July 9th | Illinois | Excessive Play in PRObuilt Steering Box
The subject has come up when you become a leader in the steering box space, how can a professionally built steering box have play in it? The answer, it has to have it in certain places.
We created a YouTube video on this recently as we were brainstorming the possibilities of our clients and how to recreate the problem. You can find that video here.
What we found is that clients were installing the steering box in all different configurations but most of the time, not in line or in center position where it needs to be. As seen in the picture above, it was angled to the left (right in the picture). The worm gear is like an hour glass shape. As the it rotates and move the pitman arm left to right and right to left, there becomes areas where slop have to happen by original design. Those areas can not have slop removed. It's impossible. But if you bring the box back into center, readjust the steering wheel to be centered in that position, readjust your tie rods and align the vehicle, there will be no slop or play in the wheel.
Here is the conversation.
AirkewldArmy - "I finally finished my Red 1966 VW Bug. Almost everything is brand new. On my test drive I noticed my steering wheel had excessive play, so I adjusted my Pro-Built Gearbox each quarter turn, I turned the steering wheel full turns back and forth; it got better and better; but I still had some excessive play (driveable). Today, I jacked my Bug back up and went through each component one by one checking all my installs. It revealed the steering box itself has excessive play."
PRO - "It’s supposed to have play in that position. Straight back it doesn’t. https://youtu.be/Fzwf1S_oGCA "
AirkewldArmy - "Ahhhhhhhh. That was it. Thank you."
The OEM PRObuilt Steering Box - https://www.airkewld.com/Steering-Box-Components-s/2519.htm
