I recently replaced my steering box then had my 1988 560SL front end realigned. The guy told me he does the realignment that's best for the car, not the steering wheel placement. Seemed reasonable at the time but now my steering wheel placement is off almost 180 degrees, ugh! Other than separating the steering box from the steering shaft and recentering, is there an easier way of recentering my steering wheel? Thanks for the info.

 

Remove steering wheel and orientate it as you want and put back..

My question is why so far off?

Can you get equal turns to left and right?
Did you not have steering box replacement orientated correctly?

180 is a long way off.

 

Gotta love old tech. Photos I found of that model steering gear box look like the steering gear box on my 50- year old Ford...

My first guess is you had the steering box shaft off-center by 90* when you attached it to the steering column. First fix the gross misalignment using either the steering wheel on/off method mentioned above or by pulling the steering column shaft on/off the steering box shaft to correct the misalignment. I lean towards the steering column shaft on/off the steering box shaft as I do not know how the turn signal cancelling is done on your model of car. (is it dependent upon the steering wheel or column shaft)

For fine adjustments all it takes to center the steering wheel is for one to adjust one outer tie rod end outward and the opposite tie rod end inward. Direction of rotation depends upon if the tie rod ends connect to the knuckle behind or in front of the axle as each setup requires opposite turns to bring the steering wheel into a centered position. If the tie rod ends attach in front of the axle as on my W211, and the steering wheel is canted CCW, that means when the steering wheel is straight, the driver side front is turned in and the passenger side is turned out. That means rotating the driver side tie rod end to push the front of the wheel outward (laying under car with wrench hanging on the tie rod straight down I pull the wrench towards the front of the car) and rotating the passenger side tie rod end to pull the front of the wheel inward (laying under the car with wrench hanging on the tie rod straight down I pull the wrench towards the front of the car).

If the steering wheel was off-axis CW, that means when the steering wheel is centered, the driver side front is turned out and the passenger side is turned in. On my W211 I would then rotate the tie rods by pushing the end of the wrench away from the front of the car. Steering wheel should always be centered first, locked in position, and then the toe set. Bubble levels that attach across the steering wheel are available that greatly reduce the difficulty.

Exactly equal amount of rotation on each side but will still require a final verification of the toe. As the wheel approaches center, adjustments may only be 1/8 turn each. Again, one must perform a final verification of toe.

FWIW, I perform my own alignments using strings (actually monofilament).

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post7339193

 

See attachment. There is a closing plug on the bottom of the steering box, this is removed and a centering pin installed when installing the steering box. This centers the piston in the middle of travel so that the steering wheel and pittman shaft can be correctly installed. I made my own centering pin, I think the threads are M8 so I used an M8 bolt with the tip ground to a point.