[sammons]

Rattiac, went thru the manuals i have at the house. The Chilton i have doesn't cover the Corvair "unit repair" section. The older Motor manuals i have are Truck repair.

I googled "1966 corvair steering gear box worm gear bearing preload torque specs" the 2 main sites that pop up are "Corvair Center forum" and "t-bucket forum". Corvair venter you must register to view but rebuild procedure and pics on it. I would presume its corvair only site, so you have a '66 Corvair if ask😁 On the T-bucket forum site no problem with your Pontiac application. On there i saw a torque spec of 3.5 to 4.5 inch pounds torque on the worm gear bearingspreload.  Best i can do here, good luck!

[Rattiac]

I appreciate that Sammons . You did alot of digging for me.  Thank you much.  I'll probably tear into that this weekend.
I called my Kiwi friend and he gave me some info on what to look at on my axle.  I did find a local chevy axle but he wanted way too much for it.  Thinks he's gonna get rich off of it. Yeah right. 😄

[sammons]

Glad to. I just hope your bearing preload is lose on the worm and that will stop your play issue. Best case, it just needed adustment. Worst, well sounds like you were gonna change it out anyway.

Dang, all those guys have been stuffing Mustang 2 front suspensions and just tossing out the axle, springs and old gear box. My Uncle did that a lot for people on those AD early 50s Chevys, and just tossed the axle out in the iron scrap pile. Should be lots out there for scrap iron price.

[Rattiac]

Before leaving to visit family I took a look at that box.  I checked the front big bolt and was able to get almost 1/2 a turn in.  When I went to adjust the small screw I had noticed all 3 Allen  bolts were loose.  I put both big and small screws back where they originally at.  Starting at zero,  I tightened the 3 loose Allen bolts then adjusted the big one in and then the smaller one.  Locked em both down. Oh I did add some grease through one of the Allen screws.

On the highway it made a huge difference. All the play is gone and stays in its lane much better.  Actually did 75mph no problem.  Im very happy with this.  😎
Although this is very good,  I do feel this is too fast (ratio) and may still look into the Saginaw 525 box to slow down the steering input at highway speeds . The Vega box feels more sportier than it should be for this car.
For now it'll do and I can move on to other things. 

[sixball]

Glad you found it and fixed it. You can make it better later.

[sammons]

Geez, thats kinda scary. I guess quality control skipped that one. I'm glad you got the play out, those 3 lose bolts may sure have caused the little sector adjuster to change on you.

I don't care for quick steer either, thats why i don't care for R&P. On a lot of C2-C3 Corvettes, there are two settings on the spindle arms. If you put tie rod in short hole, quick steer, far hole normal slower. Had a few in the quick hole, always moved them to outter. Only two ways to slow ratio would be longer spindle arm or possibly shorter pitman arm  off gearbox.

[Rattiac]

I would have never thought about a shorter pitman arm.  Good Info here.  From what I've read,  1" shorter could be all the difference I need. 

[sixball]

That is good information either for trying to make an adjustment or for someone putting something together with mixed parts like my roadster.

[sammons]

Rattiac, i didn't know if your setup was able to modify it. I like to try all avenues to make something work if i already bought the parts, sometimes you just have to jumpship and buy something else.

Sixball, i hope it may help others. As a young kid in the mid to late 60s, dad and friends were into the end of Jolopy begining of Super Modified dirt racing and most cars were garage built. While the other kids were outside of the shop playing, i was standing in the corner watching and listening trying to wrap my little brain around how it worked and how it was made.

They were dealing with old gearboxs with 6-7 turns lock to lock, and trying to get quicker steering. The longer they made the pitman arm the more power it took to turn and most used a large 18-19" steering wheel. But if you were hooked up good in the corners, you carried the left front off the ground and it turned easier😁

[Essex_29]

Rattiac Good to hear you got your steering box to work better.
Driving at those speeds, maybe an increased caster angle would help to keep the Pontiac
on the straight and narrow. A wedge sandwiched between the springs and the axle. On
my Essex changing from 4 to 7 degree wedges made a world of difference.
Maybe you could try and loosen the U-bolts and slide in a narrow ¹/₈" thick
piece of sheet metal and go for a test ride. If there's an improvement you could have someone
cut a wedge that fits.

I also learned something new today, looking at the first page of this thread, there's a pic
of the top of the grille. I didn't know Pontiac used a version of the red Dart emblem as early
as the thirties. As far as I know, at the time when my 1957 Pontiac was made, they were
phasing out the Chief head, and went back (apparently) to the Dart that was in the
1959 Bonneville grille and then stayed.

[Rattiac]

Mine would be too thin to redrill.  So I'll order this arm, thick enough I can modify it with plenty of meat.  Others have modified it as well.

[Rattiac]

May be getting a tilt steering column here shortly .  Is there anything I need to be looking out for internally  ?
Like mechanical workings,  clearances,  play, ect .
I almost grabbed a caprice column but there was no shifter indicator. 

[sammons]

Not a whole lot goes wrong with GM columns. On tilts you may have loose screws under pins that may need tightened. This is most common on low seat cars or high pickuos from people using the steering wheel to pull them self up to get out or in. If it's got the wobbles there, you'll need a pivot pin puller to get down to the screws. Lisle tools sells one for under $15. The other things to check is turn signal switch and  steering wheel lock.

A lot of columns had a cable pull that opperated the indicator on the dash cluster. If i get one of those, i just grab a 67-72 chevy truck indicator and drill 2 holes and screw it on. Some had srcrew on pointer , you can make one  to screw on or glue on. Jim Carter pick up sells a new clear indicator with the O for overdrive lens that fits right in the Gm bezel.

[Rattiac]

Awesome.  Thanks Sammons for all the useful information. 
Been spying a few columns on Ebay as well.  Some have 2yr warrantys.  I was watching Matt's off road recovery his big wrecker build.  His expensive ididit column broke on the trail and trail mater had to weld it back up.  The tilt didn't work after that,  but it turned me off on that brand .
 I think I would like the key option though.

[sammons]

I sold a car a decade or so ago, the guy wanted to know if i were interested in taking trade a bunch of new parts he had for a project he sold. Quite a few parts i took, but the shinny ididit tilt, no. Tilt felt funky, wasn't impressed with the rest. He wanted $500 on trade for it, no way!

I'll stick to a good old tried and true GM column.