I busted a wheel on a curb, blowing the alignment. Replaced the wheel, idler arm and UCAs which mostly straightened things out. but not completely. When I line up the wheels straight, the steering wheel is still pointing a little to the side, which bugs me.
Is there some part under there that when broken would **** the steering wheel to one side and the correct fix is to pull the steering wheel and put it back on straight? Or is there some other part that could prevent the tires and the steering wheel from lining up?

 

Give us an idea as to how much the steering wheel is off center....is it slightly like at a 12:30, or way off at say a 3:00 position??

You might have bent the steering linkage between left and right sides.

 

I slid into a curb years ago and when all the repairs were finished I noticed later on that the steering wheel was out of alignment. I think it's just a matter of disconnecting the steering shaft from the gear box and moving it a few teeth one way or the other. I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. I actually bought a new steering coupler to install at the same time. I'm going to be following this to confirm my suspicions as to how to fix it.

 

Hey Lanny, it's at like 11:30-11:40. When I was working on the toe adjustment I saw the tie rods could be rotated quite generously (on both sides), is that what youre talking about? My alignment "solution" was to turn the steering wheel to 12:30 and straighten out the wheels. Then when I drove it the steering wheel was straight. But....

Golfaddict, when I changed the control arm there was a plastic sleeve over the shaft that had come loose, maybe a symptom of something amiss? Is the steering shaft connection hard to get at? If not, I'd give it a try.. My tires are down to 4/32" so I have some time for some DIY effort.

 

The usual solution is equal turns at the tie rod end sleeves. As stated above sometimes you can also disconnect the steering wheel shaft/linkage at the steering box and moa tooth over to get closer. If you very picky then straight in the driveway may not be straight on the road so adjust-test drive-adjust- ….

George

 

The plastic sleeve is probably the steering coupler cover. I have a new one to replace the one that's missing on my rig when I get around to putting in the new coupler. To get to the gear box you have to pull the air filter box out. It's a tight squeeze but do-able for sure.

 

It is this one bolt?

 

Yuuup

 

Sounds like no alignment was done after an upper control arm replacement.

 

If I remember correctly the steering shaft has a flat spot for the bolt to slide past it....there is no moving it over a few teeth unless the securing bolt is left out.

Normal alignment is to center the steering wheel and then adjust the sleeve on the outer tie rod ends. Upper control arms have a concentric bolt for camber adjustment, shims for caster....

Need to make sure it is not a tire pulling the steering wheel off center.....swap front tires left / right, drive and see where the steering wheel is at. Had this problem with my Blazer and it was the tires.