Parts that can cause “play” in steering (in no particular order):
- Loose or failed wheel bearings
- Loose lug nuts or wheels with damage in lug nut area (wheel won’t be tight against brake rotor)
- Loose tie rod ends (4x on the car)
- Loose idler arm
- Loose Pittman arm
- Loose (or misadjusted) steering gear.
- Loose Pot Coupler (white circle, below)
- Wore out Rag Joint (Chrysler calls it a “fabric coupling”) (yellow arrows, below)
- Broken (or incomplete) welds in K-frame.
- Broken or wore out Rubber mounts between K-frame and Frame. (picture, below)
- Failed steering column bearings
- Failed tilt-steering shaft joint OR loose screws that hold steering column together by the tilt mechanism (providing you have tilt-steering).
- Any combination of above.
The pot coupler in this picture - the cap (right side of the white oval) came undone, grease escaped and dirt entered. The coupler shown is loose because of that.
The K-frames on these cars – sometimes the steering gear attachment bracket is welded firmly to K-frame, sometimes (mostly?) not.
Anytime a FMJ K-frame is out of car, take it to get welded up and have extra gussets added in the steering gear area. Also, reinstall the K-frame using aluminum, iron or urethane mounts (and toss the wore out rubber biscuits).
Don’t use cheap (ie: Chinese) tie rod ends. Pay more to get quality tie rods, with grease nipples – and add a shot of grease every oil change.
BudW