steering gets loose

[shirley]

install power steering on my 55 olds,rebuilt grear box and rebuilt power steering
pump. work great but when driving the car sometimes the steering get real loose
and pulls to the right then rights it self and comes back to normal. this all takes place in about 2 seconds. any thoughts? thanks dennis

[rsd9699]

Sounds like the valve at the top of the gearbox has sharp edges or flakes in the valve that are floating around and catch from time to time causing the pressure to be applied for a few second - the tolerances are extremely tight and chipping is a real problem.

Just a guess from other gearboxes I modified that use the torsion bar inside the spool valve.

Ron

[NTX5467]

The late model Chrysler power steering gears have a procedure to "center" the valve on the top of the gearbox. It's kind of a crude procedure, where with the front end of the car raised soe the wheels are off the ground, if the steering whats to turn by itself, right or left, to any degree, then you loosen the valve and gently tap it's position on the housing, depending upon which way the wheels are turning by themselves. Once the valve is centered, the wheels turn only when the steering wheel is turned by the driver.

The debris, as mentioend, could well be an issue. Is this temporary "pull" related to brake application, by chance? Or one wheel encountering a bump?

How does the boost feel compared to what you recall before the changes? If the boost is higher, with much lower turning effort, then the "orifice" in the back of the pump might be a larger size than the one in the original pump . . . if the pumps are not the same. The size of the orifice helps determine the basic boost output of the pump.

When I first got my '68 LeSabre, the steering had a numb and overpowered feel, but everything was stock. The steeering was a little loose, too. When I tweaked the "on center" adjustment to tighten things up, the feel became much more normal for that car.

In some cases, I seem to believe that the steering gearbox remanufacturers might leave the adjustments a little loose for their own protection, which can also get the ultimate owner to tweak it to act better on their particular vehicle. That's what I had to do on my '77 Camaro with an AGR reman gearbox (I later read that others had to do the same thing).

Just some thoughts,
NTX5467

[rsd9699]

There is no such "centering procedure" for the Olds PS system. Later model pumps included a filter to help control this problem. You can put a magnet in the PS pump reservoir to catch metal particles like in most of newer PS systems but this will not catch non ferrous particles. A filter may correct the problem over time but in the the short run, you can try flushing but if there is a "rough" place in the valve, then time will wear it smooth. Or disassembly, inspection, cleaning, and correcting the problem is the only real fix.

I also found that the use of a thick lubricate like stp oil treatment helps the reassembly of these close tolerance valves.

Ron