Thread: Vega Steering Box Play

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How much "free play" can the steering have if I can twist the steering shaft by hand between the end of the steering column at the firewall and the vega box?
When I do this the idler arm does not turn freely or move the wheels.

No answer on this yet? I have noted a similar situation. I have a new Vega box on a '29 Ford Brookville frame and I find no slack at all from the steering column down through the new (2) universal joints of the column extension and yet there seems to be some slack at the (new) Vega box. When I just had the exhaust system installed I asked the guy at the muffler shop about this because he has worked on many racing frames. He said there is an adjustment nut on top of the Vega box which can be adjusted when the front end alignment is done. Is your Vega box new? Now the real reason I am responding to this thread is because I have a castle nut with a cotter pin on the tie rod end but on the bottom of the Vega spline there is only a thick flat washer and a simple heavy duty lock washer. I chatted today with one of the tech guys at Flaming River and he said that nut should be torqued to 115 ft. lb. but I did not have a socket large enough so I put a 12" adjustable on it and then put a 9" adjustable on the end of the 12" and gave it all I could until I just got the nut fully on and maybe with an air wrench it would go on more BUT (!) what is supposed to hold this critical component on???? Is there a hole further up for a cotter pin? If so, the nut is not a castle nut so is that key fastening just held on as a tight fit with a single lock washer??? I will make sure when I get the front end aligned to get the slack out of the Vega box as much as possible AND call attention to that single nut and get the alignment shop to make sure it is on there correctly. Comments? Is there no other check on that fastening except the large lock washer? In summary, that nut will fall directly down if it gets loose so what is supposed to hold the Pitman arm on safely?

Don shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

The pitman shaft is a tapered spline.
So is the broached hole in the pitman arm.

So far, every one I've removed required the use of a puller after the nut and lock washer were off.


Are you running good quality Borgeson or Flaming River U-joints?
Some of the other brands develop play pretty quick and even though it doesn't seem to be much, it adds up pretty quick at the steering wheel.
.030 at each U-joint can give you excessive slop at the wheel.

Got a motors manual?
Follow the box adjustment method in it.

Thanks C9, I'll check out the Vega adjustment. To me the column and the Speedway universals seem rigid and I can feel the slack with my fingers on the rigid column extension to the box. Gee I hope the Speedway universals are tight because I don't want to do all that cross pinning again. At the steering wheel this amounts to about 1" of play so hopefully adjustment on the box can fix this. On the Pitman arm I think it will be worth buying the larger socket and putting a pipe on the ratchet handle until I can see a few threads past the nut. So far I have stopped where the nut is just fully on but I like to see some threads! In the past I have been able to get a Pitman arm off by placing a 2"x4" beam directly above the arm and hitting it down with a hammer; the wood takes the damage from the hammer. Maybe it is worth getting a 1/2" drive handle for the large sockets; I ruined a previous 3/8" drive ratchet by putting a 6' pipe on the handle to tighten the single flywheel nut on a VW engine (after the flywheel actually fell off as incompletely tightened by the previous owner, it was speced at over 200 ft. lb.). Actually my present 3/8" drive was rebuilt for free by a Sears guy under the lifetime Craftsman warranty so I do have the same handlle with rebuilt guts. With hindsight I ought to get a 1/2" drive breaker bar and the correct socket and tighten till I see some threads past the nut! I am just hinking out loud but I should do the right thing here. My (Craftsman) torque wrench is 3/8" drive and I don't want to break the torque wrench.

Thanks,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

1" of play at the steering wheel seems reasonable.


Quit hitting the pitman arm with a 2x4 and big hammer.

You're liable to damage things.

A 6" two jaw puller will get the pitman arm off ok.

A slightly larger three jaw works well too.

If things don't want to come apart with just the puller, take up some slack and apply a reasonable amount of tension with the puller.

Put the nut only on the bottom of the shaft and leave room for the pitman arm to move.
That way when it comes apart things don't go flying.

Apply a little heat with a torch to the outside of the pitman arm splines, but not so much the seals will be damaged.
That always gets them apart with no damage.
All of them I've removed come apart with only 2-3 seconds of heat applied.
Makes a helluva bang and all the spiders go running.

Proper torque settings are important as well.
Get a torque wrench and use that instead of a snipe.

With the taper on the pitman arm shaft and on the pitman, big nut and lockwasher, things will not come apart.
Detroit has been doing it this way for a long time and I've never heard of a properly installed pitman arm coming off.

C9X, Thanks for your interest. Today I got about two full turns more on the nut and some threads are showing now but I will ask to tighten the nut more when I get the front end aligned. The slack in the whole column seems to be at the very bottom where the shaft comes out of the Vega box so If I can set that up a little tighter it should be good. Another problem is that my car has been sitting so long that the front tires are a little low on air pressure and so when I turn the wheel the tires don't turn but a tiny amount at first but when I watch the rims there is less slack. I am now sure after messing around with it again today that there is no slack at all from the GM column through two universals so whatever slack is there is at the Vega box.

Thanks for your help,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I had a weird thing happen one time with a 27 roadster running a Vega box with an aftermarket Pitman arm. The car steered okay around town, but at 50 MPH I would get this strange 'zero backfeed" sense from the steering wheel, as if the entire steering had "come undone"---NOT A NICE FEELING AT 50 MPH!!! As soon as I slowed down, it would feel okay again. This really freaked me out, so I started checking from front wheel bearings inward. What I found was that the taper on the aftermarket Pitman arm was a tiny bit oversized, and even though the castellated nut was run right down to the shoulder at the end of the threads, and the big lockwasher was in place, the Pitman arm would still "flop" up and down about 3/8" at the tip. I fixed it by taking the nut off and adding a spacer washer and then reassembling it. It was one of the strangest steering sensations I have ever felt, and anytime I hear of someone experirncing "loose" steering with a Vega box, I tell them this story.---Brian

Kinda spooky Mr. Brian.

Don, if you can get yourself a Motors Manual (the blue manuals) that covers the Vega's they have an excellent procedure for adjustment.

It sounds a bit like the big nut at the front end of the steering box proper needs adjusting so as to take the play out of the sector shaft.

A big socket would be nice and you may have to buy one of the thick sheet metal 4x4 front hub sockets so you have one that fits.
Even so, the big sheet metal lock nut comes loose ok with a drift pin punch and hammer and the adjuster nut can be turned with a Crescent wrench (adjustable spanner for the UK and OZ folks).

Take note of where the adjuster nut is prior to loosening things up.
Center punch marks work well and are unobtrusive even on finished parts.

A little adjusting on the Vega boxes will bring them back to like-new if they're in reasonably good shape to start with.

The one tat's now in my 32 was gonna get tossed by a friend because the adjuster screw had stripped out the aluminum cover.

Took me a little over an hour to make a new stainless threaded piece along with cleaning and adjusting the box.

It's been in the car for about 12 years and the original in good-shape Vega box resides in the 31 on 32 rails roadster....

C9X--To add to that reply---I have, somewhere in my archives, a procedure from G.M. for tightening the lash in a Vega box. There is a caveat that everyone should be aware of. It goes like this---Many people loosen off the big nut, then tighten the lash screw untill the steering box "binds" a bit when turning the input shaft, then back off the nut a quarter turn and tighten the nut. According to G.M. this is totally wrong. If you back the lash screw off at all before the nut is tightened, then your adjustment will not have any effect!!! The correct way is to loosen the nut, tighten the screw WHILE TURNING THE STEERING BACK AND FORTH A BIT FROM ITS CENTERED POSITION. As soon as ANY resistance is felt, then stop and tighten the nut. DO NOT loosen the lash adjustment screw off before tightening the nut.---Brian