power steering box alignment.

[7.3 man]

Ok fellas last summer put a new steering box on my truck we verified straight measured the turn length it was were it should be, but the steering wheel is cocked (witch drives me crazy). I need to run it down the road find straight and pull the steering wheel off and move it (Installed properly)

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. Or am I writing this for nothing? I learned there's never a dumb question. I'm putting a vinyl floor in it so that's why ya see the insilation material in the right corner of the picture.

 

[TronDD]

So you're sure the box is centered. Are the tie rods centered?

Tim.

 

[7.3 man]

yeah

 

[warhog]

I don't see how you could put the box in wrong, unless you drilled your own holes....So that said, you need to adjust your upper (? i get them confused with my jeeps without looking at them) tie rod to center your steering wheel. Have someone watch your steering wheel as your turn it, try one direction and have your helper tell you "better" or "worse". that will tell you which direction to turn it. Or just take it for an alignment since it's more than likely off if you didn't know your steering wheel correlates to your TREs, so you'll actually fair better with a proper alignment.

 

[TronDD]

The box is installed right, it's variable if the pitman arm is centered in the range of motion of the box, though.

And adjusting the centerlink to straighten the steering wheel assumes that the steering wheel is centered on the shaft. I wouldn't make that assumption. Instead of adjusting the tie rods to center everything, a lot of lazy people just move the steering wheel. (I say lazy without actually knowing how hard it might be to remove the steering wheel on these trucks)

Tim.

 

[7.3 man]

thats what I was thinking, but we put the box in tie rods and tries centered steering wheel left striaght form steering box removal, install the new box bolter right up to the old holes, but had to turn the wheel to get the upper on the colom to line up??? How will an alignment correct the need of turning the wheel to get it to slide on the box shaft?

 

[icanfixall]

We can't change the steering wheel on the shaft. There is an index flat piece on the shaft and the wheels. Time to send the truck thru the alignment store. What they do is loosen and tighten opposite ends of the tie rods.

 

[oregon96psd]

Count the number of turns from straight ahead to lock left then lock right. If there the same take the thing to get aligned and move on with your life. I don't see the big problem, it was centered with the old box, put a new one on and now it's not, what did you expect to happen?

 

[TronDD]

I wouldn't assume your tie rods are equal length on both sides, that your old box was centered before you took it off, nor that the steering wheel is on straight.

Find the center of the steering box, that's the easiest thing. Then if your wheels are cocked to one side, adjust the tie rods, and if your steering wheel is cocked, remove and center it.

Ok, reading what icanfixall said would mean you can assume your steering wheel is on the right way. If you box is centered and your steering wheel is cocked, you might not have the pitman arm on the right way, unless that is indexed also. If so, just go get an alignment.

Tim.

 

[7.3 man]

I think I'll just get an alignment done, and see what that does. The pitman arm is centered up too along with the tie rods, I was thinking pull the wheel off the splines but one member said you couldnt pull the steering wheel off and put it back on, in my picture is after the new box on, and before it was centered. I had an auto shop class in HS but we didnt go in depth on everything.

 

[riotwarrior]

Sounds to me...like the spline on the rag joint was not on center when this took place...simple nuff fix..ask me how I know

 

[warhog]

I think I'll just get an alignment done, and see what that does. The pitman arm is centered up too along with the tie rods, I was thinking pull the wheel off the splines but one member said you couldnt pull the steering wheel off and put it back on, in my picture is after the new box on, and before it was centered. I had an auto shop class in HS but we didnt go in depth on everything.

It will surely fix it, no question about it. When you take it in for the alignment, if it's a small mom/pop type place, ask if you can watch. They might be willing to explain everything while you're right there under it. It's pretty simple really once you see it. That's how I learned.

 

[7.3 man]

how would you center that rag joint?

 

[riotwarrior]

Here is what I did...I drove down the road straight...stopped the truck dead in middle of road...I live on long straight road in country.

I took some black tape, taped the steering wheel at 12:00 on the wheel thus showing me how far to move the wheel.

I then drove home, pulled in straight, tape was in same spot as before.

undid the 10MM bolt on the rag joint, slid that off the box, then turned the steering shaft so my Superwifey said the wheel was straight. Re-installed the ragjoint back onto box, tightened bolt WITH BLUE LOCKTITE!!!!!.

Test drove...

Golden!

This likely happened when you replaced the box....no big deal...

JM2CW

Al

EDIT

I'm not 100% sure but IIRC the wheel is set with an index spline, I do KNOW the box/ragjoint is not indexed!

 

[7.3 man]

I'll try it