is it easy to straighten steering wheel?

[PHAEDRUS]

are you taling about the sector shaft?? the splined shaft taht the pitman arm attaches too??
Just curious as in 5 years of looking at wrecked cars I have seen exactly three of these. They will appear to be similar to a barber pole in the splined section of the shaft.
Dave

 

[e9999]

everybody with crooked wheels take a look at the cross shaft coming out of the steering box above the pitman arm, you can see a short section of the splines exposed, they should be straigt up and down. I saw 2 80's today with twisted cross shafts.

uh? PS is strong enough to twist the shaft if are against a rock or somethin' ?

 

[RavenTai]

I don’t think it would twist from PS, both trucks took an impact, both were fairly severe, a good hit to the tire/wheel by something like a civic would do it. That is a kind of collision is reported pretty regularly here

Something like that could be missed during a collision repair. it is not real obvious,

Dave yes the sector shaft coming out of the bottom of the steering box where the pitman arm slides on.

Not trying to say this is the source of anybody’s problem just something to check.

 

[RV80]

I have bent a sector shaft whilst playing before... Then last time out i bent the tie rod like a banana... So i fitted a big thick custom one that won't ben (hopefully)... Also jack up the front of the car (wheels of the ground) and get someone to turn the steering wheel and check for movement at the sector shaft.
If it wobbles around while turning the bottom bearing in the steering is shot..

 

[PHAEDRUS]

Well i'll be.
granted 90% of what i see lately is rack and pinion but that is surprising.
the other way to see if you have issues would be to center the wheel. run the steering wheel all the way out to the left, count the rotations and o'clock position. run back to center, then run right.
if one is more than 2-3 hours in the o'clock range you might have an issue.
Dave