Steering box - Adjust ? New? Recon ?

[morgan]

68 Charger - v.vague steering - (about 11oclock to 1oclock) -
Got a good look at it today - all appears to be in the box itself (input shaft moves, output arms dont....)

Car is perfectly drivable, but its a bit like 'guiding' rather than 'steering' !

So - Questions are -

1 - Anyone got a manual of which bits to look at to try and adjust (I vaguely remember something about full lock, tighen, other lock tighten etc)
2 - Anyone recommend somewhere to get it rebuilt ?
3 - It it even worth it or just buy a recon unit and be done ?

Lastly - any idea on prices for options 1 and 2 above ?

Thanks !

Morgan.

[DaveBishop]

Wil at usaimports can get exchange ones

[Dave-R]

I have posted diagrams and adjustment proceedures a couple of times before. Have a look around. Use the seach facility. If you can't find them I will post them again but i can't keep posting the same things over and over again.

[MrNorm]

Also Morgan, since you are getting into working on the car (good job!!) do yourself a big favour & get yourself a factory service manual, you can get them on CD so it's not even big bucks for postage. They are invaluable, don't answer everything but nearly do!

[Anonymous]

Morgan,I'd be inclined to replace all bushings,ball joints,inner/outer rod ends,idle arm & sway bar bushes to front end. Maybe go the whole hog & replace torsion bars with heavy duty ones.BTW,if as you say you have 11 to 1 play with engine running,thats a hell of a lot.The manual is not that accurate on steering box adjust,I found the best way to adjust is to, (dave might come back on this one )screw the adjustment all the way clockwise,until you feel it backing itself SLIGHTLY,then turn it anticlockwise 1/4 turn,wheels straight ahead.The manual won't say to do this in case you are heavy handed & turn the adjustment to far clockwise so the box becomes to tight.If you are using the car mainly for street use I would use rubber bushings as poly tend to be to harsh,also most tend to go for poly as you dont have to remove outer bush on LCA.I know you are thinking this may be a costly/time consuming job,but it is well worth it.
Also you might want to put heavy duty rear leaves on the back & replace bushings to poly.(rubber up front).Sorry morgan I'll say no more. Adam

[vipergts]

Morgan.... I'm going through the same process at the moment. My 68 is also like steering the QE2.

Like you I found the input shaft turns a lot with no output movement but decided to leave the adjustment until I've replaced all the bushes and tie rods as there is also lots of movement in these joints.

Definitely an MOT failure so it's got to be done.

[morgan]

Thanks all !

Given the car is MOTd until April it may wait for winter when I want to take the front end apart anyway...

Dave - I did search I promise ! (like before posting) 'steering' 'box' 'adjust' etc.... ! ! !

I have downloaded a parts manual with schematics, will check that.

ref manual - If anyone has a copy they are willing to CD burn for me that would be great (will check ebay and amazon in the meantime)- I am building a small library of 'small block mopar engines' and '727 gearboxes' etc... Some of them are even getting oily !

[morgan]

PS - Adam. In my heart I know you are right
Still - it'll be fun ! !

[Dave-R]

I have to assume you have power steering??

If what you want is not amongst this lot then let me know.

[Dave-R]

One more. It would help if I could post full pages at a readable resolution instead of having to crop and resize every damn thing I post.

[morgan]

Wonderbar !

Thanks Dave, very much obliged....