the only adjustment you can kind of adjust on the car is the cross shaft adjustment screw
center wheels
undo lock nut
jack car up to lift front wheels clear of ground
do the centrebolt up snug not tight
turn steering wheel to check if its stiff in the middle.... no stiffness....this is good
do up lock nut
or do it up so it is stiff at the steering wheel in the middle of travel... be gentle
and back it off 1/8 of a turn till you just feel no stiffness at the steering wheel.
i.e with no steering wheel on, or a tiny steering wheel you would still feel a stiff spot in the middle straight ahead position, but due to the size of the standard wheel and the leverage it gives you can't...
its supposed to be stiff in the middle. but not a "road safty test" failure level of stiffnes, felt at the standard steering wheel.
both methods are a "get you going" methods, and are not the correct way....
correct way ilustrtaed in manual
which is more along the lines of
remove steeringbox
load wormshaft bearing , to specified turing force then do the cross shaft and check the turning force again.
both with a small inch/lb wrench and a 16 point socket, can't remeber which imperial or AF socket fits over the spline in a snug manner to do this. but for both sizes of steering box there is one.
I was in a similar situation with a power box A body, by the road side,
And i did the following
I found that the large hex nut/ ring around the worm shaft beraing adjuster had come loose and the bearing adjuster had rotated.
the bearing adjuster is a screw in alumininium top to the steering shaft end of the box. that whole end screws in and out and is locked in place with a hex shaped lock ring... like the headset on the steering of a motor cylce or bike.
screwing it in presses the ballbearings harder into the bearing seats on the worm shaft, pinning it tighter between the screw top and the bottom of the case. these bearings are caged ball bearings like those on the crank pin of a raleigh pushbike... be gentle with them...
this was on a RHD v8 Valaint 4 door VIP (australian) (no access from above) due to offset booster and offset floor and offset engine all being the wrong way for RHD.. and the steering box mounted 1940s/50s style to the chassis rail
so we got under with the trolley jack handle and a small hammer
the jack handel and hammer were used (placed carfully and tapped gently) to knock the hex ring back and forth to clear the threads
I backed it off about 3 turns
then re positioned the jack handle against a rasied section of the bearing adjuster and tapped it round gently until it stopped + 1 extra tap.
i then did up the lock ring in the same manner
then snugged up the cross shaft adjuster using FEEL..
not the right way to do it
but car soldiered on for a good few years after that....
was helping a mate get it ready for sale....
and the conversation went "why is you steering so god awful"....
and we checked... and found out why.
The proper way is in the book
Dave
