Very little rood feel on my 72 mach 1

[Denise1972]

Hi Guys My 72 mach has very little to no road feel.I have replaced all the steering components except the center link.I have sent the box to steer and gear in Columbus for rebuild still no improvement. I have read that ford used an idler arm that used a stiff rubber bushing that would be impossible to move by hand.Every arm that I can find has a bearing or a grease fitting so they move freely could that be my problem? My car has the veritable ratio power steering. My car dos not drive terrible but there is something a little bit off any ideas?

 

[Don C]

This seems to be a fairly common problem of cars from this era, too much power on the power steering, which made it easier to park cars and turn the steering wheel when the car wasn't moving.

If all of your steering components are in good shape and your front end alignment is spec'ed for radial tires about the only thing that can be done is to reduce the amount of pressure being produced by the power steering pump. It's also possible the pressure bypass valve in the pump is stuck, causing the pump to supply more pressure than normal.

 

[Hemikiller]

Have the car aligned with +2 degrees of caster or more. The more positive caster,t he more effort it takes to steer the car and the better return to center.

 

[Denise1972]

Thanks Hemikiller I thought of that I had the shop put in around 2.5 degree of positive caster.Like I said the car is not terrible it just feels like I have skinny tires on the front in truth I have the 225 60s

 

[EdM]

Some thoughts here.

https://www.turnone-steering.com/blogs/tech-101

 

[Bentworker]

Is the return to center good? Like if you come out of a corner and loosen your grip on the steering wheel does it straighten out? If so that would confirm your caster is probably not horrible.

Regarding feel at the steering wheel...

This is going to be long and rambling.

Feel at the steering wheel when using a power steering box is mainly controlled by one thing. Unfortunately this one thing is not easy to change. Your steering wheel is connected to the steering column. The steering column is connected to the input shaft of the steering box. The input shaft of the steering box is connected to a small spring steel rod which is connected to the ballscrew that moves the piston that rotates the sector shaft and pitman arm.

That little spring steel rod is about .180” in diameter in your steering box. This rod is all that directly connects you to the road. Want more feedback? Gotta replace the magic T-rod or torsion rod. Getting the rod up to .210” or so will drastically change your steering feeling because a jump from .180 to .210” increases the cross section of the spring rod by about 50%.

If the feel really bugs you talk to the shop that rebuilt your steering box and see if they offer torsion rod upgrades.