47-55.1 *Steering Wheel Centering*

[Zippi]

My steering wheel is not straight. Got my wheel puller out and pulled the steering wheel to center it on the column. Looks like there is a gray plastic housing holding the spring for the horn it looks like. I was going to remove the gray plastic piece that holds the spring but I could not remove the metal piece on top. I tried prying it up with 2 screw drivers but it is tight. Does this piece require a puller?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

My steering wheel is not straight. Got my wheel puller out and pulled the steering wheel to center it on the column. Looks like there is a gray plastic housing holding the spring for the horn it looks like. I was going to remove the gray plastic piece that holds the spring but I could not remove the metal piece on top. I tried prying it up with 2 screw drivers but it is tight. Does this piece require a puller?

you do not remove the metal piece by prying, you push it down and remove a c clip, and if that sounds hard then you should be relieved to know that removing it will not center your steering wheel. that horn button pass through will not ever be placed in a different position.

to center the wheel, you have to adjust the tie rods. if your steering wheel is pointing left, you need to adjust BOTH tie rods an equal amount to the LEFT (think of it this way, if your steering wheel is pointing left and the truck is going straight, if you turn and hold the steering wheel straight the truck will turn right, so you adjust the tie rods equally to turn more left). adjusting both tie rods equally will not impact the centering ability of the truck when you let go of the wheel, only the centering of the steering wheel itself.

incidentally, if you push down on the grey piece and turn it counter clockwise, it will come right out. but again, thaat wont help you. that metal plate is there to protect the ignition lock from being broken and the truck being easily stolen.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

you do not remove the metal piece by prying, you push it down and remove a c clip, and if that sounds hard then you should be relieved to know that removing it will not center your steering wheel. that horn button pass through will not ever be placed in a different position.

to center the wheel, you have to adjust the tie rods. if your steering wheel is pointing left, you need to adjust BOTH tie rods an equal amount to the LEFT (think of it this way, if your steering wheel is pointing left and the truck is going straight, if you turn and hold the steering wheel straight the truck will turn right, so you adjust the tie rods equally to turn more left). adjusting both tie rods equally will not impact the centering ability of the truck when you let go of the wheel, only the centering of the steering wheel itself.

incidentally, if you push down on the grey piece and turn it counter clockwise, it will come right out. but again, thaat wont help you. that metal plate is there to protect the ignition lock from being broken and the truck being easily stolen.

Understood. I was thinking once the C clip and plate is removed I could just remove the plastic piece that holds the horn spring And then replace the metal plate. This way I could center my steering wheel. Is that not possible ?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

Understood. I was thinking once the C clip and plate is removed I could just remove the plastic piece that holds the horn spring And then replace the metal plate. This way I could center my steering wheel. Is that not possible ?

nope. because your turn signal cam is part of all of it, and you will end up canceling a left turn almost immediately and maybe never cancelling a right turn. which now that I think about it, may be an existing problem you have now.


edit: it may sound harder to adjust the tie rods, but compared to what you are doing, and losing the horn button, its actually much much easier. loosen the tie rod adjuster bolts, use channel locks, adjust both sides the same amount ( I go in half turns of the adjuster until I understand how much its moving) and then drive a bit to check (after tightening the adjusters). you will probably have more time and swearing in just removing that plate, they are really a pain to get off.

alternatively, depending on the steering box you are using, you MIGHT have a 30 spline on the steering box and you could pull the rag joint/u joint off at the box, turn it slightly, and put it back on. if its a stock AD steering box though, forget I mentioned it.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

nope. because your turn signal cam is part of all of it, and you will end up canceling a left turn almost immediately and maybe never cancelling a right turn. which now that I think about it, may be an existing problem you have now.


edit: it may sound harder to adjust the tie rods, but compared to what you are doing, and losing the horn button, its actually much much easier. loosen the tie rod adjuster bolts, use channel locks, adjust both sides the same amount ( I go in half turns of the adjuster until I understand how much its moving) and then drive a bit to check (after tightening the adjusters). you will probably have more time and swearing in just removing that plate, they are really a pain to get off.

alternatively, depending on the steering box you are using, you MIGHT have a 30 spline on the steering box and you could pull the rag joint/u joint off at the box, turn it slightly, and put it back on. if its a stock AD steering box though, forget I mentioned it.

Ok......there's more than one way to skin a cat. So...if the plastic plate is needed for the turn signals what if I pulled the plastic plate out, trimmed off the tower that holds the horn spring and then replaced the plastic piece.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

Ok......there's more than one way to skin a cat. So...if the plastic plate is needed for the turn signals what if I pulled the plastic plate out, trimmed off the tower that holds the horn spring and then replaced the plastic piece.

you seem determined to do it your way, I am going to stop short of saying it WONT work and just wish you luck. Good luck!

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

you seem determined to do it your way, I am going to stop short of saying it WONT work and just wish you luck. Good luck!

I appreciate all your info.

[_Ogre]

joedoh is tellin it straight, any adjustment you do up top will mess with your horn, cancelling turn signals and horn
if your truck needs an alignment they will straighten it at that time
if you already had an alignment, take it back to have them do it right

[mr48chev]

First thing we need to know (I'm old I forget what folks have on their trucks) is what suspension and steering you have.

With independent you can do just as Joedoe said and center the wheel, screw the side that is toed out in and screw the side that is toed in out. EXACT EQUAL TURNS. I've done that thousands of times when I was aligning a front end and if you don't center the wheel in the process of alignment you haven't done a correct alignment.

If you have the I beam axle and don't have an adjustable drag link You will have to remove the wheel and center it and need the correct lock plate removing tool to do it. I used to be able to hold the plate down with my thumb and remove the snap ring but that was 40 years ago when I was about 4 times stronger than I am now.

This is the lock plate tool that I bought at Autozone or O'Reilly's when I couldn't find my good one last year. Basically you screw it on the column and then push the lock plate down by tightening the wing nut. Once you have the lock plate down far enough so that you can get to the snap ring you pry the snap ring off. They usually give you a fight and one of those O ring hooks from Harbor freight works reasonably well to pull it out and up out of the groove.

As they said though, that lock ring is designed so it only goes back in one place and you don't have a lot of wiggle room with the plastic piece that is the signal canceling and horn connection piece. I went out and looked for one of my old clunker tilts but think I hauled them all for scrap a while back. I am not sure if you can file out a tooth on the inside so you can move the plate a notch. I'm not sure how much you can elongate the hole that the turn signal connector comes though either but that might be a possility.

[MiraclePieCo]

I'm not getting this. The steering shaft is splined; why can't he just put the steering wheel back on a couple of splines clockwise? Everything will be the same but the wheel spokes will now be centered, no?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

I'm not getting this. The steering shaft is splined; why can't he just put the steering wheel back on a couple of splines clockwise? Everything will be the same but the wheel spokes will now be centered, no?

because the hole for the horn stub passes through the wheel in an exact spot, and the cancelling cam for the turn signals is clocked from there too. if you turn the wheel and reinstall the stub will be smashed against the bottom of it.

he wants to remove the horn stub and turn signal cancelling correctly isnt important.

[Zippi]

Maybe I should have explained a little more of what I have from the beginning. It's a 1949 Chevy Truck with a 1991 S10 front clip. The steering column is out of an 84 Chevy truck. The horn does not work. I have a button for an Ahooga Horn. I was wondering if the plastic tower that passes through the steering wheel for the horn contact could just be cut off but not eliminating the gray plastic plate. This would allow the steering wheel to be moved over a few splines.

[nvrdone]

just fix it by correcting the alignment like every one recommends. lots less work and you get a correct alignment.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

just fix it by correcting the alignment like every one recommends. lots less work and you get a correct alignment.

I have an appointment for an alignment on Tuesday. We'll see how it turns out. Thanks guys.

[mr48chev]

Make sure that there is a notation on the work order that the steering wheel needs to be centered. Don't let them BS you with the nonsense that it can't be done as it is extremely simple and if they are paying attention they can do it while adjusting the toe in. That was one thing I was hard core on when I was dong alignments as people don't like crooked steering wheels.

With that front end it is a simple process.

[Jesse Z]

Originally Posted by joedoh

because the hole for the horn stub passes through the wheel in an exact spot, and the cancelling cam for the turn signals is clocked from there too. if you turn the wheel and reinstall the stub will be smashed against the bottom of it.

Just another reason why those ugly S10 steering wheels should never be installed in an AD truck ;-)

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Jesse Z

Just another reason why those ugly S10 steering wheels should never be installed in an AD truck ;-)

the horn stub passing through the original steering wheel has been a thing since the splined steering hub came into use, in 1947 in fact.



it started at 12 o clock, in the 60s it moved to 1:30, and on modern trucks its been at about 10:30. I couldnt put a 60s impala wheel on a late model column without drilling a new hole for it. still worth it to have the horn work.


.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by Jesse Z

Just another reason why those ugly S10 steering wheels should never be installed in an AD truck ;-)

On that column it is going to be the same thing with any other wheel you install be it oem style or aftermarket. The adjustment has to be made in the steering linkage. That's a simple adjustment and any alignment mechanic worth their salt can look at how far the wheels is off and know how many turns they need to make.

[Zippi]

Thanks for the tip on clocking the steering wheel during alignment guys.

[Zippi]

Picked up my truck tonight that went in for upper ball joints and a front end alignment turned into also replacing the inner and outer tie rods. They could not free up the adjustment sleeve to do the alignment. Probable for the best. I took the advisor from this thread and made sure and told them to center the steering wheel during the alignment and they did. Thanks for the advise.

[joedoh]

now find your horn wire to your ahooga horn and the horn wire from the column and make a beep beep (or aooooooga)

[mr48chev]

Good enough. I've had to replace more than one customer's tie rod end and sleeve because they were so rusted together that they couldn't be broken loose.

Years ago I had a customer come in the shop where I was doing alignments who said his car pulled to the right. I put the car on the rack and checked it and the alignment and toe were spot on and it was obvious that someone had just replaced a number of parts. Took it out for a test drive and it drove straight as an arrow with my hands off the wheel. Went back and asked the customer when it pulled and we went out on a test drive and he says that "when you hold the wheel straight it pulls to the right. The other shop had done everything right but hadn't centered the wheel.

[dsraven]

just a quickie on steering boxes and why the box needs to be centered in the straight ahead position, aside from turning further one way than the other.

the gears inside the box are not cut symetrically, they have a high spot in the middle, straight ahead position. this is so when you are driving down the road the steering seems tight and you are not constantly fiddling with the play in the gears, because the gears actually are tight. when the vehicle is turned the gears have a little backlash built in so the turn action is easier and also easier for the kingpin inclination angle to return the steering back to center without fighting a tight gear lash (the reason you can let the wheel slip through your hands after the turn and you don't have to actually turn the steering back to center). if you ride with the steering wheel installed just off center then you are defeating the system. if you adjust the box to be tight at your new centered location then it will be really tight when you turn the wheels past the actual tight spot.
;like said, the first part of an alignment is to center the box and tie it off there. then adjust the linkage to achieve the correct specs for the vehicle. if, when done an alignment, the wheel is not centered then have the tech redo some adjustments until it is straight ahead.
for the horn, the contact in the column is the ground circuit. it should be relatively easy to hook up your cool horn to work, through a horn relay, with the horn button on the steering wheel. arelay is required due to current draw and backfeed of current when the button is released (induced current in the horn windings, like an ignition coil, that kills/burns contacts in switches). rather than have the horn circuit powered all the time it is the circuit to the horn relay that does the slave work so the actual horn only gets power when the relay sends it. it is pretty common for the relay to weld the contacts together due to the aforementioned feedback and current draw, so if your truck has the relay disconnected it could be a simple fix.

[dsraven]

just another hint for everybody.
the lock plate is not splined to the shaft with the same splines as the steering wheel and it has a master spline, like said in the thread, and it only fits on there one way. it's a bugger to get the snap ring off even with the tools and then be careful or the shaft can slip down enough so the upper column bearings can fall out. putting the snap ring back in is a chore as well. see pic in the first post and look closely, you can see the difference in the splines for the 2 parts and may also be able to see there is a master spline for the lock plate as well.
alignment tips (from a non alignment guy, lol)
-ensure all the parts are serviceable and repair as required first
-ensure the tire size is correct
-ensure the wheel offset is correct
-ensure the ride height is correct front and rear, no sagged springs or extra loads in the box that are not normally in the box. if the operator drives around with a toolbox in the back all the time then leave it in there for the normal load. if he shows up with his quad in the back and he normally doesn't have that load then the extra weight will affect the rear ride height and rake angle so it should be removed for the alignment
-center the steering box or rack etc
-check to ensure the steering wheel is straight ahead when the box is centered
-lock the column in the centered position
-adjust the alignment to spec
-road test on normal road with proper road camber, some roads have more camber than others, especially side roads. if the operator always runs on oversloped roads he may require a tweak in the alignment specs

[mr48chev]

From his previous post it looks like they did a pretty decent job.