scary steering

65fastback2+2 said:

sounds to me like a bad steering gear box. those go out alot, especially being manual, more stress is put on it than a power steering car.

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Stop making stuff up young man.

If your steering wheel has up and down play then either the balls have fallen out of the bearing in the steering column collar of someone forgot to put the centering/preload wedge on the steering shaft with the spring before reinstalling the steering wheel.

As for the strange steering, as said earlier you need to check the ball joints and while you are down there take a look at the idler arm. My Shelby did the exact thing you described for a while and it turned out to be a completely destroyed lower ball joint.

Whew! This certainly is an interesting one. If I didn't know better, I would say you have steering linkage from a power steering car underneath. And that up and down movement! That means you can move it side to side the same amount. Wow! Best advice... Get a new front end. I don't know what kinds of steamroller tires you guys are running or what you've got your alignment specs set to, But steering gearboxes are overly designed for the application. I have seen many P/S boxes go out (integral) because of loss of fluid, but manual steering gears... Rare in my book. And what the early Mustangs have are manual boxes with power assist. Hope you figure it out soon... the way it sounds, I suggest you don't drive it.

nds03 said:

as for the steering wheel, the instructions told me is could loosen the colum and move it up to remove slack between the column and the wheel and thats when it started to move up and down, or side to side. how do i fix these bearings in the column?

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Yeah, I read that bit in my Grant 'wheel instructions something like "Fords have a simple solution to the gap between the wheel and the steering column..." Simple solution to the problem, just creates a whole host of others.

Mine too has the play at the 'wheel you describe, I've yet to strip it down and find if the bearing has moved.

Damn cars, why can't they be more like women, you know where you are with them.

(Mine has the spring, and it still has the play, and the nut doesn't fit properly...)

Pardon me for thinking this, but it sounds like you have a power steering box that has run low on fluid. Do you have a picture? Can you find any numbers on it? It's definitely NOT a 65 box if it's integral power steering! Manual steering gears are not whiners! Only P/S boxes. Let us know. And I have rebuilt some. It won't be wirthit to try. Get a used one that fits.