Howdy, Gentlemen,

Went through 'Toad's front end this last couple weeks, finishing up with re-aligning it all. During the process I was unable to deduce a reason for the minor mis-alignment of the steering box relative to the steering shaft, as I'd hoped (see picture below).

The car has been wrinkled (right front) at some time (noticeable at the radiator bulkhead/upper fender well junctions), enough to warrant a new fender I'm saving for the eventual body work. Still, the sub-frame "rails" and cross member look and measure out to be straight, the pan clearances seem decent, and the alignment went smoothly.

So ...... is this within normal factory tolerance for Toad bodied years?
And is it common?

_________________
Sex, drags, and rock & roll.
Dick, 225% crazy.
Hobby (cars, that is) Photos link

That does not look (much?) out of spec to me, and likely came from the factory that way. There is quite a bit of angularity allowed by the pot joint, more than what you have. IIRC, at least one of my cars has that much misalignment. You could align better with washers/shims, I'm sure. IIRC, there is a FSM procedure for how to bolt in a steering box involving turning the st wheel back and forth with car wheels up in the air and with box bolts loose, then tightening bolts after re-centering st wheel. This is supposed to minimize stresses, I believe. Can't say I have bothered to do it every time I've swapped a box, though...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

OK, thanks. Yes, it's well within it's range of motion limits, and I've been using it this way since I got it (including rebuilding the socket joint, and slightly lowering the steering wheel).

I was wondering if it represented anything I should check into eventually.

_________________
Sex, drags, and rock & roll.
Dick, 225% crazy.
Hobby (cars, that is) Photos link

After looking over other postings with pictures from this angle, it appears that this slight misalignment may be "traditional" (:lol:), and doesn't indicate any cross-frame distortion.

_________________
Sex, drags, and rock & roll.
Dick, 225% crazy.
Hobby (cars, that is) Photos link