Steering issues

Reygus

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Hello, all! I don't post hardly at all, but I need your collective insight, guidance, advice, and what-not! Car is a 73 Plymouth Custom Suburban I purchased over 10 years ago. At that time the car was rough and I could tell the condition of the steering was reallly bad. Wandered like a bus on city streets, really nasty-scary on the freeway. Over the last couple of years I have completely rebuilt the front suspension, replaced the steering gear box, replaced the pitman and idler arms, as well as the rag-joint and sliding joint on the column. Everything is tight now but I have no on-center feel, the steering wheel does not return to center, as if there is no positive caster at all. On the freeway I have to really pay attention to lane changes. An alignment shop I went to said there was something not right and could not get an alignment done. Now, I have done similar work on my son's 70 Fury, which is setup like the Suburban, and to this day he says he can let the wheel go on the freeway and the car tracks straight. When I drive the 70 Fury it feels great. Tried the same adjustments on the 73 Suburban as the 70 Fury and nothing is right. I checked the lower control arms to make sure they are straight and not bent and according to my straight edge and laser chingadera, they are okay. I don't see anything out of sorts on the sub-frame, but that's just with my eyeball and a ruler. It's almost as if the mounting points for the upper control arms are not in the right spot.
Would greatly appreciate your thoughts, please!
 
When changing bushings and such you didn’t happen to get the upper control arms on the wrong side? Or someone did prior to you? There is a right and a left. I don’t think there is anything stopping someone from doing that. And I believe it is close enough that you can jam it together.
 
Hello, all! I don't post hardly at all, but I need your collective insight, guidance, advice, and what-not! Car is a 73 Plymouth Custom Suburban I purchased over 10 years ago. At that time the car was rough and I could tell the condition of the steering was reallly bad. Wandered like a bus on city streets, really nasty-scary on the freeway. Over the last couple of years I have completely rebuilt the front suspension, replaced the steering gear box, replaced the pitman and idler arms, as well as the rag-joint and sliding joint on the column. Everything is tight now but I have no on-center feel, the steering wheel does not return to center, as if there is no positive caster at all. On the freeway I have to really pay attention to lane changes. An alignment shop I went to said there was something not right and could not get an alignment done. Now, I have done similar work on my son's 70 Fury, which is setup like the Suburban, and to this day he says he can let the wheel go on the freeway and the car tracks straight. When I drive the 70 Fury it feels great. Tried the same adjustments on the 73 Suburban as the 70 Fury and nothing is right. I checked the lower control arms to make sure they are straight and not bent and according to my straight edge and laser chingadera, they are okay. I don't see anything out of sorts on the sub-frame, but that's just with my eyeball and a ruler. It's almost as if the mounting points for the upper control arms are not in the right spot.
Would greatly appreciate your thoughts, please!

When you rebuilt the front end, did you replace the upper and lower control arm bushings? Usually a lack of ability to align a vehicle is because one or more of the rubber bushings has failed. If you needed to replace the pitman and idle arms as well as the steering gear, that probably marks the car as a high mileage unit, that means it is likely to have failed rubber bushings as well. If you have not done so already, inspect the upper control arm and strut rod bushings, if they showing signs of cracking, the rubber is at the point of failure and you need to replace all of the rubber items, Upper and lower control arm bushings, strut rod bushings and front stabilizer bushings.

Another possibility as that the front cross member has collapsed inward and thrown the steering geometry way off. If it is not too bad, there are eccentric upper control arm bushings available to compensate. The other thing you would want to check is to be sure the rear spring bushings are intact, a failed rear bushing will often cause the vehicle to "dog walk" down the highway and handle very poorly. That would not explain the alignment issue though.

Dave
 
Does the steering wheel not return to center as the gear is too stiff? There should be a self-centering return action if the gear adjustment is correct, due to the caster in the front end.

The lower control arms have an rubber bushing in them that probably has "taken a set" due to age. It takes a press to install/remove them, as I recall?

You can usually find the diagonal measurements for the subframe and body in the body section of the FSM. Put the car on sturdy and safe jackstands, then drop some plumb-bobs from the specified locations, and mark their position on the floor. Measure the distances and such.

Since you have the '70 to compare your '73 against, that is a big help!

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
Sorry for not responding right away! Stuff to do here and there! On the issue of bushings in the UCAs and LCAs, I did replace all the old stuff with new bushings when I rebuilt the suspension. LCAs went to a machine shop to remove the pivot shafts and old bushings, press in new bushings and shafts. UCAs I did in my garage with a MOPAR tool. Worked awesome. I did verify right vs left UCA based on axis angle of the ball joint vs the up-down pivot angle for right and left. Had to double check as it took me a couple of months to get back to it after some family health issues.
Davea Lux raises an interesting thought with a bent crossmember, which along with CBODY67's suggestion of using the FSM to try and measure straightness of the sub-frame, might yield some data, comparing to the 70 Fury.
Another thought just crossed my mind. With the front of the car in the car and suspension unloaded, it is very tough to manually turn the wheels right and left by grabbing the tire and moving back and forth. Could the steering gear be adjusted too tight?
In the meantime, I am looking at the the C-Body tubular UCAs at Firm Feel. They build theirs with 4-5 degrees of positive caster, so that is a possibility to help with on-center feel.
 
You need to address the alignment issue before messing with the steering gear. You could try taking the jam nut loose from the steering gear and back it off 1/4 turn to see if that helps. If it does not, put it back where you found it. It is normal to feel resistance when trying to move the wheels without the power assist as you are fighting hydraulic pressure from the oil in the system. Check the bottom of the cross member for dents, a lot of time they get bent from cars being driven in the ditch etc. Used to see quite a few police cruisers with bent cross members from driving over center dividers. Also check the cross member for obvious rust out. Bang it with a hammer it should ring if solid. Check the alignment of the steering gear input shaft, it should be a straight line from the column connection, if it is obviously displaced up or down, right or left, something is bent.

Dave
 
Reygus, any luck with your steering? Would love to hear how you resolved it, as I've got a '73 Fury wagon with similar issues
 
I’m pretty sure I know what the fix is. I just went through this. It’s a sensitive simple adjustment on the valve body of the steering gear, just did this my car was pulling hard right after installing a rebuilt steering gearbox. After I did this simply adjustment the car rides true and straight again. Watch the 2 vids below to understand this adjustment.


watch this one from 18:26 onward towards the end of the vid.


And watch this one in its entirety.

 
In the second video the only thing he’s wrong about is according to the Chrysler video your only allowed to tap on the end plug and bottom screws either up or down to center the valve body pressure to center the steering. Watch the 2 videos and you’ll understand. :thumbsup:
2F14446A-5320-419A-8014-220F438EAF5D.jpeg
 
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