Steering Woes

Brian was down last Sunday and we tried to trace the source of the remaining steering play and see if we could do anything about it.  I had already replaced the upper and lower control arms, spring perches, stabilizer link and strut rod bushings, all the ball joints and steering linkage and the idler arm, and there was still about two inches total play in the steering wheel.  I'm pretty sure this would be unacceptable when driving the car. 

It became obvious the play was in the steering gear box.  There is some adjust ability in the preload you can put on the steering box bearings, but it didn't help.  We removed the entire steering box:

The circular thing surrounding the steering box is part of the door trim called windlace, and has nothing to do with the steering.  Note that the steering shaft goes all the way up to the steering wheel.  This was changed in 1968 when, for safety reasons, they went to a collapsible steering column.  As it is, the steering shaft was like a spear pointed at the driver's chest in a front collision.  Another good reason to install three point seat belts. 

Brian sanded and primered the outer sleeve of the steering column:

There are rebuild kits available for the steering box, but it requires some expensive tools (bearing presses and inch-pound torque wrench), and can result in steering failure if done wrong, so we decided to order a rebuilt one from a shop in Illinois. 

We did manage to get some other things done while Brian was here.  I finished up the driver's side door by putting in the "fuzzies" that Brian had ordered from the Mustang shop by his house.  I also bought him rear shocks for his birthday and we installed them:

I had replaced the broken spring shackle earlier. 

We also partly installed the windshield wiper motor,  but found that some gaskets were needed to install the wiper arms to the underside of the cowl, and these had to be ordered. 

Next week Carolyn and I are going to Orlando, Florida for my sister's 80th birthday and will stay for a week.  By the time I get back the steering box should be here and ready to install.