[chemnick]

Greetings:

I bought a reman 3 turn steering box for my 67 GTO a while back and put it on yesterday. The main reason was the old one was leaking at the input shaft and I tried changing the seal to no avail. Also it seemed to be too tight as in it wouldn't "center" properly. It was not difficult to bring back to center, but I really expected it would, like after turning onto a side street, spin most of the way back when I let go of the wheel (the old one was also a 3 turn box). My lines are in good shape. Now I wonder if there is any likelihood that I have a pump problem. I guess my question is am I expecting too much for the steering to return to center as well as like my 2012 Chevy pickup? My wheels can be turned pretty easily with the pitman arm disconnected from the steering box so I don't think I have any binding there. I had the car aligned at the end of last season also. Any possible ideas come to mind???? Thanks.

Chemnick

[tempest1964]

Read this post. It explains how to test for low pressure and/or low flow. And how to increase pressure and/or flow.
http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...s-09OC2013.pdf
Good Luck
Tony

[SMW]

Caster plays a big part in how the steering returns to center. The more positive caster the more the wheels want to go straight. Older cars do not have specs for very much caster.

[pro-tour79]

the problem with run of the mill re-maned boxes is that rebuilders disassemble steering boxes and all the parts get cleaned together then all those mixed up parts are used to reassemble.
The gears no longer match each other or the case they came out of then when they adjust the gear lash they further affect the gear to gear contact area, this give a binding feel in the steering, the only way to avoid this is to have you box rebuilt or get one from a company that specializes in custom gear boxes, and NOT AGR!!!

[chemnick]

Thanks guys. I am now considering going to tubular control arms to get improved geometry. There sure are a whole bunch out there..................

Chemnick

[pro-tour79]

Originally Posted by chemnick

Thanks guys. I am now considering going to tubular control arms to get improved geometry. There sure are a whole bunch out there..................

Chemnick

Tubular A-arms by themselves will not change the geometry of the front end significantly, they can have caster changes built in and be made shorter to affect camber and camber gains but in order to change the geometry you must move the pivot points in relationship to each other (shorter A-arms do that but very little)
A bodies suffer from positive camber gains ...bad!
There are ways to fix that these days without braking the bank or falling for marketing gimmicks such as the latest I saw "double offset cross shaft" you can offset something one distance!!