I recently moved power steering from my 76 to my 74 Mav which was originally manual. I moved everything between the idler arm to the pitman arm except for the steering gear box. The steering seems to be more sloppy on the 74. WHat could have happened? Did my control valve springs finally give out? Or, is the gear box so different that the steering feels weird? Please help! PS, I love power steering, I really want to make it work.
The old ford powersteering setup, with the power valve and all that, was sloppy to begin with, and put that on a wide manual box and it will just accentuate how sloppy it is. With the short chock auto box, it will still have 1-2" of play (at the steering wheel) side to side before the valve is activated. Add almost twice as much chock-to-chock with the manual box and you will almost double the play.
I liked the way the steering worked on the 76, it was just fine. Should I move the steering box then? How can I tell if the control valve ball stud needs rebuilding. It wiggles around a bit, but i'm not sure how much is normal?
You should feel improvement with the power box. As for the valve...I don't know. I have never seen one that didn't go side to side about 1/2" (at the ball) before activating the valve, so I guess that is normal. But that is going to give you an inch or so of slop at the steering wheel, giving you that swimming sensaton that old fords have. Of course, be sure that all other components are tight and there is no slop or play in other areas.
When someone wiggles the wheel for me, the rest of the system moves pretty good. Sounds like it's time to move the gear box! I grew up driving an 84 Buick Electra that had that same swimmy bathtub feeling, and I love it! It also had a V8 and you could throw it around turns with a flick of the wrist
