Update- The Lares gear box is fine. New Power Steering pump is working great. I brought the car back to the shop to have the steering wheel straightened, and they just adjusted the tie rod sleeves. It is pretty good now, but not perfect. Mechanic said I need new front tires, so after I buy them he will do a proper alignment. He didn't charge me to adjust the tie rod sleeves. Apparently the new gear box just made a big difference in the steering wheel alignment from the old box.
Big problem after installing new steering gear box
- Thread starter GNRick
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The issues you've dealt with have a couple of reasons. My experience has been, with late model GM pumps is when the system is drained, remove the belt and cycle the ps pulley tirelessly to circulate the fluid in the system. And than do it again. Air in hydraulics is a bad thing. If you try to tax the system with air, it elevates the pressure and snaps the pump shaft. It is very easy to check: remove the belt, grab the pulley and pull straight out. If it's toast, pulley, fluid and shaft will come out. If, not, you are still fighting air. Next thing that concerns me, to straighten a steering wheel with an alignment (turning the tie rod sleeves) fixes your problem, look at the exposed threads on the tie rod assembly. I expect one side (drivers or passengers) is gonna have a lof of threads exposed and the other side isn't. Both tie rod assemblies should have equal amount of threads exposed. And like Charlie said, go bank to bank, that should be equal also. If not, get your mechanic to check toe out on turns when he aligns it. If it is off, more than likely your search for the proper steering gear continues.
novaderrik
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you should not have to do anything with the tie rods when changing a steering box.. something isn't right- either inside the steering box or where he put the pitman arm on. i'm betting the box wasn't centered when he put the Pitman arm on it, and now you've probably got less steering angle one way than the other. i know that the 84 Monte SS box (same as the 84-87 GN) that i put in my 74 Monte Carlo didn't have any master spines on it that would make the Pitman arm only go on one way- i had to center the box and slide the Pitman arm on. the end result was that my wheel was in the same spot after swapping in the newer box as it was with the original.
take it back and tell him to fix it right. he's made enough money off you from all this labor and screwing around that he shouldn't be afraid to make it right.
Thanks for the replies. I just went out and measured from the end of the adjusting sleeve to the zerk fitting on the ball joint. It is about 7 inches on both the passenger side and driver side. Does this indicate anything? I didn't count the exposed threads but I think this tells us that they are both adjusted about same, right?
Usually the best way to do this is to use the steering wheel block while the engine is running. Once you get it centered then turn the engine off and adjust the tie rods. Do it a second time to varify and then drive it to make sure you've got it right.
KL Mallender
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When your pitman arm and idler arm are perpidicular with your frame rails, your linkage is centered, if your steering wheel is off then you have spline misque with column, if your tires are pointing in directions other than straight, shoot your alignment guy and take your car to someone who is interested in "Fixing" your car instead of covering up his mistake.
Kevin.
Kevin.
big reazon
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How would you fix a spline misque in column not in front of my car right now to brain storm it also Don't you mean idler and pitman parallel to frame.
KL Mallender
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Would depend on the degree of error, the steering wheel itself can be installed incorrectly on the steering column shaft, the factory stamped a "hash mark" on end of shaft to indicate center, but that mark can be erased by someone smaking it with a hammer trying to remove the wheel.
Pull your horn button(be carfull of the plastic looking allen heads), the hash should be pointing straight up with wheel in center position.
Hack alignment people do this to center the wheel after "aligning" your front end and test driving it, tires may be aligned to road conditions, but the fault is in the actual tie-rod adjustments(right & left).
I have corrected many screwups done by so-called "professional" shops, even good shops tollerate "Hack" mechanics if they push out junk work quickly and make them money.
Get the actual "center link" centered in the chassis first, evaluate the necessary repairs to correct the problem.
This type of problem is very common after a collision, most body shops send the cars out for alignments after frame straightening.
A car with wheels pointed straight and steering wheel centered appear right, but because of incorrect linkage alignment usually exibit a horrible "bump steering" effect, ie: front suspension extends/compresses during a dip/rise in the road surface and looks for another lane to occupy while holding wheel dead straight, a very "nervous" feeling vehicle.
Good luck,
Kevin.
Pull your horn button(be carfull of the plastic looking allen heads), the hash should be pointing straight up with wheel in center position.
Hack alignment people do this to center the wheel after "aligning" your front end and test driving it, tires may be aligned to road conditions, but the fault is in the actual tie-rod adjustments(right & left).
I have corrected many screwups done by so-called "professional" shops, even good shops tollerate "Hack" mechanics if they push out junk work quickly and make them money.
Get the actual "center link" centered in the chassis first, evaluate the necessary repairs to correct the problem.
This type of problem is very common after a collision, most body shops send the cars out for alignments after frame straightening.
A car with wheels pointed straight and steering wheel centered appear right, but because of incorrect linkage alignment usually exibit a horrible "bump steering" effect, ie: front suspension extends/compresses during a dip/rise in the road surface and looks for another lane to occupy while holding wheel dead straight, a very "nervous" feeling vehicle.
Good luck,
Kevin.
This is extremely common these days. I worked with quite a few of them over the years and some of them were bosses.
Volume is the big money maker and that's what they look at. The larger the company the worse it is. Corporations are the worst, hands down. I don't know how many times over the years I corrected some idiots work because of the "set the toe and let it go" metality.There is only three reasons your steering wheel wouldn't be straight after an alignment: diamond vehicle, the equipment for measurement is off and the tech isn't fussy enough. If it's the equipment, the steering wheel is usually WAY off. If it's the tech it's usually SLIGHTLY off. Diamond in the vehicle usually, it is an uneven amount of turns of the wheel bank to bank. Centering of a steering wheel takes a certain amount of feel by the tech. Refer to the MOPAR days in the 70-80's. Their gears had a centering valve. You had to feel when the valve was on "top" or the wheels wouldn't be straight. Add in when you turned the seized/frozen/tight adjusting sleeves, the wheel was usually off center. The solution back then was to set the toe with the engine running. The aligner I have now minimizes the off center results. I go to the caster sweep screen and it displays staight ahead steer, I advance to my toe reading screen and they should match: 0 for straight plus matched toe readings side to side.
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