My 87 GN has very sloppy steering since purchased February 2001. I've put new shocks, springs and completely rebuilt the front end with no improvement. When crusing at highway speeds, wheel has a lot of play without actually steering the car anywhere. When I take turns quickly, I have difficulty controling the wheels because I sort of have to saw at the steering wheel to keep things going smooth. Any one got any ideas on what may be wrong, and what I can do to confirm what the problem is? I'm not much of a power steering guy, but I could probably figure it ok.
When the front end was rebuild did you replace the idler arm and pittman arm. Jack the car up to free the suspension wiggle tire left to right and up and down. The wheels should feel fairly tight.
IF not then have someone do the above and determine where the slop is coming from.
Sounds like maybe the steering box itself is either completely worn out or out of adjustment.
There's set screw on it (if I remember correctly) that can tighten it up a bit (or maybe that's a flashback to my old Chevy pickup!
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Are you use to rack and pinion? Gear ball is not as tight. The GN used a GM "800" series box with quick ratio steering. First check tie rods ends and idler are for wear. Idler should have some play but tie rod ends must be tight. The intermediate tie rod, sometimes called "drag link or center link" is the frist to wear out. Check the ends the same as the tie rods. The gear box has SOME adjustment. There is a screw with lock nut on top cover. You can loosen lock nut and tighten screw. This should be done with car jacked up and another person checking stiffness over center engine off. Over tightening will cause steering not to return to center when you let go of wheel while driving.
A good box will show about 3/8 inch of thread on the screw. Don't over tighten!!!! Take a quarter of a turn at a time if you have never done this before. Take a wrench with you, this can be done on the road. Again don't expect this to be like rack and pinion. These are drag cars not road racers.
After doing some investigation, it seems that my steering box is probably bad. I had my GF sit in the car and wiggle the wheel a bit, and the movement stops at the gearbox. I'm going to probably have to send out and get it rebuilt. Anyone got a good step by step on how to remove these and replace them? Who rebuilds them good?
Don't go for a rebuilt exchange unit. The rebuilders are not senitive to gear ratio. The GN used an 800 series quick ratio box. It's hard to find a mechanic that knows how to rebuild a gear box these days as most cars use rack and pinion. I would look for a used one first. The tip to the 800 style is the four bolt top cover vs the round snap ring cover used on the 605 box. The quick ratio was part of the Y56 package that also came with the rear sway bar. If you find a Regal with a rear sway bar and a 4 bolt cover on the steering box grab it.
Well, there is a guy that is recommended on this web site on http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/suspension/steering.html that does rebuilds. Average cost about $220.00. I was thinking about going with him since he was recommended on this page.
Even if I get a stock box, can some please post a basic howto for removal and replacement.