Centering steering wheel

[maddart]

I am finally ready to assemble my front end and have the pitman arm/idler arm and center link in. I noticed two things.

1- Old tie rods- The driver side is much shorter (2 threads on each joint)
than the passenger side (11 threads each joint)

2- 5.5 turns of the steering wheel lock to lock. With steering wheel centered
it is 3 turns to the left and 2.5 turns to the right. How do i adjust this?
Control arms still need to be installed

1967 coronet 383 4 spd Manual steering/Manual brakes

 

[tpodwdog]

5.5 divided by 2 = 2.75 or 2 and 3/4. turn your wheels all the way to the left and put a piece of tape or something to mark it at 12:00( dead center top). then turn the wheel to the right 2 and 3/4 turns to the right. your tape should end up at 9:00..( dead center on the left). now your steering wheel.( steering box also) is centered. pull the steering wheel off and replace it so the spokes of the steering wheel are straight across( if you have a 2 spoke steering wheel). etc. etc. . now you will have to play with the tie rod ends to make the front wheels point forward like they should be. this will get you to the alignment shop. you may have to re-do this after you get the car aligned when youre done assembling the front end. ( centering the steering wheel part by pulling it off and putting the steering wheel spokes where they should be)...or have the alignment shop center the steering wheel with "toe in and out". i just got done doing this to my road runner last week.!

 

[cj's mopar]

I would not do this.

5.5 divided by 2 = 2.75 or 2 and 3/4. turn your wheels all the way to the left and put a piece of tape or something to mark it at 12:00( dead center top). then turn the wheel to the right 2 and 3/4 turns to the right. your tape should end up at 9:00..( dead center on the left). now your steering wheel.( steering box also) is centered. pull the steering wheel off and replace it so the spokes of the steering wheel are straight across( if you have a 2 spoke steering wheel). etc. etc. . now you will have to play with the tie rod ends to make the front wheels point forward like they should be. this will get you to the alignment shop. you may have to re-do this after you get the car aligned when youre done assembling the front end. ( centering the steering wheel part by pulling it off and putting the steering wheel spokes where they should be)...or have the alignment shop center the steering wheel with "toe in and out". i just got done doing this to my road runner last week.!

I have 3 mopars and restored all and everything on these cars including steering boxes and colunms .
The steering wheel should never be just removed and center on the shaft because if you do this you are going to mess up the master spline on the top shaft .
also the wheel will be center but the turns lock to lock will still be the same 3 one way and 2 the other .
what needs to be done is put the wheel on the master spline and center the steering box by counting the turns and moving the pitman arm placement on the box. IT is one 1/4 turn off or clocked wrong! If you remove the pitman and center the wheel and tires and all are on the master splines then install the pitman the wheel will be mostly center and the tie rods should be adjusted even and then every thing should be center. then set the toe.

 

[maddart]

The pitman arm is keyed and can only be placed on the shaft in one position.

 

[cj's mopar]

The pitman arm is keyed and can only be placed on the shaft in one position.

The steering wheel is keyed and can only be installed in one position
but the pitman has four 4 big splines and can be rotated in 90 deg turns i am holding a brand new one in my hand and i have had a car that had the same problem yours does but hey if you want to rigg it go ahead .

 

[maddart]

CJ

I think i'm confused. There are no control arms/tires on the car right now. The only thing connected is the pitman/ idler arm/center link.
If i turn the wheel from full left to full right it is 5.5 revolutions. If i come back to the midpoint and straighten the wheel out (Imagine a "T" as the steering wheel) then it is 3 turns to the left and 2.5 turns to the right.

I do see the 4 keys in the pitman

 

[D575]

center up the pitman arm. it will point straight back along with the idler arm. when you start to connect the tie rods site down the tires either from the inside or the outside and notice the how they align with the rear tires. make sure the steering wheel is straight. keeping the wheel straight . jack up 1 side and spray some paint on the tire white or silver. roll the wheel and scribe a line in the paint. I have all the alignment fixtures so it's up to you to figure how to hold something steady enough to scribe a line. after you have a line on both tires. center the wheel , site down the tire front to back. take a trammel or tape measure and record the toe. you want about 1/8" toe in. if you need to adjust site the tires front to back and make the necessary move to keep the tires even or the same siting front to back. I hope that make sense , you can also use a string front to back to get it close or to tell if you car has some major wang in it.

 

[tpodwdog]

i have never in my entire life ever seen a " master spline" on a steering wheel...pitman arm ...yes....steering wheel....never.

 

[D575]

i have never in my entire life ever seen a " master spline" on a steering wheel...pitman arm ...yes....steering wheel....never.

I used to work at a frame and alignment shop in my youth , some cars had them. That was 30 years ago so I really don't remember which ones. We used to use a die grinder to grind them out. But only for the cars that were dogtracking or had bad frame work. You want to keep that pitman arm straight because theres a high spot for adjusting the steering gear in that position.

 

[maddart]

What a night sleep will do. Ding Ding i get it. The pitman arm has 4 keyed flats that equal 90° or 1/4 turn of the wheel. Mine is off 1/4 turn. I need to move the pitman arm to the left (driver side) 1/4 notch.

Then i can set the ride height and roughly set +2° caster (Can i do this in the air) set camber and toe in. This would at least get me to the shop to get a proper alignment.
This is manual steering.

 

[maddart]

OK
Removed pitman arm and tried centering steering wheel which put pitman arm at the wrong angle and the wheel still wasn't center between stops. I noticed that the steering box got almost a full 6 turns when not connected to anything.

I reattached centerlink to pitman and idler arms and measured equal distances from centerlink to the frame. This puts the steering wheel a quarter of a turn off.

Guess the next step is to set up the front end and adjust the steering wheel to follow.

 

[tpodwdog]

im just sittin back and watchin this...im dying to see how you get it in the middle.......just watchin

 

[D575]

Your over thinking it, center up the steering gear. center up the steering wheel and site down the tires set the toe. it's not about measuring from the frame. I mean a 40 year old car has probably been through a lot of bumps and crashes . sometimes you can't rely on frame specs. If you really want to be confused check your Datum Line

 

[tpodwdog]

..........STILL WATCHIN.........lol

 

[kdtjb]

Get an alinement. They center the wheel with a steering wheel lock. then they adjust the toe in with the tie rod ends to straight ahead. Steering wheel straight, and wheels straight. If you do it your self, turn the tie rod sleeves the same number of turns.

 

[ply64post]

master spline

i have never in my entire life ever seen a " master spline" on a steering wheel...pitman arm ...yes....steering wheel....never.

For All

There are master splines and index marks to align during the assembly into the vehicle.:sFl_america2:

Pictures 1 thru 4 are from the 64 Plymouth factory shop manual.
Picture 5 is from the 69 Dodge factory shop manual.
Pictures 6 column steering shaft
Picture 7 p/s box(1969)
Picture 8 manual box(1969)
Hope this will help clarify
Jeff

 

[myaerocars]

Sure looks like a Master spline to me .........



thanks for the "clarity" of the situation.

JON

 

[maddart]

Yes-there is indeed a master spline on the steering wheel. Saw it when i removed the wheel.
I am still unclear how to line everything up center.
The steering wheel was 3 turns to left/2.5 turns to right and the tie rods were set up to compensate for the 1/4 turn difference.
The pitman cannot be indexed any other way than it is. (I tried). The steering wheel can be modified to work correctly thus defeating the purpose of the master spline.
The only other thing is the Manual steering box being off. Was this rebuilt at some time? I do know this car was raced hard at some point in its life, also know it was tagged on front pass. side at some point.

 

[tpodwdog]

well there AINT ONE ON MINE!

 

['67Satellite]

Ooo this is getting exciting!