tomard

Ok - my car drives straight, but the steering wheel orientation is little off and I would like to straighten it up. Had it done once at a performance tire shop, but want to try it on my own first this time - your expertise is welcome

thegazman

How far off is it and why is it off? You can adjust your steering wheel by adjusting your tie rod ends. When you do, you need to adjust both left and right ends the same amount to not change you front end alignment. In other words, if your steering wheel is turned to the right, adjust your front wheels to the right so you will have to turn the steering wheel to the left to go straight.

Jim Shea

The gazman is correct, most likely you can correct the problem at the tie rods. However, if you want a complete picture on steering wheel centering here is the link:
http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...Rev18MY061.doc

Jim

joshtried

if the steering wheel orientation is off, and you are 100% SURE your alignment is good, you can simply remove the horn component from you steering wheel (3 screws me thinks), unbolt the main nut that holds down your steering wheel, use steering wheel puller (which can be rented from autozone or other local parts store) to pull steering wheel, center steering wheel as you like, and put everything back on. very simple, IF alignment is correct and you are SURE.

thegazman

The problem with realigning the steering wheel on the shaft is you can disorient your turn signal cancelling cam in relation to your turning cycle. When you turn using your turn signal going one way it will cancel early and the other way it will not cancel. Then you will have to operate your turn signals manually.

StickShiftCorvette

NEVER straighten a steering wheel by reindexing the wheel on the shaft!!!

While it straightens it, you lose "high point" steering, that is when the steering box is in the proper straight ahead position the internal gears are preloaded slightly higher than when off center.

This is one of the reasons so many old cars don't feel quite right.

Read the service manual and it spells it out step by step.....

LYLE

The tie rod ends are easy to make the wheel straight. Each full turn on the sleeves is about eight degrees. Lengthen one side shorten the other.You need to make sure which end is the RH thread and mark the threads so you are sure you are going the right way on each side.

BenUK

You might need to reposition the steering wheel on the shaft. You might need to adjust the tie rods. Most likely a combination of both.

The reference point for this process is the steering gearbox. As StickShiftCorvette points out, the gearbox must be centred to give you the correct steering feel, to make the steering less vague at the straight ahead position, and to get the indicator cancel cam centred. The gearbox input shaft has a flat at one point. For the gearbox to be in the straight-ahead position, the flat must be at the top.



The rag joint will only fit to the gearbox and the column in one way so if the flat is at the top of the gearbox then the whole column is centred.

So, turn the steering wheel until this flat is at the top and then check the wheel's position. If the wheel is off centre then the wheel needs removing and repositioning on the steering column.

Only once you've done this should you adjust the tracking rods to get the wheels pointing straight ahead when the wheel is centred.

Hope this helps.

LYLE

I have tried to change the wheel on a 73 and I thought it had a mark on it and would only fit in one place. Like their was a grove missing or something.

7T1vette

You don't pull the wheel collar to change the position of the steering wheel. You just remove the six screws on the wheel and re-index it [if it is really off-position].

tomard

With:
Tires straight
Flat part of steering gear at 12o'clock

Steering wheel needs to be rotated CLOCKWISE, about 1 inch.

What is next step?

I assume I would loosen the 4 clamps on tie rods
and turn the LH & RH tie rod equally many revolutions, but which way do I turn them? I read the paper, but I am unsure what "shortening" a tie rod means ..... I have had it aligned before so I am reasonably sure that the threads are going the right way ....

I thought I would use a marker to mark both tie rods, so I could equal the revolutions exactly, but just not sure where to go now!!

LYLE

On each tie rod one end has a left hand thread and the other has a RH thread. I check which end has the RH thread like a normal bolt. Put the steering wheel straight and you should be able to tell which tie rod needs to be longer to make the wheels straight and unscrew it one turn which makes it longer. The go to the other side and tighten it one turn to make it shorter. Make sure you allways do it this way. If you get close sometimes I do !/2 turn.

BenUK

The wheels should be straight when the gearbox is centred (and you say they are).

Therefore you don't need to adjust the track rods. You only need to reposition the steering wheel on the column while the rest of the system stays straight.

However, if you mean the wheels are "roughly" straight then I guess the best you can do is get the steering wheel centred on the column and then take the car for another professional alignment where they'll use lasers or whatever to get the wheels accurate to the newly aligned steering wheel. I suppose alternatively you could set the steering wheel and then drive the car to see where to adjust the track rods but that'll take you a long time and cost you some gas.

I hope I'm right with all this

thegazman

If you are off only an inch adjusting the tie rods is the way to go. If you want to rotate the steering wheel clockwise..shorten the left tie rod and and lenghten the right tie equal amounts. This will turn your wheels left. You will then have to turn your steering wheel clockwise to drive straight. You can look at the threads on the tie rods and tell which way to turn them. Adjust about 1/2 a turn at a time and check your steering. Alignment shops are supposed to do this after a front end alignment, but some only get it close and call it good.

7T1vette

The car is going straight when the steering wheel is 1 inch to the left. If you straightened the wheel [as is] you would be turning to the right...so you need to adjust the tie rods to make the wheels go left. {confusing, ain't it} Pull left tie rod inward; move right tie rod outward the same amount. Try 1/2 turn on adjustment collar to begin with. Make next adjustment based on the change you see.

IcemanZ06

not to hijack this thread, but would this be the fix for my steering wheel also since mine is off by about 45degrees to the left? The car tracks straight when I let go of the wheel but the wheel itself is turned to the left while I'm going straight.

Corellian Corvette

BenUK has exactly the right process. Makes sure your gearbox centering is absolute. Per his pictures, regardless of the steering wheel orientation OR the wheel orientation

Your Steering Wheel should be straight if your gearbox is straight. If not, re-allign your Steering Wheel. Your Steering Wheel and your gearbox are now alligned.

Now, check you wheels. If they are not pointed straight, go to the allignment shop and have them adjust the tie-rods to get your wheels in place.

That's the only correct way to do it.

thegazman

I bought a new steering gearbox from GM last year for my 79 L-82 and it does not have that flat spot. However, it did come with very specific instructions for centering the gearbox. I'm wondering if Tomard's gearbox is like mine....no flat spot.

7T1vette

If you don't have a 'flat' on the shaft, you can always take the car to an empty parking lot and see where the wheel ends up when you turn from "lock-to-lock" [full right turn to full left turn]. The 'true' center of the steering box will be exactly halfway between those two positions. Once you know where center is, put the steering wheel at that point and record the amount of offset (either left or right). Since the steering wheel can be indexed in any of 6 postions, you can make major adjustments [in 60 degree increments] by re-orienting the steering wheel. If the amount of change required is less than 60 degrees, that is when the tie-rod adjustments come in. Keep in mind that, if you need an alignment anyway, just get the wheel where it needs to be when the steering box is centered, then tell the alignment guy to adjust tie-rods to center the wheel "as it is". They should know what to do.

LYLE

I need to look at a stock hub again because I thought their was a cut out on one side of the hub and the bottom of the steering wheel had to fit in it. You are saying it will fit six ways so I guess I will check it out on an extra column I have.