Steering is too responsive

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Pawned

Pawned

N.R.A. Lifetime Member - And damn proud of it
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Valle del Sol, AZ
71 duster 318

I recently rebuilt the front suspension and R/R the steering box.
now the slightest movement on the wheel and the car jumps to the left or right.
Is there come kind of unit I can put on the steering to make it less touchy.

While your at it, do they make one for my wife


Ed
 
There is adjustment procedure for the backlash in the steering gear.
Alignment to specs is first effort for sure. Afterwards you may discover there is something more. Maybe the previous owner over adjusted the steering gear.
 
Could it be the steering box is adjusted too tight? There's a locknut you loosen then you use a big screwdriver and back it off a tiny bit. It may take a few test drives and trial and error with the adjustment till it's good. At least this is what I did on a '64 Fury after someone had tightened it too much.
 
Pawned said:
Not for her car, for her as in personality
.
Click to expand...

Sorry. Your marriage was a package deal. You like e.g. the body, the personality comes along with it. Personalities are tightly integrated. Go messing with it and it would be like taking a couple of pistons out of a V-8. It might still run, but it would not be fun. I could suggest stringing her out on crack. She'd do anything to get another hit. But see, it starts more problems that are worse than the one she had in the beginning.
 
There is no such thing as too responsive on these beasts, consider yourself lucky and enjoy it. Check the alignment too.
 
I had the entire front end rebuilt and then went for alignment, only a couple hundred miles ago.
I thought I heard of a device, in the shock absorber family, that can be added to the steering that would dampen the jumpiness of it.

My daughter drove it around the neighborhood and if a cop saw her, we would have been stopped for a DUI check. My wife also had the same thing driving the car.
I drive it the most and have gotten use to it.
 
Pawned said:
I had the entire front end rebuilt and then went for alignment, only a couple hundred miles ago.
I thought I heard of a device, in the shock absorber family, that can be added to the steering that would dampen the jumpiness of it.

My daughter drove it around the neighborhood and if a cop saw her, we would have been stopped for a DUI check. My wife also had the same thing driving the car.
I drive it the most and have gotten use to it.
Click to expand...

It's called a Steering Dampener, and you only see them on 4x4's (usually aftermarket), they're a bandaid for other steering problems such as a large amount of lift without a Drop Pitman Arm, poor angles, etc. I have 6" of lift on my D50 with 40" tires and never bothered with a Dampener, wasn't needed with the appropriate setup and Crossover Steering.

If the Power Steering Pump is putting out too much pressure, it will cause the steering to be Overpowered/Too Responsive (a very common issue on 60's/70's mopars) Google this : "mopar action pump it down" for info on how to lower the pressure
 
You mentioned that you R&R'd the steering box. Did you change it with another new or used one? If you have power steering this fix may help but the alignment and steering gear adjustment must be correct first. Here's a link: tmm
[ame]http://www.moparaction.com/tech/beep/PUMP_IT_DOWN-re-v1.4.pdf[/ame]
 
Different symptoms and different cures. I would get a factory service manual and adjust the steering gear per proper procedure.
Chryslers always had very easily operated power steering. I personally love their pinky finger operation. Steering wheel diameter is a factor here also. I installed a small diameter steering wheel and my pinky finger effort increased. But anyway..
Lowering the pump/system pressure doesn't have any bearing on the free play in the steering gear. There is supposed to be a little bit. Without it there is no straight line driving. You're constantly adjusting a little left or a little right.
If the slightest movement of the steering wheel moves tires, the problem is in the steering gear.
And by the way, If it is power steering, the centering valve can cause the same symptom. It's easy enough to check and adjust. That takes us back to the service manual procedures.
 
Redfish, we would have to drive it. lol It's tough to diagnose problems over the net without all the info. tmm
 
It doesn't sound like the problem is in the steering. "Too easy" means you don't get enough "road feel", but not that it will want to wander. It also sounds like you have no play in the steering, which is very good. I suspect the problem is either "toe out", which others have mentioned or not enough "caster".

Not enough caster is a common problem since our cars were designed for bias-ply tires which deflect aft while driving. Of course, most use radial tires today. Ideally, you install Moog offset bushings to increase caster, but install them OPPOSITE from the instruction sheet. Those instructions are intended to correct for a bent-inward UCA mount after an accident. You want to push the front UCA adjuster out as much as possible and move the aft UCA adjuster inward. That moves the upper ball joint aft, for better caster. More caster makes the wheels follow behind the steering axis (line thru the centers of the upper and lower ball joints). You want that line hitting the road in front of the tire contact patch. That will make the wheels behave like a shopping cart and follow nicely. Think what would happen if that point is behind the tires.

The reason you might have toe-out after an alignment is that if the ride height sinks, toe out usually increases. If you had new torsion bars installed, or even adjusted higher, and then aligned, it could have settled since. I recently installed a used set of T-bars in my 65 C-body, set ride height, drove around a bit, then found it had settled quite a bit and needed re-adjustment. If any of the above speculation fits, take it back to the alignment shop. BTW, you can easily check toe-in yourself using a tape measure. Search the web for photos. You want just a little bit of toe-in so that as you drive and the wheels deflect back slightly they will be almost straight, but no chance of going to toe-out. The newer and stiffer your suspension and steering is, the less you need to allow for. I aim for 1/16" toe-in.
 
"I suspect the problem is either "toe out", which others have mentioned or not enough "caster"

Totally agree on this one.
My car has a fast ratio steeing box in it and I was having that exact symtom.
After I replaced all the bushings it was touchy as hell, and would change lanes practically if I sneezed.

The toe and caster settings did it.
I set mine at 2 degrees caster and 1/4 inch toe and it straightened right up.
 
Pawned said:
My daughter drove it around the neighborhood and if a cop saw her, we would have been stopped for a DUI check. My wife also had the same thing driving the car.
I drive it the most and have gotten use to it.
Click to expand...

Here's the thing. This might or might not be a power steering problem

It could be alignment

It could be something broken/ loose

It could be the TIRES

It could be a mismatch between the front and rear tires.

With the car stopped, engine idling, does the steering wheel "want" to take off on it's own? Does it try to do that if you rotate the wheel a little left or right? If so, definately a PS box problem, and might only need alignment of the control valve, procedure is in all the shop manuals.

But if it seems to "dart" left / right going down a straight road, there are a number of things could be the problem, as above.

I can remember two cases of simple tire mismatch

Back in the mid 70's I was "a little poor." I rounded up some bias ply recap snow tires on the back of my RR, with radials on the front. I only intended it for a second car, slow speeds, around town. At 35 mph, that thing was just plain scary. Felt like one end of the car was gonna waltz right off the road!!

The second was my then boss had a new (couple years old) 80s Dodge 1/2T. Rear tires were getting thin, so he had me put two new ones on the rear. Still all 4 radials, but different brands. At 45--55 mph that thing felt like it was going to swap ends. We finally went back and had the same tires put on front as the rear.

I would get somebody who KNOWS front ends and this generally does NOT mean a "big box" brand to look the thing over critically for play in the front end.
 
The alignment shop prob. aligned your car to '71 specs.
You want better than that these days because you have better/different tires aswell.
Contact them with the 'issue' you're having and ask if they can align the wheels with more caster like said above.
 
not with me but I was sent an article from one of the guys here and we went from there
 
Can you post the alignment specs when you get a chance......

Did anyone possibly over-adjust/tighten the steering box?
 
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