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steering slop question

jeremya72

jeremya72

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Howdy guys, first time post for me. I have a '72 road runner and I just recently rebuilt the front suspension. Tubular upper arms, reinforced lowers, poly bushings where possible and new big tie rod ends with solid tie rods. Also replaced the idler arm and pitman arm. My problem is that the car now handles great, but there is a lot of slop in the steering. Mainly this is a problem when trying to drive straight on the freeway at higher speeds. I am thinking of rebuilding the steering box, but I am going to rebuild the steering coupler first, as it seems to have some slop.When I bought the car it came with a very low mileage but totaled '73 Charger parts car and the previous owner had swapped the steering box and column into the Road Runner. So, when I got under the hood to check the steering coupler I see that it has some sort of rag joint or isolater between the coupler and the steering box that my '72 service manual doesn't show. I assume this was added on the '73 models? I am wondering if I need to replace it, or if I should figure out a way to get rid of it. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't have the original '72 column or I'd just put it back in. Thanks!
 
Thanks

67 coronet said:
i would eliminate it with an adaptor if you can.http://chucker54.stores.yahoo.net/flristcoad.html
mancini example given a link.i have seen posts about the rag joint style here before,hopefully someone with more experience in those will pipe up,i guess they are not too common.
Click to expand...

That flaming river adapter thingy is pretty expensive and I'm not sure if it is supposed to eliminate the coupler or the rag joint/isolator thing. Looks like they put that rubber isolator in the steering in '73 because they went to the rubber isolated sub frame. Since my car doesn't have that I think I can just get rid of the thing. A new replacement one is over $100 and it might not even last that long next to my header. I think I'll try to make a replacement out of aluminum or steel on the lathe. Or maybe there is some aftermarket part out there to eliminate it. Too bad the previous owner trash canned the original column
 
My 2-cents is to make abosutely sure where you slop is before you start replacing parts. On mine, I had someone turn the steering wheel side-to-side while I looked at the steering/suspension for any herky-jerky movement. I did this both with the car on the ground and again with the front end up in the air supported on the frame. Sometimes you can find little things you missed before this way. Good Luck!
 
Good idea. I'll have to drag the wife out to the garage and have her do that for me. There is definitely slop in the steering coupler though. You can feel it just by moving it around with your hands. I just figured that a big rubber ring in the steering column can't really be helping things, especially since it didn't come that way in '72
 
Your correct in that the column was changed out. 71/2 does not have the rag joint. I would try and find a 71/2 column myself.
Chances are that your 40 year old steering box is worn. Most are. The rebuilt boxes from Cardone A-1 are a crap shoot. Most are nice and tight, some aren't.
Might check into the boxes from Frim Feel, Steer n Gear and Flaming River.
 
Are the power steering boxes like the manual in that you can back the locknut off and turn the worm adjustment in some and tighten the box itself up?
 
daredevil said:
Are the power steering boxes like the manual in that you can back the locknut off and turn the worm adjustment in some and tighten the box itself up?
Click to expand...
Yes you can do a cross shaft adjustment but only to a point. Usually they are too worn to get out all the play.
 
I live in Seattle, so I'm not too far from Firm Feel. I was planning on rebuilding the coupler and testing things out and then pulling the steering box if necessary and taking it to them next time I head down to Portland. The donor car only had about 40k on it, so the box is very low miles. Also, I did the cross shaft adjustment last summer.
 
IMG_0445.jpgHere is the fix. Made this out of a chunk of boat drive shaft. The 2 holes look different than the others because I counter-bored them to match the original piece. The opposite holes were done the same way on the other side. I'll let you know how it works
 
I did I the flaming river u-joint coupler and to do that requires cutting the steering column shaft by around 1/4". If I did it again I would just rebuild the coupling.
 
Well, that didn't work as well as I had hoped. Got it all put back together and went for a spin. The slop in the steering was totally gone, but there was a tight spot at the same point in the steering on each spin of the wheel. I thought maybe I had overtightened the sector shaft last summer, but after monkeying around with that for a while it did not make any difference. After taking things back apart it looks like that replacement I made for the rubber biscuit is not as flat as I had thought. It was too big to chuck up in my lathe, so I just tried to get it flat by eye with a disc grinder after I cut it last week. I supposed that wasn't close enough. I'll take it over to my buddy's shop and use his big industrial lathe to get it dead on and then try again. By the way. I'm a new guy and someone on my other post asked for some pics of the car, so here they are. 340, 4 speed, 3.55 sure grip. Original color and stripes redone in 1997.View attachment 100729View attachment 100730View attachment 100731
 
Quick question. Do you need to pull your steering box and ship it to Firm feel for the rebuild?

Thanks

Richie
 
hard attaching the box to column can cause binding.hopefully after you remachine the disc it will go away.rubber discs and flex collars allow for a bit of flex.adaptors eliminate the need for flex with smooth rotation at slight angles(purpose of the ujoint style adaptors)if it still binds after you machine it,you may need to make something else.
 
The original shaft couplings, both up thru ’72 and ’73 and after rag joint, also provide for some slight fore and aft movement of the steering shaft that will be lost with a solid rag joint disc.
 
The column has a normal mopar pot coupler above the rag joint, so it can still move fore and aft a bit and accept slight misalignment. The only part I was trying to eliminate was the rubber disk.
 
67 coronet said:
hard attaching the box to column can cause binding.hopefully after you remachine the disc it will go away.rubber discs and flex collars allow for a bit of flex.adaptors eliminate the need for flex with smooth rotation at slight angles(purpose of the ujoint style adaptors)if it still binds after you machine it,you may need to make something else.
Click to expand...

I have had some slight binding on mine since I installed the flaming river u-joint and always wondered if it was the cause...Installing it required a slight cut to the steering column length though so I can't go back
 
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