Thanks for the reply guys,

You probably had a very competent installer who knew exactly how to put everything back together again.

My installer did a good job in general, but now I want to know if the steering shaft needs to be touched or if it's an alignment to the toe (as said below) that would sort this out.

So your steering wheel was similar to mine after your install? and a toe adjustment fixed it?

sent him a PM

 

Yes it did and after the alignment it was perfectly straight again.

 

Problems fixed...

Just came back from the garage, the tech was able to bring the steering wheel back into the correct angel, I believe he adjusted the toe settings slightly.

Car is running fine and seems to be aligned.

 

I just went through this and figured I'd share my experience for anyone that's going to do a DIY a header install.

When I was putting my steering linkage back on the shaft after the header install, I noticed I had smeared the ink on one of my markings and so I wasn't sure exactly where the linkage needed to be put back; a rookie mistake. I estimated and chose the center of my smudged mark and of course when I went to drive the car, the steering wheel was cocked like Steve Buscemi's eyes in the movie Mr. Deeds. Whoops!

Not to worry! You don't need an alignment to fix this!

Lift the car back up with the wheels dead straight forward. Obviously your steering wheel will be crooked when the wheels are straight if you're here reading this. Clean any past marks on the steering linkage and re-mark where the linkage connects to the rack and pinion (the bottom of the linkage). Note which direction your steering wheel needs to turn to get back straight. Loosen the two bolts on the steering linkage and slide it upwards off the rack and pinion.

Your steering wheel will likely be locked, although there is some play even while locked. Turn the steering wheel so that it is straight up and down, which may require you to press the ignition button to unlock the steering wheel. You won't break your clock spring if you're only turning the wheel a few degrees, but it is important to note that at no point should you turn the steering wheel more than a full turn from its original position or you are going to have an even bigger mess on your hands.

Get back under the car and slide the steering linkage back down onto the rack and pinion being careful not to twist the upper steering shaft. You should notice that the linkage is a spline or three off from your revised marking on the pinion, which means you are closer to fixing the problem. Tighten the bolts on the steering linkage and go test drive the car. If it's still off, you can repeat the process. Clean the markings once the wheel is back pointing straight so you don't confuse yourself in the future. I made two adjustments and my steering wheel was back pointing dead straight.

Not discouraging alignments at all, but figured I'd share that it is definitely possible to fix it if you mess it up doing a header install. Hope this helps someone.

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Thanks for sharing and I wish I had tried this back in 2013 , Since I've done the alignment the steering wheel is general straight but I feel that when I turn right or left (hard turns especially) I need to trun the wheel more to one side than the other to get the same level of turn in.

I am not sure if I'd be able to do the above procedure now after I've aligned the car using a different method.

If anyone can brainstorm some way of getting everything back to defualt I would be interested to hear.

 

Sounds like you may have still have an alignment issue.

Negative camber and toe-in will make the front end steer in easier, whereas neutral/postive camber and toe-out will make the car more sluggish to turn, but stable to minor steering input.

Both camber and toe affect turn-in. You may have a slight difference between the amount of camber, or toe between sides.

 

I need to get the alignment checked as I have not done it in years.

Car just arrived to Dubai and had to install new tires and didn't do an alignment. Travelling there in 2 days to pick her up after months sitting at ports and continers.

 

I put the front end in the air, and unlocked the steering wheel. Then with everything connected, I turned it full lock left and full lock right. It should do pretty close to the same number of turns left vs. right from center. If it doesn't, you're not on center when the rack is centered. When I turn left, the F at the bottom of the wheel is just short of 12 o'clock. When I turn right, the F is at 11:30. Adjust until they're pretty even. If you are off even just one spline, your rotation won't be balanced.

I recommend doing this with the car cold. Your new headers will try to burn the crap out of your hands if they're hot.

I should probably make a video of this. It's really simple with the visuals.

 

Exactly what I was going to say. It sounds like maybe back in 2013, your shop didn't check to see if the rack and pinion was centered when your steering wheel was straight up and down before doing the toe alignment. They may have adjusted the toe to compensate for your off-centered rack and pinion. This is just a theory, but if you get another alignment tell them you want to make damn sure the rack and pinion is centered along with camber, caster, toe.

I can definitely vouch for the argument that a single spline can make a big difference in the steering alignment. It would make me nervous turning my wheel all the way to the side that has more rack geers exposed because you are stressing the clock spring beyond the factory-allowed distance. Might not be enough to break it but still, it'd be on my mind.