Tight Steering

May not be the whole steering but I'd get it looked at pronto. You could try jacking up the front & trying it to see if the effort reduces with no load. Disconnecting the steering u-joint will further isolate the effort problem.

Some people use chassis grease in our late-60s-english racks & the effect of that is unknown long-term. If the rack uses 90-wt gear lube as it was designed to, and a boot leaks, you WILL have metal-to-metal contact inside. Good luck-

Sorry- didn't notice you have a Mangusta with the Fiat 124-derived rack, not the Cam Gears rack in Panteras. Discard first post-

Do not drive the car!
Jack the car up on the front subframe. Check the upper balljoints, they likely have never been greased.

To grease them take the three 8MM bolts off of the upper A-arm where it meets the upper ball joint. The A-arm will then swing up. There you will see a 10mm bolt. Remove that and screw in a grease fitting and grease the joint well.

That should do it. Check the joint for any cracks.

If you keep driving the car the steering will continue to get harder and the upper ball joint will break. That happened to Herb Grasses car three days after he bought it, he was three blocks from home. He had it put on a trailer and because they were so close to his house they did not secure the car. It fell off on the first corner. That is how he got a new paint job among other things.

DICK RUZZIN

Wow, Scary story!!! I meant to get into it last night, but life intervened.

I won't drive it until it's resolved. Thanks for the info on how to grease that upper ball joint, I was pondering on that. I've been planning a full on attack with the grease gun anyway. Any other often-overlooked areas that should get some grease? or favored grease to use?

MH

Resolved !!!

I had a feeling it was in the steering shaft, so I dropped the steering wheel and sure enough the shaft housing would not turn. Took a lot of careful tapping, but I got it loose and the bottom of the shaft was corroded and had some knurls in the shaft itself. Nothing 20 minutes on the compound wheel couldn't take care of. I put some axle grease on it and slipped it back on... a WORLD of difference. While it's apart I decided to repaint the housing, so it won't be back together tonight. But there is little doubt that was the culprit.

Thanks for the advice/suggestions (I will lube those ball joints!) Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

MH