Technical Can't get T bucket steering centered

It has a non-reversed Corvair box. I tried putting the pitman arm back on the box with the steering wheel turned all the way to the left, and the wheels all the way to the left, but I ended up with more turns from center to left than center to right. Then I tried with the steering wheel centered and the wheels straight ahead. Same result. Nothing other than removing the pitman arm from the box has been done, no other steering components removed or adjusted. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

 

Are you getting about 4.5 turns lock to lock in the box with the pitman arm disconnected? If so is the pitman arm with the box centered and the wheels straight ahead pointing straight down to the ground ie 90* to the ground? A picture showing the pitman arm posistion with box centered and wheels straight ahead would help.

 

Greasyman, not sure what you got, except a non reversed steering box. Has the car ever been driven before? Is this a traditional steering setup with the pitman arm facing up, or cross steer, I beam or tube axle. Regardless, I can only tell you what I did that has worked for me with traditional steering with a reversed corvair box with pitman arm down. I made sure that both front wheels turned the same amount left as they did right, then centered the tires. I then turned steering box lock to lock counting the turns, then back halfway. With the wheels still centered, and box centered, attach pitman arm straight down, or for your non reversed box, UP (if using traditional steering), then adjust the length of your drag link from pitman arm to steering arm, with everything still centered. That should have your steering centered. You may have to center your steering wheel. I am sure there are others on this forum that can provide a better explanation. I am assuming you have traditional steering. There are a number of posts on traditional steering that would be very informative, and certainly people that know more about it than I do, I just indicated what I did for a reversed Corvair box with traditional steering and I beam axle. There is certainly more to it than this brief paragraph. The length of steering arm, length of pitman arm, length of drag link, can all effect steering. Im sure others will chime in if you can provide a bit more information. FYI the Pete and Jake catalog, which I believe is online, has a very good article on hot rod steering. Good Luck.

BOutlaw

 

Thanks for your responses, guys. It has a drag link and the pitman arm points up. It's an I beam from an old mid-sixties Chevy van. With the steering centered the arm points just slighty backward, maybe around the 1:00 o'clock position.

I can't adjust the draglink, there are no adjustments on it, it looks like something someone welded up from junk they had lying around the barn. I'd think the drag link would be for fine tuning any way, not the big difference that I have. My center to left is about 2 1/2 and my center to right is about 1 1/2. I don't understand why centering the box and pointing the wheels straight ahead would result in such an indescrepancy. I can see it being a 1/4 off or something, but not this amount.

 

Did you cut out the double splines? Corvair pitman arms have 4 "big splines" that you can cut in half with a hacksaw or file then indexed anywhere you want. Otherwise you only have 4 places you can put it and they RARELY are where you want them.

 

If you notice in the pic, there are "big splines". If you take a hacksaw, cut them in half, center your steering wheel counting lock to lock and centering it, then you can index the pitman arm correctly.

 

How are you centering the steering wheel? Turn it lock to lock count the turns divide by 2 and count turns from lock that amount the steering wheel may not be centered when the box is. With the drag link removed will the wheels turn the same amount right and left?

 

Thanks for everyone's help. I fooled around with it a little more, but it's the same. The car is perfectly driveable as it is, so I'm going to put this problem on the back burner, since I have more pressing problems, like a throttle that doesn't open fully, brake lights that don't work, a broken shock... sigh.