Hey guys. Some of you have seen my build thread, others have not. Basically, my car has gone a complete restoration, including the entire steering system. I have moog tie rods (inner/outer), moog centerlink, moog idler arm, and hotchkis heavy duty tie rod sleeves. Ball joints are brand new moog units as well, and I even put a new steering linkage assembly with rag joints in the car.

My problem is that the steering is absolutely horrendous with a huge dead spot in the feel. If I am driving straight down the road and the car starts slightly drifting toward the side of the road, normally just turning the wheel slightly would correct it, but I find that I have to turn my wheel 2-3 inches to get the car straight again. It's extremely annoying, and with so much money into my suspension for handling, I feel like I can't even push the car and have fun with it. The steering is killing my confidence with how sloppy it is.

My gearbox was replaced about 5 years ago but the car sat for 4 of the years while I was restoring it, so it is basically new. I know there is adjustment in the box, but is it really necessary on a box that doesn't have much use on it? I'm just really trying to get ideas and opinions, because I honestly can't even stand driving the car like this. I drove a buddies 92 trans am and the steering was WORLDS better than this. UGH! So frustrating!

 

That much slop should be easy to narrow down.

First, check all of your work. Make sure everything's snug, especially the steering column bolt near the booster and the rag joint connection.

Turn the steering shaft by hand and observe the movement of the pitman arm. Play in the box will be evident here. Follow the movement through the center link and the idler arm to the tie rods.

Check your wheel bearings for play...

 

Yes. I'd check for a something loose first, but the refurb I bought at oreilly's was a fair way off from ideal out of the box.

 

Did you adjust the drag link/center link per the instructions in the manual? Anytime you put in a new idler arm you should at least check this measurement.

It sounds basic but did you get an alignment? You may have had so much slop in the system before that after you fixed everything your alignment needs to be corrected.

 

Don't fret... I know I've had my fair share of steering nightmares on my car!

First thing's first.. Check all of your steering components and make sure they're tight and torqued to spec (I had loose bump steer kit once that made the steering scary loose). Turn the steering wheel and see if the shaft moves the same as the steering wheel. Then you know your shaft is good. Then check the shaft movement compared to the pitman arm. If the shaft moves a good amount but the pitman arm doesn't, that means your slop is in the box. I know how this feels I bought a 600$ box from Tom Lee and after a few months my steering felt like a wet noodle. Turning the adjuster helped slightly so it's driveable but damn annoying... I have to send the box to them over the winter to get it repaired. Where did you get your box from?

And lastly but very important: Get the alignment done and check your specs (let us know what they are). Recommendation: Adjust for some negative camber like -0.75* , as much positive caster as you can but the right side 0.5* higher to accommodate the road crown, and slight "toe in" for stability (3/32 :toe in: seems to be the norm around here for good street handling)

Another thing to consider: You have wider wheels, and they follow the uneven grooves in the road much more than stock wheels. This ofcourse has nothing to do with loose steering, but a loose steering mixed with this feeling can lead to a VERY unstable and unconfident driver!

I've seen your car on youtube and followed it for a couple of years. It's a beauty don't let some silly steering gremlin get you down. I know it's frustrating but you'll figure it out. Hell, if you can do what you did with your car already a loose steering should be easy for ya!

 

Hey there, any news on this issue?

 

I've determined that the gearbox itself is real loose. Got under the car, shook the heck out of everything, and the steering is tighter than new. Had my brother turn the steering wheel about 2 inches back and forth and the linkage to the box was moving, but not the pitman arm. When the car went through the resto, I had no power steering lines on the box for about 2 years, and nothing covering the openings. I'm sure some crap got into it and made it sloppy.

Plus, years ago I replaced my WS6 box with the crappy base model box since I didn't know there were 2 different ones lol. I'm going to end up getting the delphi 670 steering box in a 12:1 ratio. From what I hear, that gearbox gives the car an unbelievable steering feel, and a lot of guys compare it to a rack and pinion in terms of road feel and tightness.

There's really no other part that was re-used in my steering setup besides the box itself, so I am sure thats the cause. With that said, I know I could use an alignment as well, but by using a tape measure I got the front wheels very close to centered and there is no way just having a slightly mis-aligned steering would cause the car to be as horrendous as it is. When I say it's tough to control even going down the highway, I mean it. Lane changes alone are a two handed operation, and I can't stand it! Once I get the upgraded box, I am going to a local performance shop to have it laser aligned. I will keep your specs in mind. Thanks a lot for the help and the good words on my car!

 

ive had the same issue using the moog parts
i made sure i adjusted the idler high per specs
and ive changed the steering box atlest 8 times
ive adjusted the alignment on a hunter machine atlest monthly
ive adjusted boxes per spec
i have got all the loseness out of the box but there is still steering drift
getting the looseness out took many months of trial and error
i just recently replaced the power steering lines that seemed to help with the steering feel but now its almost too tight takes lots of force to move the wheel but still has the drift problem just wont stay on center
constantly makeing corrections for direction and minor movements of the wheel cause over correctiongs
i would assume anyone behinde me would assume i was drunk its not as bad on the freeway as it is on low speed roads

 

For me it's highway and high speeds that my car gets wacky.. At low speeds and on perfect roads it drives good. Same thing with my car though, everything is tight as hell, aligned, and upgraded. The box, as I said, is newish (a couple thousand miles on it by now) and when I turn the steering shaft the pitman arm doesn't move so there must be play in the box. I didn't repair it this winter (last 8 months have been hell for me, going through a separation and selling the house, etc.) so I'll start working on it as soon as things get in order. I'll most likely try the adjuster on top of the box again and see if that helps some.. If not then it's most likely inside the box and i'll need to send that to Tom Lee for internal repair. Any luck on you guys' end?

 

I actually put a remanned 12:1 box on mine that I picked up at advanced auto to replace my old base box. After getting that on along with a complete system flush, I got an alignment done and it made a HUGE difference. Steering is still not 100% to my liking, since the wheel doesn't "auto-correct" when coming out of a turn, but I'm beginning to just assume this is a characteristic of our archaic truck steering setup. The side to side wandering while driving down the street is gone for the most part, and only every once in a while when coming into a turn it feels like the steering is not a linear movement. I'm much happier now than before though, and honestly someone needs to address the absolute crap steering design on these cars. Mine would be SO much more enjoyable to drive with crisp and responsive steering like you'd get with a power rack!

 

Been saying that a bolt in rack setup would be an instant buy for tons of guys on here.. But some people think otherwise. I cannot understand why people wouldn't want modern technology for their steering? I like the "ratio" and "quickness" of my box, but I HATE the off center feeling and constant looseness of the box. Plus a power rack is lighter and sits lower in the engine bay and doesn't use the thin sheet metal of the front subframe as a place to bolt to, it uses the beefy k-member. UMI seems to listen to people on here alot.. This would be a definite buy for me, in a heartbeat, hopefully it would work with the stock k-member, but if not, then even with their k-member I would still buy it because it has capability to use LS or SBC mounts so it's very interchangeable.

 

No kidding. I'd be all over a reasonably priced and quality rack.

 

This is making me want to make a thread about this to see how many people would be willing to buy this.. and maybe some vendors can chime in and talk to us about the pricing and other details? After all the money I spent on suspension/steering, what's another few $ for some nice solid precise steering?

 

So is the 670 box not a good fix? I've been looking for a solid solution for the steering and there seems to be nobody who really understands how to remedy this (talking about vendors) Turn-one are supposed to be THE guys, has anyone tried them?

I'm thinking another often overlooked item is the actual frame mounting, surprised no one make some kind of weld in/bolt on brace for this, the wonderbar is not enough IMHO. there has to be a way to eliminate all the play and regain some good steering feel.

 

Turn one and the Lee 670 box are similar IIRC. It's the same 670 box I think. To be honest, I agree with you on the frame re-inforcement part, the wonderbar was good for stock IROC's at 0.94G's on the skidpad or wtv it was back then, now we are cornering much higher than this, with wider tires, etc.

My Lee box was amazing for the first 6 months, then it progressively got looser and I've been driving it like this since 2011 or so, there's only a couple thousand miles on it by now and I want to send it back but I don't have the time to remove it and send it, etc. or even a garage to store the damn thing anymore. I wanted to try adjusting the top screw first and if that fails I'll ship it to them in Cali (they told me to do this before shipping it, so we'll see if that helps some.) BUT even with the Lee box and the amazing road response it ALWAYS LACKED ON CENTER FEEL! That's the problem with this design, no matter how tight it is it seems to always lack on center feel which to me is a big issue when driving on highway or uneven roads because it's hard to keep it centered if there is always a constant play or lack of ability to keep it centered. At low speeds it's no big deal, just annoying, but at high speeds it's downright dangerous at this point and requires two hands on the wheel to make constant corrections. Not fun at all let me tell you. I hope adjusting the top screw fixes this.

 

Anyone running/ know anything about the AGR box?

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/pr...ring-Gear.html

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/pr...to-12%3A1.html

"Resto" model- for some reason it's $60 less?