Steering is a nightmare...

[Mason]

My 68 had 37,000 original miles (verifiable as I have provenance back to the original owner).
While low on miles, just like tires, front end rubber deteriorates over 50 years time.

I’d start by rebuilding the front suspension as it’s likely all serviceable rubber needs replaced.

PST is what I used for my kit.

After I rebuilt mine, I had an old school alignment shop align it. They employ a couple old time mopar knowledgeable fellows that are familiar with old torsion bar front suspensions.

After that, I saw a drastic improvement, but I still wanted a firmer (more modern) steering input. At that point I used “Steer and gear” (Columbus Ohio) to rebuild / valve my original steering box to a “stage 3”.
Now, the car behaves like I want it to. Just like a newer car and tracks straight as an arrow (on Coker bias ply tires, no less).

On a side note, to be 18 again.....
Just think, In 20 to 25 years you can buy up a bunch of old mopars as very few will want them once the biggest demographic (boomers) is gone.

Good luck with your project!

Thanks for the help I appreciate it, and I'm hoping that'll be the case! Never thought about the prices ever going down now looking back haha.

 

[Mason]

Yep when we oldsters are dead and gone the price of these cars will drop drastically. Plus they will be outlawed in the not too distant future. But we are having fun with our cars in the here and now,that's for sure.
It is nice to see some of the younger guys and gals that show interest in this hobby. I commend you young man,go forth,and may the tools be with you !

Yeah I'm making a guess that in the next 30 years they will start putitng restrictions on gas and "outdated" cars. Hell I would just hide them all in a barn haha. I appreciate the compliment, just grew up in the garage since I was little and found myself with my own project 2 years ago. Thanks!!

 

[Mason]

Are you sure about the 56000 miles? Think I read that you are 18 and car has been parked for over 20. Was wondering if the car has been passed down from family or someone else you trust. My car had about 50000 miles showing on odometer when I started restoring. I knew that the odometer was on its third trip around. I also knew that the lower bushings had never been replaced. When we went to pull the lca’s, one of the pivots just fell out. The rubber was almost gone.

Yeah I used to wonder if the odometer was ever wound back but I am pretty sure it hasn't...it was registered for the last time in 97 and I am the second owner of it. The original owner had passed away a few months before I had got a hold of it. He was a school teacher back in the day in a really small farm town up in northeast Texas. Probably had the shortest commute to work, so it makes sense to me. After he had parked it, he put three car covers over it and it ended up doing more worse than good and man was it bad...rust and rot everywhere. I think just decay was the main cause of everything wrong with this, especially in humid texas weather all over the state.

 

[Mason]

Done 3 sets without a press. Yes it would have been nice. But it can be done.

I never thought you could do those without a press, must've been a pain in the you know what haha

 

[Mason]

If the car has power steering, Mopar Action had a good article, I think called Pump it Up. It’s about making steering better using a Saginaw pump and changing pressure. One of the 67 Chargers has about 80,000 miles on it. Original power steering pump, and steers well. We did all of the other bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends etc.
In the near future I will be doing that again. As of now I have manual steering. Might get to a time when I need power steering.
As other recommendations, do the less expensive first. My thoughts.

Yeah that would make sense as well, some guy posted on here that if i have power steering, i need to check my suspension with the car running? I would figure i could look for slack in the suspension with it off but unsure about it

 

[Mason]

This may help ifu r&r
No photographer

View attachment 887596 View attachment 887607 View attachment 887609 View attachment 887611 View attachment 887612 View attachment 887614 View attachment 887615 View attachment 887616

This will be helpful when I get to the steering box for sure, thanks for taking the time to send these pictures in!

 

[Mason]

Mason - as I am sure you are gleaning from all of these responses is that you need to take this in stages, first try and determine what is wrong before throwing parts at it. Some of who have/are building these cars automatically start fresh and rebuild everything so we know where we are, in your case you are doing it "old school" because money is an issue, thus you need to approach this methodically and with purpose UNLESS you are planning on completely rebuilding the entire car (which it does not sound like you are doing).

Think about it this way, there is what you need and there is what you want; if you are driving it then go after what you need. As time goes on, you can chase what you want.

As to welding the K member, I completely agree with doing this IF you are going to be running fatter front tires, driving it hard, etc. It is not something you HAVE to do right now, however I can tell you with 100% certainty that with even moderately fat tires in the front (probably even stock) the box will flex on the K frame. Firm Feel has a sector support kit to help this situation ($135 and bolts in). I do not think it completely fixes this but I am sure it helps and does not require any welding.

Since you are 18 and have jumped into the classic car world with both feet (which is excellent by the way), let me share a little information with you; there are lots of ways to accomplish any given situation usually and there are lots of opinions as to what is the best solution or path, you need to determine what best meets your needs and circumstances. It is very easy to get "mission creep" meaning you need something simple but then see all of the cool "better" parts and what should be a low dollar fix becomes a monster. Every car guy on here has been through this; you hear about it all the time where a guy started a "light" repair or refresh and now it is 10 years later and the car is blown apart with no end i sight. IMO the best thing you can do is fix the car has you drive and enjoy it, its what I did growing up (when no one was restoring these things because they were 2-8 years old).

Enough preaching, I am glad to see someone young get involved into the hobby.

Hey I appreciate your message you sent and I'll look into that support piece, its going to cost more in a welder I'll only use in another couple years lol, I have replaced almost everything on this thing not for the reason that i just wanted it, but because literally everything was a goner on this car haha. Maybe I've just got too used to replacing things everywhere.
I'm glad I found myself in this hobby, it's expensive but fun none the less, just trying to carry on the tradition!

 

[Mason]

To this day I try to take the old school approach to repairs. I fix what is broken before I try to improve on Ma Mopar.

Yeah, I wish there was something that I could find that wasn't broken on this thing lol, I'm sure some parts in the suspension system are still good enough but we'll see, thanks for the advice

 

[Darter6]

Don't feel bad about buying a welder,it will get used allot. My little Lincoln mig is close to 40 years old, still in use this morning to weld up a header for the neighbor.

 

[Johnpat]

Also where did y'all get rebuilds or new stage 2 and 3 steering boxes?

Look up Firm Feel steering box on the net

 

[Mason]

Don't feel bad about buying a welder,it will get used allot. My little Lincoln mig is close to 40 years old, still in use this morning to weld up a header for the neighbor.

Yeah I guess so, I had this crappy one that was a portable style that had half the amount of power as a real nice one, I'll look around at some

 

[Mason]

Look up Firm Feel steering box on the net

Yeah I saw their website, pretty pricey though to be honest

 

[Mason]

Maybe these photos will go to show the situation I'm working with, pretty ratty

 

[Mason]

I need to grab some PB blaster and scrap off some of this gunk, I got some big chunks off to show what I'm working with

 

[Ernie ingling]

Mason where are you located? Just a thought maybe a member near you could come by and assist. I would cocoa fl

 

[Mason]

Mason where are you located? Just a thought maybe a member near you could come by and assist. I would cocoa fl

I appreciate the help, I live in the Houston area up north closer by cypress. I have a few buddies that live near me but dont know jack about cars lol. I'm gonna have trouble checking my suspension partly because I have lowering blocks on my leaf springs and lowered the front a while back, can I just put my car up on blocks and check?

 

[Kern Dog]

Any opinions on the FF K frame reinforcement kits? I'm thinking about the same thing.

I made my own.
I took cardboard and made templates to fit in all the gaps and open areas around the steering box mounts. I then traced the templates onto .120 thick steel plate, then welded them into place.

 

[Xp29h]

Yeah they have never been touched before. Do you think there would be anything else I should replace or get checked out besides the steering box, bushings, and alignment?

I’ll add this in just because..it’s the reason the guy who owned my car sold it! He replaced the steering box 3 times and could not get the slop out. Everyone kept saying, “it not like your new car”. Fast forward. He sold it, I got it and messed with steering a lot! Fixing front sway bar, end links nothing I tried worked. Finally I added a new firm feel stage 2. I thought the coupler was bad, so I found a new one and replaced the guts in that, which you should do! That little kit is cheap. But the big issue turned out to be the steering column was about an inch and a half too short! It didn’t fit in the coupler properly and no matter how many bushings, steering boxes, pitman arms etc, it was never going to get better. The little plastic pins had been broken at some point and collapsed the column. Once I got back to right length, things were so much better. Not like today’s cars but pretty darn good.

Good luck!

 

[Mason]

I’ll add this in just because..it’s the reason the guy who owned my car sold it! He replaced the steering box 3 times and could not get the slop out. Everyone kept saying, “it not like your new car”. Fast forward. He sold it, I got it and messed with steering a lot! Fixing front sway bar, end links nothing I tried worked. Finally I added a new firm feel stage 2. I thought the coupler was bad, so I found a new one and replaced the guts in that, which you should do! That little kit is cheap. But the big issue turned out to be the steering column was about an inch and a half too short! It didn’t fit in the coupler properly and no matter how many bushings, steering boxes, pitman arms etc, it was never going to get better. The little plastic pins had been broken at some point and collapsed the column. Once I got back to right length, things were so much better. Not like today’s cars but pretty darn good.

Good luck!

That's quite the situation you had yourself there haha, must've been a pain to figure out that problem for sure, thanks for the help

 

[themechanic]

Did you replace the old tires with new and properly inflated tires, yet? That should make a big difference.

I used a modern Jeep PS box on the El Camino; cost about $100 from NAPA and bolted right on and is firmer than my FF stage 2 on the Coronet. Anyone know if the Jeep box will bolt on to a B body?