W123 steering box and alignment issue

[natejgreene9871]

this weekend I resealed the steering box on my w123.

I now have a very strange problem. Everything went well, I put everything back together and now I have an alignment issue.

The front two wheels won’t line up. Pitman arm is lined up with factory marks on the output spline.

Steering column lock centered, gearbox was centered with the pin.

I just don’t understand, very confused. I did not adjust the drag length or tie rod ends. Everything seems to be installed correctly.

What the hell did I do wrong does anybody see something?

 

[TerryA]

@natejgreene9871,
I did this job on my 84-500SL albeit I took it out and gave it to an MB Tech friend to rebuild and I reinstalled it. If the alignment was straight before you did the rebuild it has to be the steering box. My guess is the box must have more turns to one side than the other.

Try disconnecting the pitman arm and then make sure that the mark on the box is centered in the turn to turn position. Then align the front tires straight ahead and reconnect the pitman arm.

Just a suggestion.

 

[natejgreene9871]

@natejgreene9871,
I did this job on my 84-500SL albeit I took it out and gave it to an MB Tech friend to rebuild and I reinstalled it. If the alignment was straight before you did the rebuild it has to be the steering box. My guess is the box must have more turns to one side than the other.

Try disconnecting the pitman arm and then make sure that the mark on the box is centered in the turn to turn position. Then align the front tires straight ahead and reconnect the pitman arm.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Since both wheels are connected to the same output shaft it seems that an issue with the box would affect both wheels equally? I don’t know.

I will admit that the pitman arm was super extra stuck on my car. I had to torch it and bang it with a 5 lb hammer for about an hour to get it off. I’m wondering if I knocked the alignment out of whack doing this…either slightly bending the arm itself or maybe the drag link.

 

[Efraim]

Hey. It's been decades since I had W123 the front end aligned at the MB workshop, so my clue may be flimsy.

At the very beginning, the mechanic replaced one of the steering box bolts with a special centering pin, so he could center the gear for sure and lock it at the same time. Only after this did he start the adjustment work. Somewhere on the internet there must be instructions on how to actually do this.

In your case it might be that the steering gear were not in the middle before your maintenance work since it has been adjusted before without proper centering. Now after your work it could be more in sweet pot than before.