Would anyone be able to tell me how to go about tightening my steering i have about a 1/8 of the turn play in it , also will disconnecting my power steering (belt , high pressure hose ) be bad in the long run ? any help is appreciated. John
If you disconnect the belt, you will be very amazed to see how difficult, nearly impossible it is, to turn the car. Much harder than even manual steering. I have heard of turning the screw on top of the steering box, but I am not sure how much this will fix. Sounds like you may have a serious steering problem, requiring a rebuild. Hope not, and would love to be proven incorrect on this one. Good luck.
well as of now i have the high pressure hose off with no fluid running in it , the belt is still atached , yes turnig gets somewhat harder but its not that bad. So your sayin if i take the belt off it will get worse?? hmm i dontknow i guess ill try and see. thx oh how about going about tightening the play on the wheel .
My dad's Comet had power steering from the factory, and he removed it and drove the car without it for 15+ years. The one time I backed that car around the driveway it steered easily. Our '74 has manual steering and it steers easy to.
Jamie, Did your dad remove the pwr steering belt, or the power valve? By the way, I still have a bunch of stuff in the attic for you, if you want it.
If you remove the power steering valve and cylinder, you have converted to manual, minus changing the steering box gears. If you remove just the belt, you are using powersteering gears, plus fighting to steer against a powersteering system that is locked up. I couldn't steer mine to get out of a driveway, with the belt off, but hear that replacing the valve with an aftermarket part, removing all powersteering parts, is almost as easy as manual steering.
The steering box is easy to adjust. Simply loosen the set-nut and turn the screw clockwise with a flat-tip screwdriver until it stops (don't over-tighten it, as it can cause the steering to bind). Then re-tighten the set-nut. If you have replaced the control valve and power cylinder with the proper manual steering linkage, it should not be extremely hard to steer. The power-steering gear box requires more effort than the manual steering box does, however the manual box is a slower ratio and steering response will not be as good. I'd stick with the power box, and just adjust it to remove the "play"...
If you have that much slop, your control valve is my first thought, secondly the rag joint in the steering column. The steering box should really be screwed before it would have 1/8 turn worth of slop, it would probably slip (jump teeth) or something before that.
appreciate the imput guy thx , ill try that and let you all know how it goes . i alos have another question the metal moldings around the windows ( drivers and pass front and 1/4 windows need to come off so i can grind down some rust but i would like to get bew mouldings made does ne one know who might offer this ??
Your talking about what we call the nike swoosh's i assume. well your better off finding a chrome shop and having them rechromed. Ebay is about your best bet for those.