I caught what I thought was a good deal from a steering gear rebuilder at Good Guys last weekend - $160 for a remanned box. No core, no shipping costs.

The reason I bought this newish one was that my old box had a bunch of slop - dead area in the wheel before it moved the pitman arm. I tried making the sector shaft adjustments without any progress, so I gave up and searched for a new box.

With this new box, I am having similar issues. There is almost as much dead play in the wheel. I have seen as the wheel moves, the column rotates fine and rotates in time with the box input shaft, but the input shaft rotates up away from the box at least 1/8" upward (like it's a bolt being unscrewed) toward the column before the wheels rotate. Additionally, the output shaft wobbles within this dead play area and causes the pitman to move up and down. Is this normal on Chrysler power steering boxes? Was this factory?

I have a two year warranty on this box, though I'm sure it's just for leak-related problems, not sector shaft problems. So I doubt they'd give my money back.

Any advice, help, or information is highly appreciated. Please prevent me from throwing this steering box through the rebuilder's store window...

Is this engine running or engine off? Engine off will always have play because there is no hydraulic pressure, as you turn the wheel it opens fluid passages, if theres no fluid flow then theres lots of free play... Engine running somethings wrong...

Sorry, you should see about how good their guarantee is. A new or properly rebuilt gearset should respond immediately. The up and down movement is to be expected from a high mile used unit, NOT one that has been rebuilt. It isn't very expensive to disassemble, clean and reassemble a chuck if all you do is replace the seals. The hard parts are where the higher cost comes in to play. Firm Feel charged me about $300 fora Stage 3 P/S rebuild, and it is the next thing to Rack and Pinion as far as I am concerned.

So the engine was off and there was little to no fluid inside the box itself, so maybe I'll try putting some fluid inside of it. It's good to hear, however, that the box needs to be pressurized to work correctly.

Are you sure you installed the shoes in the coupling the correct way? Your description sounds like they are in wrong. The coupler slides on very easy with the shoes on the wrong way.

"but the input shaft rotates up away from the box at least 1/8" upward (like it's a bolt being unscrewed) toward the column before the wheels rotate."

I had this same problem on when when someone else installed the coupler wrong.

So here's where my experience differed. I looked on the coupler for the upper pin as labelled in the FSM for 1971 Dodge vehicles - didn't find it.

Instead, I took out the bottom pin, the one that goes through the coupler off-center and holds itself to the steering gear input shaft by sitting in the groove on the input shaft ifself. This allowed me to remove the column from the gear once I removed the column mounting flange from the firewall.

To reinstall, I lined up the non-splined area on the input shaft to the non-splined area in the coupler, and pushed down on the column to slide the coupler down. It did not go on easily, I can tell you that much.

Maybe my column coupler was installed incorrectly before I got the car? It's been this way since I've had it.

How are you supposed to remove it? I have seen a little what I can only describe as mushroomed head on one side, but I thought that pin went all the way through the coupler?

It only sticks in about a 1/4". If the coupler doesn't have any looseness when you twist it cw and ccw then it's fine. It will have in and out movement which is normal. You need to check the slop in the wheel with the engine running. The same way you need to adjust it. Don't tear it apart if it isn't bad. That's a waste of time and money.

To remove it you get a punch on it and tap it with a hammer to drive it inside the coupler. The coupler is only like 1/8" thick.

Mine came out with a pair of common pliers. I put a 6-32 nut over the outside of the pin and just squeezed the pin in its hole with the pliers until it was flush. I did not remove it completely so I would not lose it. I put it back with the nut on the other side. I kept the rebuild kit pin as a spare.
Craig

Does your steering shaft have another coupler between the steering box and the coupler with the pin? My '73 does and it also goes bad. I just had my steering box replaced and slop still exists. It's called a rag joint and I am in the process of tracking one down. Hard to find and costly.