steering shaft alignment

[Doug R.]

Is there a index mark on the upper side (toward the firewall) of the rag joint where the steering column shaft attaches? I removed my column and shaft to replace lower bearing and spring and my steering wheel although on the index mark is slightly off to the right.I know I should have made a reference mark on the rag joint and shaft, but you know what they say about hind sight. Any help is appreciated. Thanks Doug

[Timothy B.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

Doug,

Double check things first, the steering wheel screws to the hub with six screws and I believe there is a index mark that aligns the hub and steering shaft. The top section of the rag is the portion with the rubber and it attaches to the shaft in a way that allows the pinch bolt to pass through the flat. The lower portion of the rag joint indexes the steering box input shaft with the slit at 12 o'clock and aligned to a chisel mark on the input shaft.

All this should result in the pitman arm in the straight ahead position and any adjustment to center the steering wheel is done at the tie rod sleeves.

[Doug R.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

Thanks Tim, I'll take a look.

[Dan B.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

The rag joint coupler can be indexed a couple of teeth either way at each end to allow your steering shaft mark to be indexed at 12 o'clock and allow for some alignment variation between the steering box high point and toe adjustment. In a perfect world you would find the exact high point in the steering box and then do the wheel alignment which would allow the steering shaft to point straight up when the coupler is centered on the shaft. Unfortunately, Bubba has done many alignments. Uneven spacing of the tie rod ends is a dead giveaway.

[Donald H.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

Here's a couple of documents that may help. I found them via various searches.

C2 steering system centering.pdf
Rag Joint specs.pdf

[Gary R.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

Doug
As the others said you want to look at the box as your reference. If you have the original gears the mark on the input may or may not be true center. Many of the vette boxes from 63-82 are not on true center but rather high center- the point of the highest lash. Since the box will never travel full lock to lock once installed in the car the reference point should be high center. Some boxes are the same for both but not all. That is why swapping one box from another vette may or may not line up.

For your purpose referencing the mark will be fine as long as that is the box that dialed in on the car. If you really want to know if the high center and true center are the same you will have to remove the box and check it with a 0-30 in/lb dial torque wrench.

[Doug R.]

Re: steering shaft alignment

Thanks to all that replied,as usual this forum came through with the solution I needed.Don Harris thank you for the articles and effort to research. Again thanks to all !