Drag link too tight?

[Johnny Nitro]

I’m trying to center my steering wheel by tightening the drag link end. It’s working, but I did have to tighten it quite a bit. Outside of accelerated wear, and possibly stiffer steering is there a bigger problem with “too tight” drag link ends?

 

[GRutter]

I have never heard of anyone trying to center the steering wheel by tightening the drag link ends.

On the pitman arm end of the drag link, tightening will not change the distance of where the ball is related to the socket in the drag link... it will only make steering harder.

On the steering arm end of the drag link, you could conceivably compress the spring enough to affect steering wheel centering, but only minimally, as you will soon run out of travel. The adjustments in the ends of the drag link are designed for properly tensioning the drag link on the steering and pitman arms, not for steering wheel centering.

You would need to have an adjustable length drag link in order to change the position of the steering wheel.. But then you could mis-align where the sector gear is in relation to the worm gear.

Be certain your steering box is adjusted correctly. If you don't like the position of your steering wheel, remove it and turn it 45 degrees on the shaft.

Another factor that may affect your steering wheel position is if you are running a shortened pitman arm.

 

[Johnny Nitro]

Thanks for your input!

I’m only using the end of the drag link that has any effect at all on length. I’m using a F1 steering box, and centered it according to instructions, and it ended up cocking my 1940 ford steering wheel. It didn’t have another woodruff keyway to make adjustments, so I cut my own using a broach, but now I’m just trying to make it perfect, and the small adjustments possible by tightening the drag link end are adequate to that end, but back to my question: outside of wear, and steering effort is their any deleterious effects of “too tight” caps?

I am looking into making my own adjustable drag link since they don’t seem to be available anymore. Unless someone has a source?

 

[jetmek]

Doesnt the F1 use a splined wheel? Has the shaft been cut and a model A end welded on? Maybe clocked wrong? Youll have to make a adjustable drag link. I shorten old tie rods to suit for that

 

[supergnat]

I only turn the drag link cap in far enough to install the cotter pin. Be sure to check the balls on the Drag link and spindles. Wear on them will cause excess play in the steering.

 

[katy]

Not sure if this applies to Model As or not, but my 1965 Ford Truck shop manual says: "Tighten the threaded plug in the end of the socket until the spring is fully compressed (ball seat bottoms on spring seat). Then back off the plug approximately 1 turn to the point where the slot in the plug lines up with the cotter pin holes in the drag link. Install a new cotter pin through the end of the drag link to lock the plug.