Steering wheel question

[Robert]

2002 Grand Marquis. Car had a damaged output shaft from the steering box. It was twisted and cracked. Ford offers 2 boxes and tried both of them. Steering wheel is now upside down. Car was in a collision before I got it and suspension pieces of the right side were replaced.

[carriedi]

How many turns does the steering wheel have to the left and right? If you count from lock to lock and then turn the wheel to the half way mark, is that when the steering wheel is up side down? Or do you have more turn on way or the other.

when installing a new steering gear: (With the gear out of the car) Put the pitman arm on the box by hand. put the nut on the sector shaft by hand. turn the pitman arm all the way to one side, then all the way to the other side. Once you see how far it went put the gear on the middle of that movement. Is the pitman arm in the correct position if you line it up with how it goes on the car? It should be straight to the front or to the back (depending on the position or the steering linkage). If that is all lined up then look at the steering column shaft coupler. With the steering wheel in the straight ahead position, is the coupler position look like it matching the steering gear? The flat spots should match up. If they don't match up the gear is wrong or the column is damaged. you didn't take apart the slip portion of the column did you? In some makes the slip portion can be taken out and put back up side down so the coupler would only hook up with the steering wheel up side down. But to do a steering gear you unhook from the coupler to the box and you don't touch the slip section other than to push it up to get it off the gear box.

By the way, if the car has ABS be very careful that you don't turn the steering wheel while the gearbox is not hooked up. If the steering wheel is not centered and locked in place before you go to do the steering gear, you could put the column coupler in the wrong alignment and when you turn the wheel you could break the clockspring in the steering wheel. It only has so many turns each way. wrong alignment could rip the wires out on a turn.