GTV6 Steering Alignment

I found the problem. I talked to a local mechanic and he thought that maybe the pinch bolts were loose, and he was right.

Here is the whole story. When I first took the U-joint off the shaft that goes to the steering rack, I undid the pinch bolt nut on the lower side. It was quite loose, but when I took it off I saw there was a flat spot on the shaft for the bolt to rest against, theoretically capturing the U-joint so it wouldn't turn as long as the bolt was present. The shaft on the steering rack had a castle nut on it with the cotter pin still present, so that hadn't turned independent of the steering wheel. Stumped, I put it all back together. Logically, one would assume all the shafts were the same, etc., so I was really confused.

I let the car sit for a few days but went out today and took the whole thing apart again and took the U-joint off of the steering column side too. Well, the shafts are different diameters, and there is no flat spot on the steering column side, just a continuous collar. Playing with the bolts and the U-joint, I saw that bolt on the rack side didn't really come down far enough to capture the flat spot in the shaft, so it could turn and in my unscientific fiddling saw that it would turn even with the bolt through it. So, that's it. My turning of the steering wheel on the ground at the steering lock let the U-joint twist on the shaft. It was a strong enough grip for just driving (eek!) around, but not for my mega-buff arms turning the steering wheel while stationary when I hit the stops on the rack...

Forgive me for going on a bit about this, but I'm explaining this in detail because it really is a safety issue. Anyone with a GTV-6 (or Milano I would imagine) might want to make sure the hardware holding the U-joint on the shafts is tight. Like I said, one side of mine came apart much more easily that I would have thought, and there isn't really anything else holding the U-joint in place. The shafts have splines as well, but it seems the splines aren't big enough to really stop anything from turning that shouldn't.