65 C10 power steering help please.
 

Hi, I live in England and own a 65 C10 panel truck .
Some time in its life it has been converted to power steering using the 67 up Saginaw p/s box.
When I purchased the truck a couple of years ago I noticed that it had a much tighter turning radius turning left than turning right.
I recently had to have the steering box rebuilt and when the guy at the garage removed it he found that there were no strengthening plates and an assortment of washers used to mount it for clearance. He fabricated the necessary plates and spacers, a great job.
Unfortunately I now have a reversal of the turning radius issue, tight right and much less left.
I believe that the pitman arm can only be fitted in one position as that was my first thought.
Just wondered if anyone has encountered this problem before or if any of you guys out there have the solution as making left turn can be a bit embarrassing sometimes.

Sorry if this has been covered before.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

Re: 65 C10 power steering help please.
 

Welcome from across the pond,

As an example imagine if the pitman arm was disconnected from the linkage, gently turn the steering wheel all the way left, then right, counted the turns and found dead center, this would be your straight ahead position.
The next step is under the assumption that the gearbox has been mounted in the correct position, meaning basically straight ahead.

A good front end shop should be able to handle the alignment to straighten it out for you. The newer alignment shops actually have the feature to show what tie rod end to adjust and how far to adjust it to.

As an example to help understand the center position situation, mercedes benz in i believe the 70's had the feature that the rack and pinion (fewer moving parts than your truck system) had a bolt you remove from the rack and flip it around and reinstall it in the rack. The only position it could go in was the center of the rack forcing the mechanic to be in the center position to then adjust the tie rod ends for toe in/out and to center the steering wheel so when the alignment was done the steering wheel was centered when driving straight ahead.

Re: 65 C10 power steering help please.
 

Hi many thanks for your help.
I will try what you suggest, see what results I get and go from there .