Steering wheel Aligment

[Zerpentyne Fire]

1965 Dodge Coronet,I replaced most of my frontend parts, car rides down road just fine, but steering wheel is off by about 45 degrees to the left and the pitman arm only goes on one way. whats the best way to correct the problem,,, thanks, Zerpentyne.

 

[Darter6]

Steering boxes have what is known as "High Point". You didn't state if it was manual or power.It it the center of rotation from left to right/right to left.You will feel the steering get a little tighter when you reach "High Point".(It's easier to find with manual steering.)Either way, that will center your steering gear.At that point check to see if the bars on the wheel are aligned.If so then move to the tire placement.You stated that the wheel is 45 degrees to the left when traveling straight.With the steering wheel aligned, you will find that the tires will be pointed to the right. You will need to turn the tie rod sleeve on the driver side to make it shorter.Count the turns till the tire looks straight.On the passenger side you will have to turn the sleeve to make it longer the exact amount of turns that you did on the driver side.Just a guess is about 4 turns. This will straighten out you problem without having to have a shop re-align the car. At the most you may have to remove one or the other tie rod ends to give you the same amount of threads at the sleeve. I hope this helps.

 

[WileE]

Is the shaft indexed to the box ? Is the wheel indexed to the shaft ?

 

[mentor70]

most of the time you can address this problem with an alignment, but this sounds like something in the steering has not been indexed properly.

if the wheel was off say 15 degrees or so, you could have the steering wheel held straight in the car, and use the tie rod adjustment to correct the problem