Restoring Rusty

[Boog]

Could it be one tooth off inside the box?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Boog

Could it be one tooth off inside the box?

I think you may be on to something, I will take it apart tonight and let you know, good advice I appreciate it.

[rusty76]

Well crap. Get this thing resolved ok. Good luck.

[Boog]

Greg if you remove the drag link from the pitman arm or the pitman arm from the sector you can then turn the sector from lock to lock. Count the turns then return the sector to center. Now look at the splines on the output shaft. The pitman arm should be parallel with the frame when mounted on the sector. That should get it closer.
Does anyone know if the draglink is different for manual or power steering?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Boog

Greg if you remove the drag link from the pitman arm or the pitman arm from the sector you can then turn the sector from lock to lock. Count the turns then return the sector to center. Now look at the splines on the output shaft. The pitman arm should be parallel with the frame when mounted on the sector. That should get it closer.
Does anyone know if the draglink is different for manual or power steering?

That's what I did, I am 4 turns lock to lock, so I put it in the middle at 2 turns and I am very close to center or even in the center

[harley87ta]

http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...ev28jl2009.pdf


This pdf is for gm cars but may apply to your steering box too. On page 2 it says the some 73-74 boxes have more tavel right than left

[Gregski]

Anyone heard of BAW tie rod ends? The PO put one of those on the driver side and I'm broke so I was only gonna buy one to match it

[Gregski]

just want to pause and thank everyone trying to help out, thank you for your comments and advice, I had no idea this little "project" was going to kick my butt

[Gregski]

on the way home from work today stopped by AutoZone and rented this here HammerHead

[Gregski]

since I had to pull the manual steering box back off I figured I would take some pics of specialty tools and such needed for the job that I didn't have time to take the first time around, here I am abusing a pitman arm puller

really aint no other way to git this thing off that I know of

[Gregski]

Never time to do it right, but always time to do it over, I'm sure we've all heard that before

so since I had the box off I took it upon myself to replace one of the bearing cups, one was pitted / damaged probably by the one bearing that gave way and shattered and the person kept driving the vehicle

I actually had to devise a puller to pull the bearing forward about an 1/8th of an inch before the slide hammer jaws could even get in there

you ain't wrenched until you made or modified your own tools, am I right fellars?

[Gregski]

a side by side comparison of the old damaged bearing cup and the new replacement one

hey man I aint perfect but I try to do a good job

[Gregski]

then it was time to use my portable press on my 20" by 20" concrete bench top (aka garage floor)

gentle now... even the retainer found its way back into place to keep the bearing from falling out

[Gregski]

then I had to remove both outter steering tie rods, I know some say don't use the Yamaha tuning fork, but I tried the screw the crown nut to the bolt and try to hammer it out but it just wouldn't budge

and yes I ruined the rubber on the new tie rod on the driver side, but oh well I couldn't find a match for it anyway

[Gregski]

here's the BAW tie rod no one's ever heard of

[KQQL IT]

Gregski, i just bought an NOS manual box for my pile.
If yours is terminal... I have a known good used one I'd donate.

[Gregski]

and this is the OEM GM one from the passenger side, this one has seen better days, but believe it or not inside it was solid

[Gregski]

ah man... don't tell me we is gonna clean this thing if we're just gonna replace it...

you know how NASCAR tears up the engine right after each race for a close inspection, well Busted Knuckless Garage aint no different we must examine each part for goodness or badness people

all I'm saying is this part after 42 years of service deserves to be in a Museum not in the Trash, that's all I'm sayin'

[Gregski]

I'm telling you this thing with a little love from a grease gun and a new universal rubber boot could be good for another 42 years if we had to use it

[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

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by harley87ta

http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/wp-co...ev28jl2009.pdf


This pdf is for gm cars but may apply to your steering box too. On page 2 it says the some 73-74 boxes have more tavel right than left

thanks man, but my donor box came off of a 77, not sure how those are balanced?

[Wgesnerjr]

Originally Posted by Gregski

here's the BAW tie rod no one's ever heard of

Greg,
Looks like someone got a BAW part in an AC Delco box. (see post #27 & 48)

Weird.

Read here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=714531

[KevinCowTown]

Originally Posted by Gregski

... take a look at the new and improved side exhaust Flow-a-Masters...

So is the drone gone? No not all the way gone but believe it or not its better, technically the drone used to be at 1000 RPM and now its at around 800 RPM (this is better on cold starts since with fast idle on your head was a poundin' till the rig warmed up)

Good call on the Flowmaster's Gregski.

I cut a Flowmaster off an '04 5.3L F-150 and put on a brand new Magnaflow... to cut the drone. Worked great too.

Then I towed my 5,700 LB (probably closer to 7K with water, groceries and beer loaded) trailer out to Banff, Alberta through the Mountains. That little 5.3 Triton was turning pretty fast getting up the big hills.

By the time I got home, the exhaust from those 5500+ RPM hills had pounded the glass baffles in the Magnaflow flat and the truck droned worse than ever.