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1965 F100 LWB 352, 3.03ontree, 3.50-1. 31X10.5x15"
Last month I overhauled the front suspension with NEW Springs, shocks, Kingpins, pivot bushings, and radius arm bushings. In red urethane of course. Left the t6ie rods alone cause they seemed fine/ no play during shakedown. Last week put a new rag joint in. The aftermarket ones at O'Smileys auto parts. Afterwards, it felt like it was binding, like a memory steer issue. Definitely not right. So I did some searching in the forums and found a post that explained that you need to loosen everything up as far as mounting the column goes and re-centre the whole enchilada. The person who posted it, (I know it was one of you regulars, can't remember who), Didn't really explain clearly enough for me and now the binding is mostly gone, but I'm getting a groaning/grinding noise that sounds Front suspension missing
like the upper bearing, only on high torque turns. (Parking). Instructions said to loosen the column hangers under the dash, the large clamp on the engine side of firewall, and the smaller clamp on the shaft itself, then normalize everything. What exactly is normalized? How do I achieve normalization, Zen, and whirled peas?
Thanks in advance, Rubberband man.
The steering column is a rudimentary and imperfect system. My approach has always been to build the column off the truck, and adjust to get the bearing preload to feel right (with liberal application of a grease to bearings that does not migrate with summer heat). When it feels right install and align to rag joint. This has always worked for me, but It is such a simple system I’m sure one can obtain acceptable results following a different procedure. Additionally, some of the replacement rag joints are constructed with a hard plastic rather than the rubber - those units are more sensitive to slight misalignment.
Gavin, I might end up doing that. The only reason I haven't pulled it is that it was fine until I started fixing it. And I got a rubber disc, not the hard plastic.
John, The column is connected to the steering gear BY the part I rehabbed. As far as the upgrade goes, this truck is too original to be modifying s#!+, got my 63 uni for that.
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