Poor steering - gear shaft adjustment?

[Malicious]

hi all, the steering on my coronet has been sub par for a while. Due to a damaged rim, I’ve had to change to 18”s for a while and it’s made it all a lot more obvious and frankly not fun to drive.

I’ve had an alignment to no avail. I’m adjusting a few things that might be effecting it. But going though the service manual, one of the fixes for excessive play is adjusting the gear shaft. However the procedure is a little vague for me to follow.

I get the principles, but I have no idea what nut it is telling me to adjust! Can someone please help describe the procedure to me? Powered steering 68 Coronet.

Also if you have any other ideas on how to reduce the flat spot and avoid the car ‘train tracking’ through rough roads, let me know!

Cheers in advance.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Please explain a little more what your problem is. What is "train tracking"?

If your car "wanders" (drifts left/right/left/right while you hold the steering wheel perfectly straight), then first make SURE your tie rod ends, idler arm & pitman arm + wheel bearings are in perfect condition.

IF all of that is perfect, then on top of the steering box (you can see it under the hood, just look), there is a large nut with a flat-head screw in the middle. You loosen the nut, turn the screw clockwise maybe a 1/2 turn & re-tighten the nut. I believe that is adjusting the "worm gear" inside the steering box. Somebody please jump in and correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I think train tracking is bump steer.

Be very careful adjusting the worm gear as too much will cause it to go full lock really fast and can put you in a ditch.
This is a jeep steering gear but its basically the same procedure.


Also this oldie but goodie

 

[Malicious]

Not 100% it’s bump steer, but it does happen on rough roads and through bumps.

Train or tram tracking is what Aussies call when a car’s front wheels jerk steering to follow ruts or grooves in the road. Kind of like having too much toe, a small wheel adjustment and suddenly it will veer like it’s had a harder turn.

That’s essentially what I’m dealing with.

But it also has a decent sized amount of slop. So it’s nothing then heaps of steering.

I’ve just raised the car up a bit and just replaced the idle arm as it seemed to put the dragline on an angle. The idle arm side of the drag link was touching the bottom of the sump.

Seemed to help a bit, but it’s still very present. Will adjusting the gear shaft possibly help?

All tie rods and ball joints are new from the rebuild about 4 years ago, very little drive time since tho. Maybe 5000 miles.

Appreciate any help.

 

[Don Frelier]

A couple other things:

Upper and lower control arm bushings?
Steering shaft to steering gear input coupler?

These two will definitely give the problems you describe.

 

[Malicious]

New QA1 upper ams, rebuilt lower arms and coupler. but I had the coupler off a couple of weeks back. I'll have a look at it this week...

Pretty sure I need to swap to a rebuild or burgeon box at this point, but I want to eliminate all other possibilities first.