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SkidJames
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- Thunderbird Year
- 1957
I have been working to stop the badly leaking power steering on my 57 and now have the problem that when I start the car the steering turns straight away to the right and it is very reluctant to go back to the left.
During the work I have replaced the power cylinder and fitted a new set of hoses. To enable access to the old return hose I removed the reservoir and I fitted a magnetic filter to a new return hose before putting everything back.
I also replaced the seals on the valve spool. I did that by undoing the nut to the valve spool bolt, removing the centering spring, bushings, etc. and then separated the valve housing from the ball stud sleeve which I left attached to the car. This allowed me to work on the valve spool seals with the housing on the work bench. The narrowest parts of the seals were put on the spool so that they were facing their respective ends of the spool and I checked that the assembly moved freely within the housing. After that I reassembled everything, tightening the nut on the end of the valve spool bolt over the centering spring and then slackening it by not more than a quarter of a turn - as per the 57 shop manual that I have. I then refilled the system with Type F and with the engine off I turned the steering wheel back and forth to the steering stops about 15 times to purge the system of air.
I don't know if it is relevant to my problem but during the process of buying replacement parts I found out that while my car was made in April it seems to have had a mix of late57 and 55/56/early57 parts fitted on it's power steering. For example the power cylinder and the control valve seals are for a 55/56/early57 but the reservoir is Late57.
So the question that I hope someone will be able to answer is what have I done wrong? Does the nut on the centering spring end of the valve spool bolt on a 55/56/early57 control valve need to be tightened and then slackened in a different way to what is said in the 57 shop manual, does the steering always go on to full right lock after a fluid change (I haven't run the engine for a long time with the full lock on in order not to damage the pump), have I put the seals on to the valve spool incorrectly , or is it something else? Hopefully someone out there knows!
During the work I have replaced the power cylinder and fitted a new set of hoses. To enable access to the old return hose I removed the reservoir and I fitted a magnetic filter to a new return hose before putting everything back.
I also replaced the seals on the valve spool. I did that by undoing the nut to the valve spool bolt, removing the centering spring, bushings, etc. and then separated the valve housing from the ball stud sleeve which I left attached to the car. This allowed me to work on the valve spool seals with the housing on the work bench. The narrowest parts of the seals were put on the spool so that they were facing their respective ends of the spool and I checked that the assembly moved freely within the housing. After that I reassembled everything, tightening the nut on the end of the valve spool bolt over the centering spring and then slackening it by not more than a quarter of a turn - as per the 57 shop manual that I have. I then refilled the system with Type F and with the engine off I turned the steering wheel back and forth to the steering stops about 15 times to purge the system of air.
I don't know if it is relevant to my problem but during the process of buying replacement parts I found out that while my car was made in April it seems to have had a mix of late57 and 55/56/early57 parts fitted on it's power steering. For example the power cylinder and the control valve seals are for a 55/56/early57 but the reservoir is Late57.
So the question that I hope someone will be able to answer is what have I done wrong? Does the nut on the centering spring end of the valve spool bolt on a 55/56/early57 control valve need to be tightened and then slackened in a different way to what is said in the 57 shop manual, does the steering always go on to full right lock after a fluid change (I haven't run the engine for a long time with the full lock on in order not to damage the pump), have I put the seals on to the valve spool incorrectly , or is it something else? Hopefully someone out there knows!