Did I ruin my flaming river steering box?

[67dartgt]

Right around a year and half ago, I got a flaming river manual box and coupler to swap from power to manual steering. Like the "shade tree" mechanic that I claim to be, i figured it would be an easy job and I could do it myself. Sure enough, with some small problems, I was able to get everything swapped over. It was great, too, I had around an inch of play in the wheel when it was all done. I loved it.

Fast forward to now. The car has not been my daily driver, I would say at the most 5 trips a month in it in the summer, and in OR summer is 3, maybe 4 months long. In the winter it was a rare occurrence when she was able to come out of the garage. So I haven't put many miles on it, especially for a steering box. So lately I've been noticing that it's been difficult to keep the car in between the lines at around 60 to 65 miles an hour. It's not difficult, but it takes a lot of wheel movement to correct the car. So I get home this afternoon and park the car and there is maybe 5 or 6 inches of play in the wheel in park.

Now, for the fun part. The only thing that I think could have gone wrong was my technique for torquing the pitman arm down once I got the box in. I torqued it against the wheels turned all the way to the left. Was this wrong? Should the wheels have been held somehow? At this point, I'm pretty sure I did something wrong, but can't figure out what. Anyone have any ideas? Also, can this be corrected? Can the box be tighted up, or did I ruin the innards somehow?

Thanks for any knowledge you can send my way!

- Don

[west]

im not exactly sure what's wrong but i doubt you dammaged it by torquing the pitman arm.

[abqdart]

 

[mischiefdart]

Look for play in the centerlink end of the pitman arm and the rest of the steering linkage. Also check the universal in the steering shaft. The box itself could need to be adjusted. If nothing is binding up I doubt there is anything wrong with the steering box. Just find the play and eliminate it.

[Tejas]

Years ago I swapped a steering box out of a cop car with quicker steering into my old Challenger.
A few months later my steering got really sloppy.
When I checked it out I found that the nut holding the pittman arm came loose and was letting the pittman arm slop up and down when I turned the wheel giving me really sloppy steering.
All I did was tighten the shit out of it with Lock-Tite and never had a problem with it after that.
Check it out, it may be a simple fix.

[67dartgt]

Thanks for the info guys! I'll take a look at everything when I get a chance and see what I can find! 

- Don

[b569rr]

Does the F.R. box have the gear adjustment like our O.E. units on top of the box?

[mjhallas]

A similar thing happened  to me and foung that the joint was comming apart. I could onlt see it when someone else was turning the wheel while I was checking all the parts

[NYrr496]

When you install a pitman arm, you should put a little Nev R Sieze on the splines. That way the arm goes where it's supposed to go on the splined shaft and you're not fighting friction while tightening the nut. ( If this makes any sense )

[67dartgt]

b569rr: It does have a a gear adjustment similar to the stock box. Luckily  it's directly underneath my header pipe, making it yet another fun adjustment if it's ever needed.

NYrr496: That does make a lot of sense, especially after the work it took to get the pitman arm back on. i had quite the setup with a 3/4 breaker and a long pipe.

Thankfully, I never looked at it before talking to you guys  , or else I never would have needed to post. I just went out and gave the wheel a turn while watching the box over the fender......the 3 bolts that hold the box down came loose. The whole box is moving when the wheel turns. This is actually a problem that it had when it was still power. I'll have to take the bolts out, clean the oil and such off of them, and then use some form of lock tite to keep them from backing off. Thanks for the help guys. I think we've got it.

[Sixpak]

CHECK THE BOLTS THAT MOUNT THE BOX TO THE K FRAME. I bought a 70 Swinger that was all over the road cause the bolts were loose. Tightened them up and it was fixed.

[71 demon child]

I think it's the loose nut behind the wheel.

[Capt Jack]

CHECK THE BOLTS THAT MOUNT THE BOX TO THE K FRAME. I bought a 70 Swinger that was all over the road cause the bolts were loose. Tightened them up and it was fixed.

oh geez.  Id forgotten all about that.       yeah, happened here too years ago.  never hurts to check