I need some advice. I understand that the early style power steering used on the Maverick is not the most popular but I would like to see if I can make what I have work. As long as I can remember, driving my 72 Grabber with power steering on rutted, uneven highway has been scary as hell. Driving on flat roads isn’t too bad but get on rutted roads and the car wants to change lanes. It probably became noticeably worse when I went to wider tires. I have completely rebuilt the entire front end including replacing the power steering cylinder and control valve. The front has been lowered about one inch also. The only thing not replaced was the steering box. When I had the front end aligned I mentioned the problem to the mechanic and he commented that the steering on the car was not designed for wide tires (225’s on the front & 265’s on the back) plus having different offsets between the front and rear contributes to the problem by causing the front not to track with rear. Has anyone had this same problem? Has anyone discovered that alternate front end alignment settings can improve the sloppy steering? I’d prefer not to replace the wheels and tires so the front and rear track the same. As an option, I’ve also seen a lot of discussion about trashing the power steering and going to manual steering. Looks like the most cost effective way is to replace the control valve with the adapter. Does anyone have any experience with that? How hard does it steer with the manual linkage and the power steering box? Also, in my case I’d have to replace the pulleys cause the water pump drives off the PS pump. As I said, I’d really like to make the power steering work. I can’t believe Ford used this system on thousands of cars if it was this scary to drive. There has to be a way to make it reasonable to drive. All feedback would be greatly appreciated.
The first thing you should check is the backlash in the steering box, which is fully adjustable as long as the unit is not too worn-out. 225s are not too wide for the front, although I would not recommend going wider than a 235. I have the original "power assist" steering on my Maverick, and it has always worked well. My steering is tight, even with the 33 year-old steering box...
I agree... You might want to get a second measurement to verify the alignment was done correctly. Can you scan and post your print out?
I haven't used an adapter, but I converted my 73 to manual steering. I had a parts car with complete manual steering as a donor. I used the rebuilt the manual gearbox and used heavy weight oil as a lube. It turns VERY easy. My 77 is converted to manual steering, but the power gearbox was used. Therefore there are less turns lock to lock but it makes parking lot manuvering a little more difficult. When I converted my '73 I also had to replace my water pump pulley.
Hi Yellow..., I did the power- to manual-steering conversion using the adapter. I kept the power steering box. Under parking / low speed conditions, it is tough to turn the wheel. You will build up your forearm muscles. It is not impossible to make low speed turns, but is a little disconcerting. My wife does not care the change at all. On the other hand, my wife and I both like the increased feel through the steering wheel at anything over about 15 mph. The old power-assisted steering had no feel at all. You don't necessarily have to change the pulleys when you remove the power steering pump. I merely changed to a shorter belt. Even the PepZoneKragen.com guys can find a belt in their inventory if you tell them the required length. You can get a good estimate of the required length by running a piece of wire around the appropriate pulleys. I like the fact that I have dramatically decreased the number of puddles under my '73 Mav by removing the power-assisted steering. Regards,
Re: New Pictures Hi again Yellowgrabber, Sorry, I forgot to mention that I don't think that changing to a non-power system will have the desired effect on the "wandering" problem you mentioned. I adjusted all of the play out of the steering box on my '73, and I think doing this might reduce the wandering some. Regards, BaldEagleMav
I had thought of that... What is the best way to check the the backlash in the steering box? I would guess there is a maybe 100,000 mile on it but hard to tell cause running 486 gears for a long time ran up miles much quicker on the speedo.
I will dig out the alignment printout tomorrow and try to figure out how to post it... I've read that with altered suspension (i.e., lowering) could benefit from other than standard setting. Thanks...
Thanks for the response... I've thought seriously for a long time about going to manual steering because of the lack of road sensitivity. The adapter that replaces the control unit with a ridgid link would be the easy and cheapest way to go. But since I've just sunk time and money into everything new (with no leaks) I thought I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately I didn't solve the wandering problem. Does your 73 have the same wheels and tires front and rear? It's been a very long time since I had same front and rear but I seem to remember acceptable handling then. The reason I have to change pulley(s) is because my water pump is driven of the crank and power steering pump. If I remove the pump, nothing will drive the water pump. Thanks again...
I used my AC belt tensioner with some slight mods. Sorry it's not a clear pic. I also picked up a few at the junk yard for spares.
That's the same problem I had. I found a pulley off another car that worked. I believe it was a non-ps car as well.
As promised... attached alignment results. There were a lot of initial. red out of tolerence readings because I had just reassembled the entire front end and this is the initial alignment. Of course the specs used were a standard, stock non-lowered 71-74 Maverick. I have to find the article I read that suggested alternate specs for altered steering geometry. Comments & suggestions much appreciated -
Been awhile since i've seen those numbers...I remember now that I sent my caster more positive than the specs with as close to .5 more positive on the left (for road crown). I am running 245/50/14 on the front so I guess you can say I have wide tires. I also have air shocks, which I will eventually get away from, and I found that the ride is better when I fill them to the top, then let some air out. Your coils were cut and mine hav'nt been(yet) so all this I said may not help. I do know that caster is not a wearing angle though and most of my instability went away by changing it. Steering did also get a little harder though. I also have no ps as you may have noticed. Some will disagree with me but, adjusting the box is for reducing the wheel lash, not necessarely for correcting the instability your describing. I have found that you can damage them by over adjusting. If you are on a good flat road and you can turn the steering wheel back and forth, say about 2 inches or the width of your fist on the wheel, it's good. If you are waundering the steering wheel more than that you might want to snug it a little and drive it on the same course you checked it on. Have fun, good luck and drive safe...
Hi yellowgrabber, I have discovered you don't have to get rid of the power steering to have a stable car. I have done a lot of modification to the front end of my Maverick (I have a TCP coilover with tubular upper and lower control arms along with lowering the upper arms by 1" and adding a larger front sway bar), but you should still be able to achieve a straight handling car without converting back to manual. The first thing is to make sure the control valve is not all worn out. Looks like you already have done that. Next, I would look at the preload on the gear box that T.L. made reference to. I found tightening that up a bit helped a lot. Blugene us right..you don't want to tighten so much that the gear is grinding, or you will probably damage it. I also had a problem with the tires being too tall in front. I forget exactly what size I used to have on there, but they were so tall that the alignment place couldn't dial in much positive castor, which affected how the car wanted to wander at highway speeds. I now have 215/60SR14 tires all the way around and the car handles beautifully... A couple of other things I have encountered over the years: check the frame on the driver's side where the power steering stuff mounts. My '77 started rusting out there causing the the steering to become loose. Not good. Another weird thing that caused wandering was the rear springs. The connection to the back of the frame had started rusting out causing a lot of play when the springs would go up and down, resulting in the car tracking funny. Anyway..just a few thoughts from a pro power steering guy.
