Improving Hawk Steering

[jimmijim8]

Manual steering gear cars steering box absorb a lot of road shock rendering to abuse to the gear. With the bendix power assist type, a lot of the shock is absorbed by the power cylinder allowing the gear which is nothing more than a manual gear to retain its original tolerances. Go with a P.S. set up while they are still affordable and available. You won't be sorry. jimmijim

Stude Junkie+++++++Do it right the f$$$$ Time. Never mind. Just do it right. When youre done your done. You'll know it.

[Aussie Hawk]

I reto fitted a Bendix PS set up in my GT Hawk, from another GT, it wandered on the road pretty badly. I had the servo rebuilt, and it still wandered. The local Stude guys tell me, 'Oh, they all do that', is this true? The rest of the front end is good.

Matt
Brisbane
Australia

[PackardV8]

If you've got everything rebuilt to spec, pitman arm and steering box centered, control valve adjusted per the Shop Manual, 1/16" toe-in, 1/2-to-1-degree positive caster, 195/70 radial tires on standard rims, then it shouldn't wander at all.

thnx, jack vines.

PackardV8

[sals54]

A couple of questions and an observation. You say your front end is properly lubed, but are you sure the grease is getting all the way to the top of the king pin? Its a messy affair to grease the king pin. Keep greasing it until you see grease coming out of the top portion of the king pin. A lot of wiping is needed afterwards, but its well worth it. Next question, are you sure you're not getting any interference from any frame or engine components when steering at a very slow speed? Damaged motor mounts, or the engine mounted in the wrong holes in the frame mount can cause parts to come in contact with other items in its travel. Observation: I have a 54 Champion Coupe with a 289 V8 installed. Also, the front of the car is shod with 205 60 15 radial tires mounted on Ford steel rims. I do not feel any binding while turning the wheel even when the car is stopped. I can parallel park my car without the slightest problem. I can even "one finger" the wheel when making a U turn... (no, not that finger! ! !). Lube is the key in my experience. Grease the holy heck out of those kingpins and see if that does not free things up substantially. Trust me, thats the cheapest fix to try first. Then, if that does not work, start moving on to the next easiest fix. Only as a last resort should you start pulling steering parts off your already running car. You never know when that sucker may get put back together right. Good luck on the project. I hope it turns out to be easy.

sals54