F41 Box install problem HELLLLP =(

[Injectedcutty]

I have just figure why it does this, NASCAR!!!!!!! Why worry about going right when most tracks just goes left. Must be for racing. 😀

I wish i could click agree and funny lol! I would be taking that box back and having it fixed for free!!!!

 

[UNGN]

With the flat on the input shaft up, the box should be centered and have equal turns/movement right/left.

The steering wheel should be straight with the flat on the box input shaft up.

If the flat on the input shaft is not facing straight up with wheels straight, reclock the steering wheel to be straight and adjust EVERYTHING else to be straight with flat on the input shaft up. That is the #1 most important thing in installing a saginaw steering box.

 

[TURNA]

Yep did that.

The box that came out of the car was fine. Just a non F41 box

So I am leaning towards Advance Autos re-builder had a bad day.

 

[UNGN]

Yep did that.

The box that came out of the car was fine. Just a non F41 box

So I am leaning towards Advance Autos re-builder had a bad day.

Somehow the pitman arm was put on off spline, or the output shaft was installed by someone surfing p*rn on his phone and not really paying attention to what he was doing.

That is the only thing I can see that would change the relationship between box center and chassis center.

Taking the box back and compare it to another and the difference in the relationship/location between input flat and output key spline should be obvious.

 

[Z48LT1]

How much did Advance Auto charge? Rock Auto has the MCSS gear box (2.5-2.7 turns lock to lock) from Cardone for $111, ($86 with a core trade-in). (That is the same box, right?)

Cheers - Gary

Edit - FWIW shipping to central Florida is estimated to be $12

 

[TURNA]

I just had the boxes side by side and noticed that with the pitman arm in the same eyeballed location the flat spot on the input shaft is in a different location.

So I am not sure if that is because of the different gearing or if there is an actual issue with the box.



I have a commercial account with Advance so I get a rather large discount there plus no shipping cost.



But if I cant get this one to work I may get either the Rockauto AC Delco or Lares not sure which one would be better.

 

[pontiacgp]

the pittman arm can be only be installed in 4 ways, 90° from each position, the shaft and pittman arm have 4 keyways so the orientation can't be off by a couple of spline. An F41 box has 2.5 to 3 turns lock to lock so if your box is 2 turns lock to lock the box is defective

 

[Z48LT1]

Okay, now I gotta tell my story. Back in the early 70's (yeah, I'm that old) I was a junior USAF Captain on assignment getting an MBA at California State Univ Sacramento with a brand new bare bones Chevy van - 3 on the tree, no PS, dealer installed a/c, bare steel interior, no windows other than the fixed ones in the rear doors, you get it. I bought the PS parts (pump, hoses, gear box) from a junk yard. Installed them in the condo garage. Same problem you have. Turned inside its own wheelbase one way, took a football field to turn the other way. I dusted off my not-yet-rusty engineering degree and came up with a solution: I used a triangle file to make a new spline in the middle of the "keystone" spline in the pitman arm, which made the pitman arm agnostic with respect to orientation. I.e. it could be clocked at any orientation to the steering gear output shaft. My first reassembly was two splines towards correction. That just swapped the handedness of the problem. So next I tried one spline from original. Not perfect this time - a half turn or so different from one side lock to the other, but I obviously wasn't going to get it any better, so I called it a day. The phenomenon never made a functional difference the rest of the time I owned the truck, although I was always looking for something. True story.

Edit - Re pontiacgp's post, there was only one "keyway" on my pitman arm.

Cheers - Gary

Those were the days - I installed a floor shift kit from J. C. Whitney, for all the good it did. Wound the piss out of it and still barely got a chirp out of the tires on a 1 - 2 shift. fml, even then (350, 2bbl)

 

[pontiacgp]

Edit - Re pontiacgp's post, there was only one "keyway" on my pitman arm.

Cheers - Gary

then you must have a customized pitman arm, here is an A/G body pitman arm with 4 keyways...

 

[Z48LT1]

No, I was speaking of the early 70's Chevy van pitman arm in my shaggy dog story. I've not met a g-body pitman arm face to face but I'm sure they're very nice. It would take filing four new splines in a g-body pitman arm to duplicate my 45-some-odd year old experiment and I'd never recommend it unless there were copious quantities of incentives. I can't imagine why.

Best - Gary