
Re: Steering Box rebuild... (Mr.Gearhead)
The pitman shaft has tapered teeth that mate with the tapered teeth of the worm. As said the center is machined larger to cause a snug fit when driving straight. Use a dial in/lb toques wrench with a 0-30 scale and set it up so you have between 13-14 in/lbs. I like to reference mark the high and low ends of the scale on the cover so you can fine tune it on the car. Sounds like you have the lash too tight. What spacer are you referring to the one under the lash screw? If so you should have less then .002 gap in it. Yes, I usually end up making new spacers to get .001-.0015 gap. The rebuild kits have shims in them to correct this. I found most of the boxes I worked on had .005-.008 gap. ANother thing is to checkhte side play in the pitman arm bushings I like to set them up under .002" This also requires maching new bushings because the kit bushing allow .003"-.004" at least the ones I installed did.
Gary
Gary
