Extremely tight steering

[Stilbo]

1974 Base T1

It all started when I was mounting my new Empi eight spoke wheels and noticed severely cracked ball joint boots and tie rod end boots.
Bought this car five months ago and finding a lot of things that the PO never mentioned…

Anyway…
I pulled all four trailing arms and properly indexed and pressed in new ball joints, then installed all new tie rod ends.

I rough aligned toe in with a measuring tape and roughed in the caster camber with a digital level.

Then while the car was in the air I looked at the steering wheel play and at that point noticed that there was about 1 1/4” radial play in the steering wheel and things felt kinda stiff so backed off the gearbox worm adjuster nut, turned the adjuster screw in until it just touched then backed it off an 1/8 turn and tightened the nut.

Once on the ground it steers like a 1951 Ford five ton dump truck.
I’ve driven it a short distance to see if I should drive it to the alignment shop and it seems to want to drift a little.

Even when in the air, there is a great deal of stiffness as well.

Can I expect this to loosen up somewhat or does anyone here have some experience with this?

I can only assume that the new ball joints and tie rod ends are well… new.

Every air cooled I’ve owned over the last fifty years has been well used by the time I acquired them and I I’ve only had to adjust the steering box and shocks and maybe I don’t know how stiff a new Type 1 would have been.

[Bobs67vwagen]

I did this to my 71 bus about 17 years ago but I remember it well. Before I replaced anything it steered nice but not super loose. I put all new German ball joints, made sure they were indexed correctly and I had the same results as you. It was very stiff and quite difficult to steer. I had it aligned and it felt about the same. It took many months before the ball joints loosened up enough and felt better. I hope yours do the same.

[Schepp]

When I rebuilt my frontend it the suspension was stiff for about 100 or so miles. Once things loosened up it drove better. I would have it professionally aligned. A tape measure will get you good enough to drive but it’ll drive a lot better once a laser alignment is done.

[baldessariclan]

[Stilbo]

Thanks all who’ve responded.
I’m in agreement that it’ll possibly loosen up after putting some miles on it.
Just drove a 12 mile, bumpy, curvy loop four times and at low speed maneuvering seems a little better..
I’m also in agreement that the ball joints may be suspect since I don’t know their origins. And quite possibly could be Chinese…
It wasn’t easy to swivel them by hand before pressing them in or after..
I generally don’t cheap out on suspension or braking components but in retrospect I could have shopped specifically for German ball joints or even MOOG ball joints…
Which is a bummer because it’s not an easy job to R&R everything.
I’m definitely getting a professional alignment but I’m waiting on delivery of the Matra 179 wrench that’s specific to T1 caster camber adjustment.
I’m not sure if my alignment guy has one and I don’t want grease boots torn up with a regular 36mm wrench.
I may ultimately buy complete trailing arms with ball joints already installed but in the meantime I’m going to drive it with the hopes it’ll loosen up.
Thanks again!

[Bobs67vwagen]

Give it a little time, it will probably work out. For the camber nut I use a large pair of channel locks carefully around the boots. It obviously helps to clean and lubricate them well before assembly so they move without too much torque. Good luck-Bob

[Rome]

Not directly related to the steering stiffness, but since you were there- Have you greased the front axle beam yet? There are a total of 4 grease nipples, one at each end of the upper and the lower beams. Do that with the front wheels in the air.

Have you visually checked the flexible round joint at the front end of the steering column which links the column to the steering box's stub shaft? There should not be any tears in the rubber between the 4 bolt holes...

[runamoc]

I acquired a Ghia that the PO had installed the ball joints 'wrong'. It made the steering really stiff and hard to turn. Never drove it that way but just towed it.

notice where the notch is

_________________
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