Gonna be going up to Houston this weekend to pick up a re-manned steering box for the 65 V8 coupe. I need to pull the old box to save on the core charge, and am going to be working on that this week. Is there anything special that I need to do when pulling the old one? The engine is still in the car and so the box will have to come out the bottom....this sounds like lotsa fun. Do I need to disconnect any of the steering linkage other than the pitman arm? Maybe the left hand tie-rod to get more clearance? What all do I need to pull off the top of the steering column at the steering wheel to get the column shaft cover off? BTW, this steering box is original with the long (42 inch) steering shaft.

 

[align=left]Remove the steering wheel from the top of the column with a steering wheel puller. Unbolt the factory bracket under the dash that is holding the column up. Remove the column sleeve; this is done from the interior of the car. The column shaft is connected and will stay in place.Now unbolt the steering box, remove by pulling the box down towards the front of the car, sliding the column shaft down and through, out of the fire wall. This removes the entire steering box and column shaft assembly. To do this you may have to slightly raise the engine on the driver’s side using a jack or hoist. Then remove the existing bracket and gasket from the firewall. You won't need to remove any of the suspension parts. Just take th engine mount loose so the engine can be jacked up a tad if it won't clear. [/align]

 

In addition to that there is a very good chance you may have to drop the oil pan as well. I had to on my 66 you'll have to play around with twisting the steering box as the entire box must make about a 3/4 rotation as its being lowered to clear the shock towers. Once it finally clears them then it hits the oil pan[>:].

If you do have to drop the pan I suggest replacing the gasket with a Felpro one piece silicone/metal gasket (about 60.00 bucks blue in color)

Gun

Gun

 

You put a 60 buck oil pan gasket on your car? Man, you have more money than I do.

 

The amount of trouble I had with cork gaskets made me more than happy to shell out the cash. I also got the same type for my valve covers

Totally worth it in my book

Gun

 

OK, got the steering wheel and shaft cover off! Not as hard as I was expecting. I can feel the gears in the steering box when they come together and mesh.There is about1/8 turn of slop of the steering shaft. This translates to about 3 inches of slop at the outer ring of the steering wheel. What is acceptable? Should I have less than what I have or is it good the way it is?

 

Have you tried to tighten your current box? If not, let us know so we can tell you how.

 

Yes, I have tightened the adjusting screw as much as possible and still have that 3 inches of slop at the steering wheel. It used to be 4 inches before I adjusted the box.

 

You were right Glen, the engine has to be lifted. The steering box hits on the left hand exhaust manifold. I also took off the entire steering linkage (both tie rods and the center link) to make more room. Also took off the cross member and proceeded to break one of the bolts while doing so. I'll get it out sunday before the race. Took the oil pan off because the son tried to jack the car up by the pan rather than the cross member. Its ok, no holes but seeing as how I have all this other stuff off thought I might as well pull it and get itstraighten it out now rather than later. More on this fun evolution later.

 

Look at the bolt that didn't break really carefully - IIRC these are special tapered bolts that your not going to find at a hardware store. Hope I'm wrong, but I do recollect reading about this.