Steering problem resolved

[Botietruck]

I want to pass this information on to everyone, and hopefully it will help someone on the board.
Last February (2008) when I got my '71 back on the road after a 14 year restoration, I noticed the truck would seem to not roll as freely as it should when I would turn it sharp to the right or left. It acted like the tires were in a bind. When I took it in for it's first front end alignment, I explained to the technician what it was doing. He blamed it on the new parts/front end out of alignment and he did the alignment. Well, it was some better, but it would still seem to not roll freely when put in a sharp turn.
I took it back last week for a check up after putting about 1200 miles on it, just to make sure everything was okay. I was assigned a different technician and I told him about the steering issue. It took him all of 5 minutes and he found the problem. Back several years ago when I assembled the front end (using my reference photos that I had - the pics I took before tearing it down) I installed the center link backwards. The ends of the link should be pointing to the front of the vehicle and I had them pointing to the rear.
Well, I reversed the link and took it back today for a final check. WOW!! I cannot believe the difference in how it handles & drives. It's handles like a different vehicle now. I am very fortunate that those new Michelins did not suffer any damage.
So, what was happening when I would turn it sharp, is that one tire would be at more of an angle (turn sharper) than the other tire, and they were working against each other.
Just wanted to pass this on to others in case someone has the same problem.

[Brad]

Years ago when I first owned my 67 I redid the front suspension and got the lower control arms backwards. The alignment shop couldn't align it and suggested that might be the problem. It was.