Sloppy steering

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73dartneedswork

73dartneedswork

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I've just had my power steering gear box replaced with a reman box from Napa. My steering has just as much slop as before.
[ame="http://youtu.be/fncy-lbnLCk"]http://youtu.be/fncy-lbnLCk[/ame]
You can see in the video that when I turn the steering shaft, the coupler and steering shaft move together in unison. I don't think it's the steering coupler causing the problem because the coupler, and upper the and lower steering shaft are moving together in unison.

In the second part of the video you can see how much play there is the in the steering.
I tried tightening the sector shaft adjustment but it did not make any difference.
Any ideas, or is this just normal?
 
Check under car as above: it could be any or all of:
1) Pitman arm
2) Idler arm
3) Tie rods ends
4) Draglink (crosslink) holes worn
5) Upper and lower ball joints
6) Upper and lower control arm bushings
7) Broken/cracked suspension mount or component

Start with 1, 2, and 3 above; this is easy to see/feel. But you have to go though an chekc all of this. With the idler, any up and down motion is bad juju.

For perspective, your wheel slop is pretty bad. It should and can be a small, small fraction of that.
 
Is the car running in the video ? Trying to remember the play in my standard steering box , I know it was sloppy , that's why I changed it for a firm feel Stage II , now thinking going Stage III
 
Power steering will have slack in it when car is not running. Should tighten up when the engine is running. This is normal on a Mopar. If it is still slack when the car is running there is a problem.
 
The car was not running in the video but it does the same thing when the car is running.

When I have the car up in the air and have somebody move the steering wheel, the pitman arm does not move in till they feel the slack come out of the steering wheel
 
Air in the lines , not enough fluid ? You sure they rebuilt the thing
 
If the pitman arm is not moving, you have a defective gearbox. PERIOD. No such thing as slack in the steering even with it not running. That's just not true. Really simple to tell. Grab the steering shaft and rock it back and forth like you did in the video and look at the pitman arm. If the pitman arm is not moving the gearbox is the problem. If the pitman arm is moving, then you have bad parts in the steering linkage. But I am guessing that since it appears that you can move the steering shaft VERY easily, that the pitman arm is not responding at all.
 
I agree with RRR. If you're able to move the shaft that easily, there's slop in your box.
 
I agree it looks like a bad box, have you tried tightening the adjustment on the top of the box ?

I went with a Firmfeal stage 2 box for mine. I will let you know when I have it in, but I felt someone else's and it felt right.

That's a lot of work for a bad reman.
 
I agree that the slop is in the gear box. The pitman arm doesn't move in till the loose feel goes away.

The car wanders a lot especially at higher speeds. I don't think it's all related to the slop in the box though.
I did take some video of the idler arm. The car is running in the video. The wheels are on the the ground in the beginning and then off the ground towards the end.
[ame="http://youtu.be/nxtcEzM30rA"]http://youtu.be/nxtcEzM30rA[/ame]
 
That video does not show much, here is what you look for. Sometimes it takes TWO people

Wiggle the steering shaft back and forth and PAY 'Tention LOL

Is there play starting at the top down, between the main part of the shaft and the coupling?

Between the coupling and the box shaft?

No?

Ok, wiggle the shaft back and forth while watching the pitman. With the car running, the pitman should just nearly INSTANTLY follow the shaft movement.

Idler arm: On this, look for play in the ball---where the tire rod connects, and look mostly for "up / down" movement either in the ball or in the bearing at the frame. There should be nearly NONE. 1/8" or so, "maybe." No more

Wiggle the steering and try and watch the pitman move, and watch the ball stud in the pitman. Is there slop between the pitman ARM and the ball stud?

Now try to watch the pitman out of the corner of your eye. Watch as it moves, cranked by someone else, a slow "back and forth" just enough to get "play" out

As soon as the pitman moves, do all the tie rod ends follow? As it moves, look intently at each tie rod end ball. Any slop there?

Physically wiggle stuff.

Refer to the service manual. There's a procedure to check ball joint play.

And of course "any play anywhere". Upper / lower ball joints, cracked, damaged frame somewhere, bad LCA bushings or bad strut bushings.

In this day and age, "riggn" a camera under there is not unheard of!!!!
 
I will put my fingers/hands around each joint in the steering linkage as someone moves the wheels back and forth; you can feel very small bits of play and movement in each joint that you cannot readily detect by eye.

1/8" is IMO waaaay on the far end of tolerable up and down movement in the idler arm. I look for 'nothing'. Small up and down movements in the idler translate into very large changes in toe. Idlers need to be TIGHT. To get some perspective, idler vertical movement is the same as the steering box being loose in its mounts at the other end of the draglink.

Look up the factory procedure in your box for adjustment. The old process involves overtightening the adjustment by more than 1 turn for a re-assembled unit to properly align the teeth mesh, then backing out the overtightened adjustment and working from there. I have to wonder if that was ever done.
 
I got the slop out of the box. :cheers:

I followed the service manual on adjusting the sector shaft. It involves removing the pitman arm from the center link, centering the steering and adjusting it till the back lash just disappears. It did the trick. Now when the car is running and I move the steering wheel just a little the tires move. It's way better than before.
I test drove it on surface streets and it feels good. Later today I'm going to take it on the freeway and see how it feels. I want to find out if replacing the steering box and fixing the slop will help with the drift I feel at high speeds when changing lanes.

Thanks for everyone's help!
 
73dartneedswork said:
I got the slop out of the box. :cheers:

I followed the service manual on adjusting the sector shaft. !
Click to expand...

I was recently told this has been "beaten to death." There's at least one member on here who evidently does not approve of RTFM
 
I guess those factory guys knew a thing or 2 after all ! Good to hear this is so much better. I would still encourage you to take the time to go through a thorough set of suspension/steering checks as laid out. Any small movement will show up in how well/poorly the car steers and tracks.
 
If this was the second steering box in your car, you could say that you got sloppy seconds.... LOL!
 
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