Finishing a restoration on a 69 400, 5 speed. Trying to get out some bugs. Replaced and rebuilt everything in steering including ball joints, bushings, pittman, Idler, link etc. Brand new gear box. Replaced bearings in steering column. Wheel bearings are new of course. New tires balanced. Had alignment checked twice by old school rack. (Place has done all my first gen, f body alignments in the past without a problem). Pump is new. Even tried adjusting the allen head in and out... Problem is the car wanders at higher speeds, say 40 mph and up. Not enjoyable to drive because your fighting it all the time to keep it going straight down the road. Been working on f bodies forever and I'm just missing something, somewhere. Thought I might ask the firebird gods here for help. Anyone ever had this issue before? I'm kind of leaning toward a problem in the PS somewhere. It's almost like the PS is working too well but that could just be my imagination. All comments appreciated.
I had a long thread on a similiar problem last year. Took forever to find, once I pulled all my hair out it was the pitman arm. 69 has a diffrent drag link set up that is hard to find as you know. I was never able to find a replacement pitman as it is a non wearable item on a 69 400. The teeth wear on the pitman arm and cause it to loosen, while remaining torqued to spec. The best way I can describe is it feels fine then all of a sudden it feels like you are driving on ice.
The steering box is a tapered fit so I got myself another lock washer and placed it between the pitman and steering box nut. (Two washers stacked). This allowed the pitman to drive further up on the gear box teeth and have a positive connection. Once I took it out for a test drive it was fixed and a world of difference. Hope this helps.
my power steering control valve in my steering box failed causing it to feel like the steering box was loose and needing adjustment. Adjusting would change the symptoms but not fix the problem. changed the box and problem went away. Good Luck, it sucks when you fix everything and still have problems. Neill
