I just got a new AGR box from Hawks and got it installed. The first problem I've encountered is that is seems like I can't get the wheel to point up when the box is centered lock to lock. I get about 2 full turns between the locks, but putting in the center by turning one turn causes the wheel to be off to the right by about 45 degrees. I went ahead and straightened it as best I could, but this leaves me with about 7/8ths of a turn left and 1 1/8 turn right. I'm not sure what I could do to fix this since the steering wheel is keyed and the pitman arm is keyed. I do have one of the solid steering shafts from one of the members of this board, but it did not change my previous steering angle.

The second issue is that there's still a good amount of slop in the center, about 1" at the edge of the wheel. This is from turning it until I can start feeling a little resistance one direction and letting go and then going the other direction and letting go. There is no turn of the wheels during this. I could probably adjust the over-center bolt but I'd have to be careful since center might be a bit off (see above).

Any ideas on why there is not an equal number of turns each direction, or why there is so much slop in a new box?

 

They are notorious for having with their boxes. I have to replace mine as it is leaking. I'm just gonna go with a factory rebuilt box.

 

Well you know what they say about assumptions. Turns out that my pitman arm, either when I was installing it this time or some time previous, had the keys run over and shaved off until the bottom. So it looked from the bottom like the keys were still there but for 3/4 of it they acted like splines. So my pitman arm was a few teeth off. Took it off, cleaned it up, and put it on the right way. Hopefully I didn't damage the steering box splines during the first attempt. I zapped the nut on with an impact (I know I know, but I don't have anything that gets remotely close to the 140 ft/lb or so of torque it needs). The end of the nut sits just barely beyond the end of the shaft, which I guess is normal? It's certainly on there good, or so I hope. I'm putting the rest back together tomorrow and we'll see if the slop is gone since it will actually be over-center now.