Steering Wheel Off Center....

[Galaxieman]

1999 Grand Marquis GS...Owned since new.

I have a ‘strange’ and annoying problem with my GM. The steering wheel is not centered in front of the driver. When I am sitting in the middle of the driver's seat, the steering wheel center is roughly in line with my left ear. The center of the speedometer is exactly lined up with my nose, but the center of the steering wheel is in line with a spot about 1 inch left of the speedometer center.

Are all GMs of this era like this? Or, is there some adjustment I can do to line things up correctly?

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Galaxieman

[Toploader]

Two things come to mind.........someone removed the steering wheel and did not place it back on the correct spline, or the car was on the alignment rack and the wheel was not centered.
Just an assumption.

[87gtVIC]

sound like his issue is the entire steering column is shifted to the left.

[miamibob]

There is a tool that holds the wheel to the seat while the tie rods are adjusted. They probably adjusted the tie rods WITHOUT using this tool to center/hold the wheel!

[VicCrownVic]

sound like his issue is the entire steering column is shifted to the left.

That's the way I read it too.
Colin (Mr. Land Yacht) pointed it out when he drove my 91 that it seemed to be the same way. I never noticed until he pointed it out, but the center of the steering wheel/column and the center of the cluster are not on the same plane.

[Galaxieman]

Thanks for your responses.... There seems to be a little confusion....let me clarify....

"sounds like his issue is the entire steering column is shifted to the left." Yes this is true!

and, as VicCrownVic pointed out:

" I never noticed until he pointed it out, but the center of the steering wheel/column and the center of the cluster are not on the same plane. " is another way to describe my condition...

I can envision that when they built the car there was an assembly of the steering column including the steering wheel. That assembly was connected at the bottom to the steering gear (which is fixed in position)...then to some secondary point under the dash. The problem seems to be that the secondary point is too far left resulting in the steering wheel being shifted left of 'center'.

Is every GM, and Crown Vic, like this? Or, are mine and VicCrownVic's the only ones?

[2006_P71]

Is every GM, and Crown Vic, like this? Or, are mine and VicCrownVic's the only ones?

Every Whale is like this... Its one of the three odd things that bother me about Whales, the offcenter wheel, the asymmetrical guage cluster shroud, and the headlight gaps on the CVs.

[sly]

I sit to the right (ever since my first manual trans experience) and drive left handed... so to me it LOOKS to be off center no matter what I drive. If I actually sit in the center (or I'm in a car with a very snug seat with side bolsters that force me in the center), then it looks right.

[miamibob]

My cars are "dead center" but with all the rain we get here the roads are "crowned (higher in the middle and sloped at the edges) so sometimes it "appears" to be slightly off center.