I hesitate to post this because nothing about this except the column is original to the truck, but I hope someone here can give me some insight.

My truck has power steering using a kit from a guy in Washington and Hydroboost brakes from a kit from another guy in Southern California and just recently it has had a Cummins shove in it (rather rudely) and it has some steering issues that I'm hoping are simple.

There are a couple spots when you turn the wheel are stiff. I haven't had someone help yet so that I can see where on the rotation the stiffnes is ocurring, but it's not that bad....except when you are accellerating or braking when it does get pretty stiff, stiff enough that the wheel won't return on its own. You can wait a second and get off the brake and/or off the gas and it will be fine. The shop that put the Cummins in says they put in a new bearing on the selector - which is strange because there is less then 5,000 miles on the new Saginaw box. Could it simply be that one of the u-joints in the steering column is binding? I've looked at everything else and nothing else seems wrong. Now that the Cummins is in, the PS box and most of the column are really, really hard to get at. I have no idea how I'll ever get the PS pump out if I need to open up the orifice.

Peter

 

What you are describing is a worn spool valve inside the P/S gearbox.

You can install new bearings, but that won't solve anything when the spool valve is worn.

With 4WD: The steering coupler (this piece has a u-joint) and shaft inside the column could be worn, but I doubt that's the issue here.

You say you got a "new" P/S gearbox, but I doubt that. It's prolly a rebuilt unit.

Quality rebuilt gearboxes can be bought from NAPA.

New spool valves show up on ebay, but there's about 12 different ones. Some fit only the cars.

 

Thanks for the input. That's helpfull. Obvioulsy the PS box, although it looks brand new, was not what I thought it was. I had been thinking about just yanking it off and sending it to West Texas Offroad and I think I'll do that. But pulling it is going to be a real PITA.

PEter

 

Could You post a photo of the shaft between Your column and steering box

 

With 4WD, there's no rubber "rag joint" type steering coupler on these models. The steering shaft and coupling attaches directly to the input shaft of steering box. Inside the column, the coupler has an actual u-joint (C6TZ-3815-B), but from the description of what he's experiencing, it's caused by "high spots" or "bumps" on the spool valve. The spool valve (it's roughly 7" inches long, 3" in diameter) has been the "problem child" of every one of these Ford gearboxes, first introduced on 1965 Galaxie/LTDs and in mid 1969 on F Series trucks.