66 swerves BAD under heavy throttle!

[2+2GT]

"I know my box is shot, as I have nearly a half rotation in the steering wheel where the shaft meets the box, but no movement out the other end."

That's at least 4 times the max movement. Even a box with totally trashed sector gears should be a lot tighter than that. Have you tried going through the bearing and sector adjustments in the Factory Service Manual? It's a very exacting procedure, and even really bad gears should get you down to 1/8 turn. Heck, you might even find it's OK, and some fool simply screwed up the adjustments. Cost you nothing but a few hours to do it.

 

[TT670]

I may cut the fronts down to a 17x5 and go skinny style. I'll have to price that out.

I should have added I had my fronts arrowed to 17x7, cant recall the tire size I went with off hand.

 

[SadbutTrue]

I may cut the fronts down to a 17x5 and go skinny style. I'll have to price that out.

I think the box, alignment and rearend are much more likely sources of your error.

Step 1: Replace that box
Step 2: Get it aligned
Step 3: See if its still doing it, then consider checking on the rearend
Step 4: ?
Step 5: Profit

 

[v8only]

got the box out today.

it's been painted, which leads me to believe that it was swapped out (or just painted to look new) when the suspension was previously redone. What's weird, is on the ground, there is little to no play in it. I'm guessing though that you can't really tell until it's hooked up and weight put behind it, because when it was hooked up, there was all kinds of play coming out of that thing.

Here is an important note to anyone doing this job. I was told time and time and time again to jack up the car, remove the motor mounts and yank it out that way. I also read that it may be possible to pull it out without removing the motor mount. Rubbish. I would have had to remove the motor mount and possibly the belly bar too.

Think outside of the box...I pulled the steering column off, which was two nuts and two connectors, then wiggled and pulled the box straight up and out of the engine bay. I wiggled the steering box and slid it right between the head and the shock tower, and slid it toward the radiator support and out (headers removed).

All I had to do was pull the valve cover off, which was a ****LOAD easier than jacking up engines and removing motor mounts and belly bars

I'll get the new box this weekend or monday, and have it all re installed by end of next week. I'll update then