I have a 68' Mustang with a Power steering setup out of a 70' cougar. There is a ton of play in the steering wheel. When driving the car down the road it seems to driftquite alot. I think i have traced the problem to the ball stud coming from the control valve. There a good 3/4 inches of play at the studturning the steering shaft back and forth beforethe wheels even begin to move. The power steering seems to be working. There is the same amount of play whether the car is running or not. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

You have a worn out powersteering unit. Replace it with a new one, and consider upgrading your front suspension parts.

 

So rebuilding my control valve would not solve the problem?By power steering unit are you referring the the control valve itself? Thanks

 

Mine is manual so I dunno how well this holds, but on your gearbox theremay be a sector shaft backlash adjusting nut, you could try readjusting the backlash in the gearbox, it's supposed to be done periodically but no one ever does it, so as the gears wear you get a crapload of play in the steering box. See if that does anything to fix the problem

 

How far can you turn the steering wheel before the wheels begin to turn? 1/4 turn, 1/2 turn?

Loose steering can be caused by any number of loose or worn steering and / or front end parts (suspension). My first inclination would be that you have a worn steering box, but you could have loose or worn tie rod ends, control arm bushings, ball joints, idler, or any combination of the above.

Considering the safety sensitive nature of your possible problem, I suggest that you extensivly educate yourself on steering and suspension components to help you track down and fix your issue, or rely upon a shop to diagnose and fix your issue(s).

The good news is that Mustang steering and suspension components are very affordable,available and relativly easy to "learn" and repair. It is very important that these things be right, but it is not rocket science!

Basicly, you canget a helper to"rock"the steering wheel back and forth while you get under the car and look for looseness and worn components.

 

If you have the same amount of play in the ball stud of the control valve, whether the hydraulics are running or not, then that is definitely bad and will result in several inches of steering wheel play. There may also be a lot of play in the steering box or linkage, but that doesn't address the problem in the control valve.

A good rebuild should fix this problem. Once you have this problem fixed, you can check the rest of the system. http://www.stangerssite.com/controlvalve.html