<VV> Steering Adjustment

Wed Mar 20 21:42:08 EDT 2019

You are both sort of right.  When new, the steering box is tightest in the 
center.  However, wear is greatest in the center.  They are built tight in 
the center so you can adjust to compensate for the wear.  The box obviously 
has wear, or it wouldn't need adjusting.  The question is whether it has 
more wear than the original design allows for.

Adjust it to take out the slack in the center.  Then carefully cycle it from 
one extreme to the other.  If it binds somewhere along the line, readjust it 
just enough to eliminate the binding.  Hopefully, the adjusting screw will 
be long enough to take the slack out.

Jim Becker

-----Original Message----- 
From: Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2019 7:35 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re:  Steering Adjustment

With regard to your point #3, where you say that there will be more
play in the straight ahead position due to wear; I've never worked on a
Corvair box, but every other steering box I have ever come across is
designed so that the play INCREASES as you move away from the straight
ahead position. If you adjust out all the free play, you might find you
have a tight spot at straight ahead.
In fact, I just replaced the entire steering and suspension on my 1960
Impala with a Borgeson box and modified upper & lower suspension arms
(the originals are set up with zero caster, which makes for vague
steering). I had to set the tie-rods up with considerably unequal
lengths, in order to get the tight spot (which was slight but easily
detectable with the front wheels jacked up) in the straight ahead
position.
When I initially fitted the new steering, I just set the tie rods with
equal length, which left me with considerable play when pointing
straight ahead, till I realized what was going on.

On 2019-03-20 19:18, roboman91324--- via VirtualVairs wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Though you can adjust play from the steering box independently, you
> should eliminate other possible points of play in the steering system
> as well.  If nothing else, you should make yourself aware of any
> developing issues while you are crawling around under the car.  First,
> the box itself.
> 1.  There is an internal worm shaft in the box.  This is a short
> ball-screw.  The moving contact is between the bearing balls and the
> shaft.  The balls follow the indented "worm" on the shaft.  Though
> there are other bearing points in the system this is likely the main
> wear point.
>
> 2.  On the outside case of the box is the adjusting screw and its
> lock nut.  To make adjustments, you will need to loosen the nut and
> turn the screw which will increase pressure between the balls and the
> screw.  More on this later.
> Next, determining if the box needs to be adjusted.
> 1.  Park the car with the tires facing directly forward.  Stand
> outside and reach in through the window and gently turn the steering
> wheel back and forth.  You are outside the car to watch the tire and
> make sure you are not significantly turning the wheels.
> 2.  If the steering wheel moves back and forth excessively without
> the tires turning to one side or the other, you have too much play in
> the steering components and something should be done.  There are
> several components which could cause this but we will concentrate on
> the box for now.  Keep in mind that even in a perfectly adjusted
> system, there will be some level of play.
> 3.  Assuming you have too much play, you will need an assistant for
> this next task.  Get under the car where you can see the steering
> shaft at the input into the box as well as the PPittman arm (output)
> hooked to the rest of your steering system.  While your assistant
> turns the steering wheel back and forth as in point 1 above, watch the
> input shaft and the Pittman arm.  If the input shaft turns without the
> arm moving, there is play in the box.  Ideally, when the input shaft
> turns even slightly, there should be some movement to the arm.
> 4.  If the steering wheel can be rocked back and forth significantly
> but there is no observed play between the input shaft and arm, you
> need to look for play elsewhere but more on that later.
> Assuming the box needs adjustment ...
> 1.  loosen the locking nut on the adjustment screw.  You will
> probably observe that the screw will turn outward with the nut. That's not 
> a big deal but I prefer to start out with the screw where
> it started.  You accomplish this by holding the screw where it starts
> with a screwdriver while turning the nut.  The connection may have
> become quite stiff over the decades.  Back the nut away a couple of
> turns before taking the screwdriver from the screw's slot.  You may
> want to clean and lubricate the thread contact between the nut and
> adjusting screw because this could be an issue when tightening things
> later.
> 2.  Have your assistant rock the steering wheel back and forth like
> before.  Keep in mind that this should be done gently.  You are not
> trying to move the wheels against the road.  Adjust the screw inward
> as the input shafts moves back and forth.  You will observe that there
> will be less play between the input shaft and output arm as you
> continue adjustment.
> 3.  You do not want to adjust all of the play out of the system.  If
> the adjustment is too tight, it will cause stress between the bearing
> balls and the worm screw.  tightness will be magnified when turning
> the steering to the far right or left.  Here's why ...  The vast, vast
> amount of your driving is done with the steering facing directly
> forward more or less.  Hard turns are limited to turning corners,
> parking, etc. which are done much less often than driving in a
> straight line.  This means that the worm shaft will wear mostly in the
> center position while the extreme positions see very little wear.  If
> you adjust the box tight in the center position, it will be too tight
> when making significant turns.  You may want to adjust the play fairly
> tight at full left or right and then see what play you have in the
> center position but I don't want to over complicate things.  If you
> can't adjust the play out in the center position without being too
> tight on the right or left extremes you will need a new box or just
> live with the sloppy steering until it gets too bad.
> 4.  Once the adjusting screw is where you want it, you must
> re-tighten the lock nut.  This may seem straightforward but it
> deserves some explanation.  If you try to just tighten the nut, the
> screw will probably move in with it.  This will over tighten the box. 
> Insert your screwdriver into the screw's slot and hold it in place
> while tightening the lock nut.  Use the largest screwdriver that will
> fit in the slot to get leverage.
> Now for other areas where there may be play.  Every moving joint in
> the linkage has a potential for introducing play into your steering
> system.  These are the tie rod ends and idler arm joints.  You can
> check these at the same time you initially check the play in the
> steering box.  While your assistant rocks the steering back and forth,
> look at each joint in turn to see if there is play in any of them. Replace 
> as necessary.  Keep in mind that a moderate amount of play in
> a joint will get worse.  There is a hammer/impact effect in a loose
> joint that a tight joint won't experience.  Loose ball joints will
> also introduce steering issues but that is a tale for another day.
> For those of you who think there is too much detail in the above
> explanation, please forgive me.  I assume that people with all levels
> of experience will be reading this.  What is elementary to one person
> might be an epiphany for someone else.
> Doc
>
>
> In a message dated 3/20/2019 9:00:15 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:
>
> Message: 3Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:59:31 -0400From: "Jim"
> <corvair at frontiernet.net>To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>Subject: <VV>
> Steering Box Adjustment/CheckMessage-ID:
> <7F9886F8FF3E48F1ACA089F9879D8D1F at DESKTOPKNVDCMV>Content-Type:
> text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"
> I want to check the adjustment of the steering box on my '64 Spyder. Other 
> than the shop manuals & CORSA Tech Guide, does anyone have any
> suggestions Jim Bartasevich
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