weird steering wheel centering issue and trans question
Forum: C3 Engines, Driveline and Handling
The pitman is not perpendicular, it is angled to the passenger side as i stated.
the rag joint has nothing to do with this. the steering shaft mark and flat spot on input shaft of steering box are both at 12 oclock.
as I said multiple times. the difference cannot be made up with the tie rods, the distance is too extreme.
as for lock to lock distance, that was on the steering box only with no pitman arm attached. so the rubber stops have nothing to do with it.
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Corvettes of Southern California
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- the box should be checked to see where the high lash is in respect to the flat. Otherwise you're shooting in the dark.
- the pitman arm must be pointing forward in the straight position.
- Tie rods will not be equal or centered, all depends on where the box is set up. While they won't be equal, they should still be able to dial in the box if the box is good from the start.
- if the box was worked on in the past, all bets are off unless you can confirm the gears are original. Bad gears have been sold for years that have been machined wrong. It is still going on, I have a new, knockoff version of the Saginaw box here that is junk. The Flat is nowhere close to the correct position and will never dial-in. I ended up rebuilding the customers original box and he told me to trash the new one.
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the car was wrecked...
when i pulled it out of the barn the wheels were no where close to lined up in the same direction. i replaced the tie rods and began trying to get the steering recentered
i am wondering it an impact on the left wheel (which was destroyed) put the steering box off center
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|UPDATED|12/29/2025 1:00:12 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|
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- the box should be checked to see where the high lash is in respect to the flat. Otherwise you're shooting in the dark.
- the pitman arm must be pointing forward in the straight position.
- Tie rods will not be equal or centered, all depends on where the box is set up. While they won't be equal, they should still be able to dial in the box if the box is good from the start.
- if the box was worked on in the past, all bets are off unless you can confirm the gears are original. Bad gears have been sold for years that have been machined wrong. It is still going on, I have a new, knockoff version of the Saginaw box here that is junk. The Flat is nowhere close to the correct position and will never dial-in. I ended up rebuilding the customers original box and he told me to trash the new one.
i dont know what high lash means or what to check.
what I have checked is that the flat spot being straight up is very close to being in the center of the lock to lock range of the steering box with o pitman arm connected.
when the wheels are straight ahead, the base of the arm is straight ahead. the arm dog legs over so the end point is not straight ahead. the idler arm is straight ahead.
when the steering box is at center and the flat spot at the top, the base of the pitman arm is NOT straight ahead.
again, not expecting the tie rods to remain equal, just not going to have one run all the way in and still not short enough
this is factory original but the car was wrecked
no apparent frame damage but minor fiberglass and destroyed front left wheel
do you still rebuild these? id be happy to send to you for a rebuild and that way you can tell me what is wrong
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