Stiff steering

[m37aswell]

My 65 Corvair steering became progressively stiff to the point where the steering wheel was under a slight tension from a "neutral" position, would want to fight against turning the wheel even a small amount. I pulled the drag link because of a suspicion with regard to a nylon pitman arm bushing that I placed some time ago. I replaced the nylon bushing with the stock rubber bushing and I replaced the idler arm. The idler arm was probably ok, but the new Clarks arm has grease fittings. Everything else looks OK. The stiffness problem magically disappeared and its back to nice easy steering- sweet. I had a time getting the old shell out as usual, bent the folded over portion inwards with a drift and punch and then placed a socket over it and drove it out with my press.

[erco]

Good fix, was the old nylon bushing totally mangled/deformed? Sounds like the old idler arm was not the problem, so hang onto it. As you know, new ones ain't cheap.

[66vairguy]

Good fix, was the old nylon bushing totally mangled/deformed? Sounds like the old idler arm was not the problem, so hang onto it. As you know, new ones ain't cheap.

One of the Vairs I bought had a "mangled" nylon pitman arm bushing. On the advice of a few folks I respect, I installed the original rubber/shell bushing. Steers fine, no slop.

Both of the my Vairs had worn out idler arms. As stated the original factory idler arm had no provision to lube it. One idler arm was badly worn and allowed 3" of movenent in the steering linkage! The other one was binding.

The Clark's idler arms have grease fitting and I expect they will last a LOOOONG time.

[sweet66monza]

I ran into that recently on a customer car. I have been running nylon pitman arm bushings for 20 years and never a problem until this car. Last on the to-do list was an alignment and afterward I test drove it and it would not return to center. I kept increasing the caster and it fought returning to center more and more until it finally began to get stiff to turn. I raised the front and couldnt turn the wheels by hand. The bushing was not shredded but stiff so I sanded some clearance in the bushing amd reassembled with a little grease and it has been trouble free since.

[m37aswell]

There must be something up with the nylon bushing vs the stock rubber bushing. The nylon bushing I removed was not really deformed and is essentially the only change made. I think the idler arm I replaced was just fine. One weird thing I noticed was that the castle nut[s] I got from the hardware store new or found in my shop castle\shouldered nuts box are that they are too "tall" and I have to shave some off of the bottom on the bench grinder to get the right size cotter key through there. Otherwise, I can just get a small "sliver" key through, and I have to cinch it down really tight to do even that. I noticed in the Clarks online catalog they picture a castle nut for the pitman arm bushing [C726] that looks like it would fit much better in that it looks "shallow". I could not find a nut that looks quite like that anywhere. Also, it looks black not silver like all the other nuts I found elsewhere. The next time I do a pitman arm bushing on one of my 3 Corvairs I'm going to order that castle nut C726.

[joelsplace]

I have about 10 of the nylon bushings. The last couple I installed one I had to hone a little and the other was slightly loose.

[RexJohnson]

I saw one recently that the bolt had serrations on it which made it very stiff to turn when pushed into a nylon bushing. The bolt looked stock but maybe it came from an aftermarket rubber replacement bushing?

[Frank DuVal]

I've had to sand/file those serrations off several times.

[jimbrandberg]

Seems like my 7/16-20 nut drawer is mainly filled with castellated nuts. I think some have a 5/8 hex and some have 11/16, also variations on how deep.
7/16 bolt with 5/8 hex and nut with 11/16 nut are another oddity.
Perhaps someone could elaborate. Like a lot of things I can work with them without understanding them.
All I can say for plumbing under pressure is thank God for people like Earl.
Jim Brandberg