Squeak from steering on left turns (1st Gen)

[streetk14]

Hey guys,
this is driving me crazy. This is a pretty fresh build with about 1500 miles on it. 68 Firebird with an Ididit column, PSC Delphi style steering box, and ridetech TruTurn. I have a squeak noise from the steering (sounds like the column) that only occurs when turning the steering wheel left (counter clockwise).

I swapped out the column for an identical one, and it’s still there. It’s not my steering wheel adaptor rubbing or anything like that. Anyone who’s ever chased a steering noise knows they can travel from any component up into the column, so this has been pretty tough to track down.

Has anyone had a steering box cause something like this? What makes me think steering box is that I really can’t reproduce it with the engine not running, and also that it only does it turning the wheel counter clockwise. I just can’t think of what else it could be, other than one of the heim joints the TruTurn uses for tie rod ends. This is a sort of intermittent chirp/squeak, not a continuous noise when spinning the wheel, if that makes sense.



It’s a minor annoyance really, but it’s starting to kill the fun of driving the car. Thanks

[streetk14]

Well, it turned out to be from my rag joint. The rubber portion was making a contact noise against the metal portion when it was flexed a certain amount — and only in the counter clockwise direction. A little shot of lube, and it disappeared. I’m really glad it wasn’t my new steering box, which looks and performs great.