Sloppy steering

[NCbluebird]

yes I know, very common, mostly due to worn out rag joint.

So what have you done about it? How to tighten up the sloppy handling from the front end? tell me about the mild to the wild as I want to start planning. Pictures too

Thanks

[strokerblue72]

Well i just replaced my box and colume lol,brand new box from wasps here in the UK and i second hand steering colume oh and also all the ball joints and other steering componants

[SureGrip]

Not sure if it has been posted up to their website or not, but Mopar Action did a 3-part session on just this issue early last year.

Involves finding the 'high spot' on your steering column (making sure that all the 'master splines' are aligned with the 12-'o'clock position on the steering wheel), then removing the lash from the steering box itself (about a 15 min job with a wrench and a screwdriver) and moving on to tierod ends, ball joints and the such.

[Boss Ride]

Where can I get a new rag joint? Even the one on my parts car is worn out..

[BigBlock]

My friend and I replaced every bushing with Competition Engineering products. It handles great now.Just a thought.

[471Magnum]

Tighten up your steering gear, but the loss of caster due to worn bushings is a primary cause of sloppy steering at speed.

These cars were designed with minimal caster to begin with, and it gets compromised to maintain the proper camber adjustment. Once the bushings deteriorate, it all goes away, and there is not enough adjustment range to get it back. Lower the front ride height via torsion bar adjustment and it just gets worse still.

Solution is to replace all bushings. You can go one step further by installing offset bushing. Going even further, you can invest in aftermarket tubular upper control arms that have extra caster built in. The latter is my plan for my 72.

[SureGrip]

With regards to the 'rag joint' you can't buy a complete coupler, but you can buy most if not all the parts to rebuild them. There are plenty of sources out there that tell you how to do it.

[BigBlock]

Not sure if it has been posted up to their website or not, but Mopar Action did a 3-part session on just this issue early last year.

Involves finding the 'high spot' on your steering column (making sure that all the 'master splines' are aligned with the 12-'o'clock position on the steering wheel), then removing the lash from the steering box itself (about a 15 min job with a wrench and a screwdriver) and moving on to tierod ends, ball joints and the such.

Does anyone have a copy of this? Is there any way someone could scan the articles and post them? I drove my 71 for the first time last night, and if someone was following me they would have thought I was drunk. I was scared to go over 45 mph.

I also found out today that I do not have a rag joint. The former owner replaced it with a knuckle shaft off of a C-130

[fourforty6pac]

You can get kits to rebuild the coupler around $20 maybe less. The rag joint is found on later b bodies. It is a round piece of rubber with cords in it like a tire. The upper shaft is connected to a lower shaft via the rag joint. Chances are the rag joint is not the problem.

[SureGrip]

Not sure if it has been posted up to their website or not, but Mopar Action did a 3-part session on just this issue early last year.

Involves finding the 'high spot' on your steering column (making sure that all the 'master splines' are aligned with the 12-'o'clock position on the steering wheel), then removing the lash from the steering box itself (about a 15 min job with a wrench and a screwdriver) and moving on to tierod ends, ball joints and the such.

Does anyone have a copy of this? Is there any way someone could scan the articles and post them? I drove my 71 for the first time last night, and if someone was following me they would have thought I was drunk. I was scared to go over 45 mph.

I also found out today that I do not have a rag joint. The former owner replaced it with a knuckle shaft off of a C-130

Here is a link to their steering box tune up. http://www.moparaction.com/Tech/beep/PU ... e-v1.4.pdf

I have the magazines, but it's getting them scanned that would take me some time (I still want to scan and post all the other project issues too)

[BigBlock]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

[Elvad]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet but the lower control arm bushings, by themselves, can make these cars feel sloppy. You can jack the car up and everything checks out as tight BUT if the lower control arm bushings are bad it will wander, follow cracks in the road and have an overall sloppy feel. Put the car on a lift and look at the bushing where the lower control arms pivot at the K-frame, if they are dry rotted and cracked, they are junk. Start there. One other thing to note, if someone has been driving this car with the back jacked way up in the air for a long time, the pivot pin on the control arm can elongate the hole in the K-frame resulting in a sloppy steering situation that is very hard to diagnose.