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My Crown Vic has a noticeable amount of play in the steering and tends to wander on the road, I’ve inspected all the front end components and confirmed that it’s the gear box that has about an inch of play in it. I’ve heard you can adjust the tolerances to eliminate the wear but I have no clue if this is safe.
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id say no go. If its like Chevrolet, yes you can mess with it,but usually it kills the tapeworm gear etc and causes “sticky” wondering etc while driving.
aka,if you are for sure its the box,replace it.
When you get a car aligned, one of the angles that can be adjusted is caster. Too much incorrect caster can affect the road manners of a car and wandering is one of those problems. Come back to this if you’ve still got wandering problems after you deal with your steering gear.
You didn’t state the year so I’m not sure if you’re referring to the ‘old school’ gear box or a modern PS rack. They ran both in those vehicles depending on the year you’re talking about. Generally, adjusting steering boxes or racks is not a good idea. First, they don’t often get loose and when they do, it usually means there’s worn parts and you should just replace the unit. Second, if you get it wrong, you can really mess things up and you won’t be able to steer the vehicle. Be absolutely sure that the steering rack or box is the problem before you go there. It’s more likely to be an issue with loose suspension parts. I would also recommend you get the alignment checked as suggested. Poor alignment can cause steering issues as well.
Keep us posted.
I once owned at pair of GM vehicles – a his and her thing. The had identical recirculating ball steering boxes and the cars had excellent steering. But after some use they would get loose.
In the service manual was a procedure for adjusting the play in the box. With this in hand adjusting the steering box was no problem but you had to know and follow the procedure.
Sorry guys I didn’t reply sooner I’ve been working double time the last couple of weeks. It’s the old recirculating ball set-up, I checked all front-end components and it was defiantly the steering box. I adjusted the top screw (that was very fun!) and got it nice and tight now 🙂 Only one problem, the box still has a binding issue, I backed the adjustment off about two turns and it was still binding :ohmy: I know the box is on it’s way out but I’ll worry about that once the car is paid off.
Yea, you can’t just run the screw down, you need to back it off at least 1 turn after it bottoms out. That said it sounds like you’re going to need to replace it.
Keep us posted on how that goes for you.
I didn’t bottom the screw out, I tightened so that there is about 1 inch of play when the wheel is straight and made sure it returns to center (which it does). I know this isn’t a permanent solution but I don’t want to throw $250 plus labor until I absolutely I have to. It’s a 92 crown vic with close to 200,000 miles on it if not more (broken odometer), I don’t want to throw a crap load of money into it before I have it paid off.
It seems like what I remember is tightening the center screw until I felt the slightest resistance and then backing it off a quarter turn. This with the front wheels in the straight ahead position which is the tightest fit of the worm/sector.
I think you could go far beyond this with the center screw. You may have it too tight.
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