Re: Steering Box ??\'s
The adjustment you refer to is the overcenter drag adjustment for the pitman arm. It is the !!! LAST !!! adjustment made when adjusting your steering gear. Tightening it down alone as a "simple fix" does two things. First it can cause incorrect, possibly even variable, steering response. Second it is going to wear the S#!T out of your steering gear. Don't get me wrong it is definitly possible to adjust your steering gear yourself, you just have to go about it in the correct order.
First- Make sure that all rod ends are tight and in good condition. Also make sure your ball joints are in good condition. Bad rod ends and ball joints are the primary cause of loose steering. Replace any worn components.
Second- make sure column and all steering linkage is aligned properly and is in good condition.
Third- If all of the above are good, then you can adjust the steering gear. The first adjustment is the preload of the worm gear. Look at the front of your steering box. You should see a big lock ring around the outside and a cap with a sort of nut in the middle. This is where you adjust the preload of the worm gear bearings. You will have to drop the drag link off the pitman arm. You are actually supposed to pull the pitman arm, but I have never had it interfere with the adjustment process, so I don't. Your call. Be careful not to bottom out the box hard, the steering stops are no longer in play and bottoming out the box internally can cause damage if to much force is applied. Turn the wheel to one side (gently) until you feel the box bottom out then back off about 1/2 turn of the wheel. Put an INCH POUND torque wrench on the steering wheel nut and measure the torque required to turn the wheel, turn about 1/4 turn or so in both directions. Torque should be between 5-8 inch-lbs. If not in spec. adjust at front of box by loosening the lock ring, then tighten cap to increase preload, loosen cap to decrease preload, when in spec install lock ring to 90 ft-lbs. Now turn the steering wheel back to center. Measure drag in the center with the inch-lb torque wrench just like you did at the outside. Here torque should equal the outer torque setting plus 4-10 inch-lbs, you will end up between 9-18 but you have to do the math. Example: you set the worm gear preload to 6 inch lbs, therefore you need 10-16 inch-lbs. at the center. To adjust this you loosen the locknut around the adjusting screw while holding the screw in place, then set torque to spec with screw adjustment. When in spec hold screw in position and tighten locknut. The locknut is supposed to be set to 25 ft-lbs, but unless you have a crows foot to put on your torque wrench you'll just have to hold the screw and tighten the locknut good and tight with a wrench.
Good luck, hope this helps
My other car is a BULLDOZER
