Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

So I went to NAPA for some new tie rod ends, it being closest to my house, and the dude there had the balls to pass off some ends made in China as MOOG to me, I said no thanks, he said MOOG makes those for us, yeah right, it was some generic no name brand

so I bolted out of there and went to O-Really's they were out of stock of their Moog brans, but I remembered I once got some Master Pro parts from them and they was made in the US, so I asked for a couple boxes, but no luck these were made in China, but it was late at night and I really wanted to test drive the truck tonight

so NOT my proudest moment, but I bought some Master Pro outter tie rod ends, well look on the bright side, at least both sides match now and both sides are new, that's a win for this TRUCK

[Gregski]

Oh, almost forgot, I called Midwest Steering, (the place where I got my rebuild kit) earlier this morning and spoke to _________ (fill in name when I remember) the nicest guy, wow they actually believe in Customer Service

anywho I asked them how many balls are supposed to go into that ball screw thingie, he asked for the part number 5698180 and said that case part number came with different guts in it, so he looked at a pic of my ball screw (on this there forum) and said they either came with 54 balls or 50, yours came with 50

whew I was relieved cause I read somewheres on the InterWebs that these things took 54 balls and I swore I was careful when I emptied mine and only counted 50, great I thought I lost 4 darn

so when I rerebuilt it tonight I removed the 4 extra balls I stuck in there from one of the busted bearings, interestingly after re alignment my box is now 6 turns lock to lock instead of 4, hmmm

[Gregski]

ok man, but how does it steer?

well I thought you would never ask... Now I can't make a U turn in that 57 foot wide parking lot either way, neither right hand turn, nor a left hand turn, LOL

great, so what does that mean?

did I fix things by balancing them out? or did I make them worse? man I don't know, I honestly don't know

I will drive the truck to work for a few days and report back to you all on what I think, right now I am 50/50 on this manual steering conversion, and my arms are already sore, hee hee

[Chrispbrown36]

That is insane....so you can go out of your way to buy AC Delco parts, pay a higher price, and still end up with some cheap part? Or I guess you could go to a dealership and buy there....after you stop in the bank for a personal loan...

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chrispbrown36

That is insane....so you can go out of your way to buy AC Delco parts, pay a higher price, and still end up with some cheap part? Or I guess you could go to a dealership and buy there....after you stop in the bank for a personal loan...

LOL, yup buyer beware we all heard that before

[Gregski]

allow me to provide you with some steering updates as progress has been made

The Greg attempted a DIY Alignment mostly just to adjust the Toe in properly

step one was to inflate all the tires to 35 PSI and I only had to go to THREE gas stations to git it done, I have lost all faith in humanity, most pumps were broken or pieces were stolen, disgusting

yes dummy over here useta have two air compressors but sold them both

[Gregski]

The DIY Alignment Tools of the Trade

Rocket science this is not!

two sets of jack stands

some string (cause string can't be crooket, well sure but you git the idea)

and a measuring implement

[Gregski]

so we start at the back, I like to set my jack stands a bit passed the end of the car, then we run the string the length of the car

the goal is to have a straight line based on the rims of the rear wheel, so I start at the back of the wheel and I measure 1" inch from the edge of the rim to the string

then I measure exactly 1" from the front edge of the rear wheel to the string, that gives me a straight line to the front wheels

there's a name for this but it escapes me now

string may appear to be off in the pics because of the bad angle of the camera

[Gregski]

I tried to set the steering wheel straight but that proved futile as the wheel was centered with the power steering box on and it did not put the Pitman arm at the 12 o'clock position

[Gregski]

so I went with the Pitman arm being vertical in the 12:00 o'clock position, another way of looking at it is it was parallel with the steering column, broom stick as I call it

well this put my front wheels all wonkey, check it out the driver side was way toed out and the passenger side too toed in they stuck out way more than what they appear in the pics, actually they were so out of adjustment that they were hitting the string on both sides and had to be turned in a few turns just to be in the ball park

but this I thought could explain that turnability difference to the left vs to the right... lets have at it

[Gregski]

ok fellas, efficient this process is not, but it is not meant to be, it is done on the cheap and gits you in the ball park

so after taking some measurements with my eyecrometer and having loosened the tie rod sleeves I had to lift the truck to make some adjustments

I took my time and it took FIVE ups and downs to git it dialed in, but I did that on purpose so that I could understand what is going on, checking my 1" rear rim string settings in between each adjustment, P.I.A. but learned something

so First Adjustment was one turn in on the driver side and one turn out on the passenger side

then Second Adjustment was one turn in on the driver side and one turn out on the passenger side

rinse, lather, repeat

I think after the Third Adjustment the driver side gave me a 1/8th toe in, PERFECT

it took two more adjustments on the passenger side as I think I went passed the sweet spot, but a few half turns in got me to a 1/8th toe in on that side too - also PERFECT

[SkinnyG]

Keep in mind that the front and rear track width are not necessarily the SAME. This will give you a false toe reading.

When adjusting toe, make sure you know which way to turn it. It's easy to add toe IN when you meant toe OUT. The adjusters may not need to be turned the same direction left to right.

When adjusting toe, make sure you keep centering the steering wheel, or have some lackey in there holding it still for you. Adjusting toe sometimes moves the wheel.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Keep in mind that the front and rear track width are not necessarily the SAME. This will give you a false toe reading.

True, I think my rear is slightly off, no surprise for a 44 year old truck, plus I had the rear off to lower it, I will git it adjusted when I do the entire alignment later on, it's not life threatening at the moment

[Gregski]

so here are some pics of my manual steering box Pitman arm turned all the way one way than the other way, it's hard to see where it ends up when turned to the passenger side (its about 1/2 inch passed the inside of the frame rail) but you git the idea, should be equal distant side to side

[Gregski]

~ TDT - Test Drive Time ~

[y5mgisi]

Good luck!

[Gregski]

Victory, Victory!!!

well I think we have achieved Even-A-Bility, seems like now finally the truck has the same turning radius both ways, it even passed the 57' foot donut parking lot test, yes both ways

I will drive it to work for a week or so and report back to you all how it feels, though the true test will come when we go on our last camping trip of the year for Labor Day weekend, 90 miles away, I gots to tell you all climbing up and down to 4,000 feet of elevation on those twisty turney roads up in them El Dorado Forest hills will surely separate the men from the power steering crowd, and pump you up - ha ha

[Hewfil1]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Victory, Victory!!!

well I think we have achieved Even-A-Bility, seems like now finally the truck has the same turning radius both ways, it even passed the 57' foot donut parking lot test, yes both ways

I will drive it to work for a week or so and report back to you all how it feels, though the true test will come when we go on our last camping trip of the year for Labor Day weekend, 90 miles away, I gots to tell you all climbing up and down to 4,000 feet of elevation on those twisty turney roads up in them El Dorado Forest hills will surely separate the men from the power steering crowd, and pump you up - ha ha

Hopefully the adjustments stay instead of working themselves back to being absolute trash.

[Gregski]

Guess What?

My brand new oil pressure gauge broke again!!!

Yup the replacement Summit gauge that they just sent me like 2 weeks ago stopped working yesterday and now reads 00 like the first one did.

I think I am sending it back with both sending units and asking for a refund. 2 week life expectancy is not worth the $35 bucks each I spent on them

[Hewfil1]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Guess What?

My brand new oil pressure gauge broke again!!!

Yup the replacement Summit gauge that they just sent me like 2 weeks ago stopped working yesterday and now reads 00 like the first one did.

I think I am sending it back with both sending units and asking for a refund. 2 week life expectancy is not worth the $35 bucks each I spent on them

You seem to have the worst luck with them.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Hewfil1

You seem to have the worst luck with them.

True, but I still like them

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Hewfil1

You seem to have the worst luck with them.

false alarm, the Oil Pressure Gauge works, the wire just came off the sender stud, it uses a hand tight type of nut on it, so this time I tightened it down with some pliers

[Hewfil1]

Originally Posted by Gregski

false alarm, the Oil Pressure Gauge works, the wire just came off the sender stud, it uses a hand tight type of nut on it, so this time I tightened it down with some pliers

Thank goodness

[Gregski]

so I hope to install the Summit digital fuel gauge today

as with any Universal fuel gauge it is designed to fit different makes and models, that's what the two blue and orange loops of wires are for, they are essentially jumpers which you cut accordingly for what ever vehicle you have

in our case we are instructed to snip the Blue wire only for GM purposes

kinda feels like defusing a suitcase bomb in an old Bruce Willis Die Hard 80's movie

[Gregski]

I must have trust issues because I decided to pull out the old brown fuel gauge to sending unit wire, something about not having too much faith in a 42 year old piece of copper, ha ha

here I am divorcing it from the tailight wiring harness, it was wrapped up in old electrical tape and ran by the hot exhaust, well not any more...