Well, I went out to play with my funky steering. If you remember, the
car pulled a bit to the left, and the steering wheel needed to be turned
right to go straight.
First, the pulling. Probably due to uneven tire pressures. the two tires
on the right side were at about 25 psi. The two on the right were at 30
psi. One of these had been remounted, and one replaced after the
rollover. I never checked the pressures after getting them fixed. Doh!
Second, the alignment. I set up for the string method, setting my
strings on jackstands 36" from the centerline of the car. I set the
steering wheel to straight ahead, and locked it there with the ignition
lock. I then measured the distance from the tring to the front and back
of the rear tires (to make sure the strings were straight), and then to
the front and back of the front tires. I found that I had zero toe, and
that the wheels were turned about 1/2" to the left. So I tried a simple
adjustment at the tie rods, brining the left one in 4 turns, and the
right one out almost 4 turns. Voila, tires straight ahead with about
1/16" toe in. A test drive confirmed the car goes straight, and the
steering wheel is straight! Woohoo!
Tech tip: I did need to chase the threads on that left tie rod. I don't
have a 1/2-20 thread die, but a castellated nut threaded on castle-end
first makes a decent thread chaser. It cleaned up the threads enough to
be able to wrench the lock nut in the further 4 turns I needed.
Third, the steering wheel and column. The wheel is still stuck in place,
and since I have many projects on the house I need to attend to, I'm
probably not going to try to mess with it again until at least after the
PA rallye.
I do have a new steering wheel ( a nice black leather Moto-Lita that was
a close-out at Moss) to put on with the new column instead of this one.
What I want are the turn signal and wiper switches, along with the late
1500 cancelling cam. Being wee-tight, I'd like to re-use the ones I
have since they work fine rather than buying new ones. I'm also not sure
if the new switch comes with the cancelling cam...
I,m happy that the car should be ready for the PA Rallye!
-=Chris
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