My steering wheel is off by 90 degrees how do i adjust

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michaelharrisco

michaelharrisco

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Threads
107
Messages
485
Location
Raleigh, NC
Hey,

This is annoying me, but not really causing a major problem. With my front wheels perfectly straight, my steering wheel is 90 degrees off. Is this a major thing to fix or is there an easy way to take steering wheel off column and rotate it and then retighten it?
 
take the top off, use a puller and take off wheel.... easy.. but very difficult to get perfect
 
What year, and what steering are you running?
 
Adjust the Drag link ONE turn @ a time. You can do this @ the link that comes from the steering box to the pivot or from the pivot to the knuckle. The tie rods should be threaded one left one right so that when you turn the link itself it adjusts the length of the rod. This will adjust your steering wheel position. Pulling a steering wheel is the last resort. :steer:
 
Just a word of caution....learn from my experience please!

I agree, adjust the rods / linkages before pulling the wheel.

I made the mistake of pulling the steering wheel to do this exact job, as mine was crooked and it cost me dearly.

After reinstalling the wheel, about 2 months later, it came off in my hands at around 45 mph and totally lost control of the 40 and ran off the road crashing into trees - doing serious damages - not a good picture at 4am on your way to work.

If you do decide to pull the wheel, use Loctite and torque that nut down to spec - with serious authority. A steering wheel is nothing to be taken lightly - especially when the damn thing comes off at 45mph from vibrations and improper torque.

Best of luck with the adjustment!!
 
When I did my Saginaw mod, I easily could remove the ragjoint from the steering box. If you can do that, and get your wheel closeto straight, then adjust your linkage to fine tune it...
 
Here is how I would fit this with stock steering. You do this at your own rinse. Turn the wheel both ways and make sure the steering is hitting the stops on the knuckles both ways. Next aline the wheels straight forward. Now remove the drag link from the steering arm. Turn the steering wheel one way until it stops. Now turn it the other way and count the turns. Divide that by two and turn the wheel that much. This will have the steering in the middle of steering boxe's total movement. Where did the wheel end up? If it's straight your problem will not be fixed by moving the steering wheel on the steering column. It's it's off them remove and put it on with steering box in the middle of it's total turns. Now with steering wheel correctly attached put the drag link back on the steering arm. This is with steering wheel straight and the wheels straight. If it off figure if the drag link is out of adjustment or the tie rod from the bell crank. If the wheels move from stop to stop on the knuckles can probably just adjust the drag link. Just make sure everthing is tight.
 
I pictured removing the wheel would be the way to fix this, but based on these post I know not to go that direction. I'm not familiar with some of the terms used i.e. what the drag rod is or which rod it is in all the linkage.

Dizzle's comment: just the Drag link ONE turn @ a time. You can do this @ the link that comes from the steering box to the pivot or from the pivot to the knuckle. The tie rods should be threaded one left one right so that when you turn the link itself it adjusts the length of the rod. This will adjust your steering wheel position. Pulling a steering wheel is the last resort.

Makes the most sense to me so I'm going to take a look at my Hanye's manual that will hopefully id the the drag rod. Part of this too is to look to see about tightening up the steering, but based on other post I've read I don't believe this is going to be a simple adjustment will probably required parts replaced.

Hopefully I can come up with at least getting the steering wheel straight.
 
Yesterday after reading this post I went out to adjust my steering. My wheel was sitting @ around 75 degrees to the right. I went to the drag link between my factory box and the pivot link at the front of the frame. The drag link rod has a clamp at each end 14mm I believe. I loosened the bolts on the clamps and turned the bar with a big set of channel lock pliers towards me from the top of the bar. For me it was 2.5 turn and my wheel was straight. It only took about 15 mins. Wheels on the ground tires straight ahead the wheel moved to it's straightened out position.

Search for drag link adjustment or ti-rod adjustment here or in google for a visual of what I just talked about.
 
michaelharrisco said:
I pictured removing the wheel would be the way to fix this, but based on these post I know not to go that direction. I'm not familiar with some of the terms used i.e. what the drag rod is or which rod it is in all the linkage.

Dizzle's comment: just the Drag link ONE turn @ a time. You can do this @ the link that comes from the steering box to the pivot or from the pivot to the knuckle. The tie rods should be threaded one left one right so that when you turn the link itself it adjusts the length of the rod. This will adjust your steering wheel position. Pulling a steering wheel is the last resort.

Makes the most sense to me so I'm going to take a look at my Hanye's manual that will hopefully id the the drag rod. Part of this too is to look to see about tightening up the steering, but based on other post I've read I don't believe this is going to be a simple adjustment will probably required parts replaced.

Hopefully I can come up with at least getting the steering wheel straight.
Click to expand...

you seem to be thinking it is way complicated - which it is not

take Living in the Past's post and break it up into individual tasks, really not that hard
 
You guys got me so worried that this morning I torqued the crap out of it before dropping my son off at the local Int AAD air show. I hear the US is making a big intro :clap:
 
I might add if a lift has been done the tie rod from the bell crank to the passenger's side is the one that changed. But depending on how much lift was done you need to make sure they is enough tie rod end threads into the tie rod. If not it could come apart on a bump in the road. Same with the drag link.
 
the question is why is your steering wheel 90 degrees off? mine was after i rolled my cruiser. it tracked straight down the road afterwards, i could take my hands off the wheel. everything felt fine. i pulled the wheel a couple days later and repositioned it. two weeks later, i found both of my shackles had broken and bent into "s". i've run heavy duty shackles ever since then
 
After putting on my 2.5" lift, my steering wheel is now out about 45 deg.

So from my understanding the best way to fix this is to follows Dizzles advice above and just adjust the drag link bar??

Cheers,

Brian
 
Where is this "bolt" you reference when stating "bolt off of steering wheel shaft"?

Seems easy enough, but I'd like to know what bolt this is and ensure I don't mess up anything else while trying to do this.

Anyone out there have picture showing this?
 
Wow!
Using a steering puller and changing how many rotations your box vs wheel turns instead of using a factory adjustment method?

This has now become an IQ test. :popcorn:

Can't wait to here whats next. I got one...... your axel is broken and can't possible be repaired. You can find a good replacement from a helicopter. :flipoff2:

read FSM yet? :whoops:
 
michaelharrisco said:
Where is this "bolt" you reference when stating "bolt off of steering wheel shaft"?

Seems easy enough, but I'd like to know what bolt this is and ensure I don't mess up anything else while trying to do this.

Anyone out there have picture showing this?
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to make fun of you.

If you don't know what bolt and don't have a puller or know what to really do. You might want to just take it to an alignment shop and for 30-40 dollars have someone align the front end and have the steering wheel straightened. Well worth the satifaction that it was done right.

Oh and buy a FSM or download one of the net. Makes for great reading as well.
 
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