I just got the car back from an alignment place after I did a complete front-end rebuild (torque arm, tie rods, center link, ball joints, struts, springs, and steering box rebuild, as well as all bushings). All Moog parts except for KYB AGX struts. Now the car is very tight and it won't realign to center during a turn. I have the adjuster screw backed off 90* from being fully tight, does it need to be looser than that, or is there some other issue?

 

When that happened to me it was because the ball joints were to tight and not torqued down like they were supposed to.

 

Make sure nothing is rubbing or otherwise imprperly installed; make sure everything was lubed AFTER INSTALLATION; then drive it for a week or 2 and see if it loosens up. If not, THEN worry about it.

I would NOT, UNDER ANY CONDITIONS, mess with the steering gear. If it was OK before, you can BET YOUR LIFE tha tchanging all that other stuff didn't suddenly make it become "tight". Put it back like it was and leave it alone.

 

You seemed to miss in his original post that the steering box was rebuilt. The adjustment nut on the top of the steering box is the single most thing that controls steering tightness. If there is no other binding anywheres else i would say that its in the box and try small adjustments and then testdrive. Just make sure not to overtighten the jam nut cuz you can snap the whole adjustment screw off like i did on my first time doing it.

 

Ah, indeed I did...

Best way to deal with that then, is to follow the PROPER adjustment method. Which is, disconnect the Pitman arm from the center link; loosen the out-in-the-open screw everybody loves to dink with until the Pitman shaft is floppy loose; back off the big sheet-metal jam nut for the adjustment that REALLY makes a difference, which is, the worm shaft preload one; back off that adjustment as well. Make sure the steering wheel requires essentially ZERO torque to turn; back off the worm preload until it gets that way. Then, tighten the worm shaft preload with a spanner wrench SLOWLY until the effort required to turn the wheel JUST BEGINS to increase (it will increase ALOT and rather SUDDENLY when the proper preload is reached and the Belleville washer inside there gets flattened, you want to get it just on the edge of starting to do that); tighten the jam nut; then repeat with the easy-to-get-to adjuster. You can watch the Pitman shaft and tighten its adjuster until there is no side-to-side motion of that shaft.

Most likely, the worm shaft adjuster is too loose now, and the other is too tight. That seems to be the most common way they get mis-adjusted.