bbsr72

put new ball joints in it, new steering box, and had it aligned. steering wheel and tires are straight ahead when its parked but when driving t when going straight the center of the wheel is at a 90 degrees to the right. any ideas guys?

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

What kind of steering wheel ??

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

Sounds like you may want to revisit whoever aligned it.

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

and possibly

if it is an aftermarket wheel the adapter may be off a few teeth

bbsr72

its has the factory wheel in it.

Barlow8869

iTrader: (1)

my dad had an old ford that did that one time, turned out to just be a bad tire ... when you were parked it all looked fine, but going down the road you had to crank the wheel a lot and if you let go of the wheel, it would make a hard turn to the right (and i don't mean just pull a little right either)

InfernalVortex

iTrader: (4)

If having the wheel straight results in the car turning then you have 2 possibilities.

1. The front wheels are pointing off to that side
2. The back wheels are pointing off to the other side.

Thats really about it. Now it could be that the steering wheel is in the wrong spot... or you have too much dead zone in your steering box and they aligned it to taht spot etc etc, but if the car is turning the wheels are not straight, period. Figuring out which wheels arent straight is your biggest concern.

You can try taping string to the back of the back tire and pulling it across the center of the back wheel and across the center of the front wheel. You will be able to see how the string touches the sidewalls of all 4 tires which ones arent straight, do one string on both sides. You can see toe out and toe in and all sorts of thing. You can see where the string bends against the sidewall too. It's not accurate enough to get a precise alignment out of, but it's accurate enough for you to be able to tell if something is off. You can get your toe really close this way, but it relies on a lot of variables, like having the same front and rear track and uniformity of the sidewalls and so on.



But you will see if the front or back of any tire is sticking out a little. That's what you need to look at.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

I'd add a 3rd possibility:

Swap the 2 front tires. See if the pull changes.

bbsr72

seriously thinking about just standing back and watching it get made into a cube. my cousin works at scrapyard that has that policy. so 91 formula 350 guys rejoice yours is about to get to get a little more desirable.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

umm.. just because of a steering issue?!

Caveman305

iTrader: (8)

that does seem a little extreme considering you haven't given very clear details on the issue

does the car drive straight when moving even though the wheel is 90 degrees off, or is the car literally trying to turn?

that being said, i'll take it off your hands for the price of scrap, about $400 right?

bbsr72

sorry. I get frustrated with the because of all the money I've thrown into it. like right now when I start it the wheel turns to the right by itself.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

If the steering turns itself while the car is sitting still, the gearbox is defective. Specifically, the spool valve.

bbsr72

glad its a new box then so i can take it back. curious as to what the spool valve does though.

Johnny Blaze

iTrader: (15)

Did you ever take it back to the shop that did the alignment?

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

The spool valve is the part of the hydraulic system that responds to how much torque the steering column has on it, and applies the assist to balance it down to an acceptable level to the driver. It looks like a thread spool, with 2 pieces with little windows in them, and a spring that holds them centered; when there's torque on it, it closes one window a little bit and opens the other, which applies hydraulic pressure to the piston in the gear in the appropriate direction to move the wheels that way and partially relieve the torque.

Yours is not centered.