Play in steering with new parts
08-16-2003, 12:14 PM
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Location: Racine WI
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Play in steering with new parts
Hello all,
When I bought my 70 there was a lot of play in the steering. So I've sent out the steering box to be rebuilt at vansteel, I've rebuilt the rag joint, and replaced all the parts of the front end that had any play (idler, tie rod, front wheel bearings). I then took it to a local corvette specialty shop (D & M Corvette in Illinois) where I had it aligned and the steering box adjusted. After all this there still appears to be a significant amount of play in the steering. No where near as much as when I bought it, but still what I consider to be a lot.
Did I miss some crucial component, or am I just not used to this type of steering? I'd prefer to have no play at all and I realize this will make bumps and road changes translate more to the steering wheel, but I'm ok with that.
Its manual steering by the way.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks.
-Isaac
When I bought my 70 there was a lot of play in the steering. So I've sent out the steering box to be rebuilt at vansteel, I've rebuilt the rag joint, and replaced all the parts of the front end that had any play (idler, tie rod, front wheel bearings). I then took it to a local corvette specialty shop (D & M Corvette in Illinois) where I had it aligned and the steering box adjusted. After all this there still appears to be a significant amount of play in the steering. No where near as much as when I bought it, but still what I consider to be a lot.
Did I miss some crucial component, or am I just not used to this type of steering? I'd prefer to have no play at all and I realize this will make bumps and road changes translate more to the steering wheel, but I'm ok with that.
Its manual steering by the way.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks.
-Isaac
08-16-2003, 12:25 PM
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Location: Waterloo ontario Canada
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Re: Play in steering with new parts (KrakHed)
A steering box can be rebuilt 2 ways. One is replace all bearings and seals in the box, might even go so far as to install new pitman bushings.
The second way is to replace all bearings and seals plus polish the pitman shaft and make custom busing in the box to reduce pitman arm clearance to about .001 max. Just replacing with factory bushins will reduce it to about .003. Still too much.
Everything done right and our front ends can be made very tight.
The second way is to replace all bearings and seals plus polish the pitman shaft and make custom busing in the box to reduce pitman arm clearance to about .001 max. Just replacing with factory bushins will reduce it to about .003. Still too much.
Everything done right and our front ends can be made very tight.
