When I had my car in the shop for my engine guy to put the blower cam in, they had to loosen the rack and pinion to make room to get the cam in. When putting everything back, the rack's bolt holes apparently had enough play that it was remounted just enough to the side that the steering wheel was a few degrees off. When traveling straight down the road, the steering wheel would appear to be turned 5 or 10 degrees to the left. I know for a fact it was straight before taking it there because I went through the same thing when I had my Vette Essentials steering wheel put on. (BTW, the steering wheel has a toothed spline, but some of the teeth are wider than others, so the steering wheel can only be mounted to the shaft one way - it can't be rotated relative to the shaft.) When I phoned about it, I was told that they didn't have any front end alignment equipment in their shop, so I'd need to take the car to anyplace locally that does alignment work (they were about 5 hours away or I would have actually taken it back to them). Alignments are not expensive, and the car was not pulling either way, so it just never wound up bubbling high enough on the priority list to take care of it.

Recently, while looking through my service manual doing some other repair work, I came across the power steering section and started reading up on how to adjust the front end toe. The service manual is not very specific and assumes that the service tech knows a little something about how to do front end alignments. But I decided to give it a shot myself anyway.

Since the steering wheel was turned left while traveling straight down the road, I deduced that I needed to lengthen the left tie rod and shorten the right one; keeping them both parallel so they'd still travel straight and just reposition the rack on the pinion (and hence rotate the steering wheel in the direction I wanted).

In the service manual it appears that the inner end of the inner tie rod screws into the rack, but as you'll see later, I now think that it does NOT screw into the rack, but rather is mounted into a bearing which the manuals calls a housing and the housing is what's screwed into the rack. I believe the inner tie rod rotates freely in the housing and does not move in/out relative to the rack.

The outer tie rod (L shaped end) has a female threaded end which screws onto the inner tie rod, but naturally while it's attached to the steering knuckle on the wheel hub, it can't be rotated unless you get a pickle fork and get it off the knuckle (not necessary for toe adjustment). There is a jam nut on the inner tie rod which is designed to tighten against the outer tie rod end to keep it from rotating on the inner tie rod. After trying to force the jam nut on tighter, I discovered that the inner tie rod threaded end is definitely right hand threads (duh, felt stupid for sure).

Initially, I was thinking that to lengthen the inner tie rod, it would need to be rotated counterclockwise to screw it out from the rack. Since that joint is inside a rubber accordian boot, you can't see it, so I wasn't sure it was actually doing what I thought.

I got the car on jack stands, removed both front wheels, and loosened the jam nuts. I made a mark on the top of both inner tie rods before starting and I'm glad I did, because it's easy to get confused.

I rotated the inner tie rod counterclockwise 1/4 turn on the driver's side (assuming I was screwing it out of the rack) and clockwise 1/4 turn on the passenger side (assuming it was screwing into the rack). I tightened the jam nuts, put the wheels back on, got it down off the jack stands and went for a drive. It seemed the same, must not have been the right direction.

So back I went, jackstands, wheels off, jam nuts loose, CW 1/2 turn on driver's side (back to starting position, then 1/4 turn other direction), CCW 1/2 turn on passenger side, tightened jam nuts, put wheels back on, off the jackstands, went for another drive. DANG, now it's alot worse, but still rotated in the left direction.

Back on jackstands, wheels off, jam nuts loose, CCW full turn drivers side (back to starting position, then 3/4 turn other direction), CW full turn passenger side, tightened jam nuts, put wheels back on, off jackstands, went for another drive. DOUBLE DANG, now it's obviously off, but rotated in the other direction.

I finally stopped assuming that the inner tie rod was screwing in/out of the rack and began assuming it just rotated freely in a bearing. I realized that when I thought I was screwing the inner tie rod out of the rack (making it longer), it was actually screwing INTO the outer tie rod end, making it shorter. Seemed so obvious then. So I went back on jackstands, wheels off, jam nuts loose, CW 3/4 turn drivers side to get back to starting point, then went CW full turn (end result 1 full turn LONGER) on driver's side, same but opposite rotations on passenger side, tightened jam nuts, put wheels back on, off jackstands, went for another drive. SUCCESS!!!! Car still tracks straight down the road and now the steering wheel is straight.

Service manual calls for jam nut to be 50 ft-lbs. I have a torque wrench, but it only works on sockets, not open end applications. I guess that's why GM has a special part to torque this. It looks like the end of an open end wrench which has been cut off and then has a square hole just below the clevis for the torque wrench to fit in. Since I don't have the special part, I just had to do it by feel. 50 ft-lbs is ALOT especially when your trying to work from the side (through the wheel opening) and not from below where you can get straight pulls. You must be careful trying to apply this much torque from such an awkward position or it's easy for the wrench to slip off and you'll skin your right pinky knuckle and drip blood all over your garage floor (ask me how I know).

Always remember to mark the inner tie rod before starting. If you forget where you were, you'll wind up misaligning your car and inadvertently adjusting the toe setting. If that happened, it wouldn't be the end of the world, your car would just pull to one side or the other. Then you'd have to either figure out which one to adjust or take it to an alignment shop.

Actually, if I had realized how the inner tie rod is mounted in the rack and outer tie rod end to start with, it would have been a quick, easy fix. Instead it took me 4 iterations, and 2 or 3 hours of frustration, but now I know how to do it. Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way.

Just thought I'd post this Lessons Learned to help out the next guy.

 

The seceret to getting GOOD is experience , now you're very good. Thanks for laugh of the day.

 

Was the steering shaft disconnected from the r&p ? If so it may have been reassembled a tooth off possibly.

 

I don't know for sure whether they disconnected the shaft from the rack, but I doubt it. I think they just took out the bolts that attach the rack to the front cross member. Not really sure.

 

You need to disconnect the shaft from the rack in order to remove the rack to allow access to the crank bolt. It cannot be "one tooth" off.

The "special" tool you are refering to is called a "Crows foot" and can be had at Sears or any good tool store. It will effect the touque reading because you are lengthening the lever.

 

just because the steering wheel if off, it does not mean that toe is off. does the car still go straight? its possible with slack between each item that only the steering wheel ended up not centered. when i did my cam swap i had to disconnect the steering shaft. im betting its the fit of the shaft.

 

[QUOTE=LDB C5;1568606351]You need to disconnect the shaft from the rack in order to remove the rack to allow access to the crank bolt. It cannot be "one tooth" off.

ARE YOU SAYING THAT THE SPLINES ON THE SHAFT CONNECTION TO THE RACK WILL ONLY LINE UP ONE WAY ?

 

yes it's a 'D" shaped shaft. Yes there is play in the rack bushings.
As a starving GM factory trained ASE cert mechanic whos done hundreds of alignments (and always learning) and many seat of the pants on a lift "center the steering wheel" on a used car,
I would'nt do it on my vette cause their very sensitive and runflats are

Three hundred flippin dollars each!

Cant afford that mistake.

Best of luck to you my friend,
You probably did a better job than some "techs" who have not a clue about them and shouldnt be doing alignments. I know a few of those...

 

[QUOTE=cvm;1568617453]yes it's a 'D" shaped shaft. Yes there is play in the rack bushings.
THANKS FOR THE INFO.

 

all you really had to do was center the wheels with the car off , loosen the steering linkage bolts that are located under the alternator and brake booster then turn the steering wheeel straight and tighten them back down... cant tell you how many times this situation happend to me before i figured this out,,,

 

 

can someone verify this and also possibly post some pictures, my car drives straight and doesn't pull to either side either but the wheel is just like the OP states....tipped like 10 degrees when going perfectly straight. I would love to be able to learn to fix this myself if it is indeed an easy fix.

 

while i think it is great you attempted this on your own and got your wheel straight, you may have and most likely have skewed your actual toe readings. This will not cause a pulling but you will get tire wear from the toe being off. One way to check this without an alignment rack is to pull the car in straight with your steering wheel center. take a tape measure and measure from the center of the tread facing the front of the car on the drivers side to the center of the tread on the passenger side. note that measurement. Then take the measurement from the same spot on the tread just on the rear face of the tire. The measurement should be equal. This method is not exact but will give you a general idea if your tires are toed in or out.