The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1951 Chevy 3100/3600 Project

It's been a little while since I posted a project update thanks to work getting in the way.

I have managed to clean, repair and paint both of my running boards, and both inner front fenders. I then dove back into completing the repair/rebuild of the steering gear. When I test drove my truck, I used the original drag link (which has a broken spring) temporarily installed on the steering arm (which has a damaged ball stud). At that time, I was waiting on an order which included said replacement ball stud, and a drag link rebuild kit. That took quite a while. The kit was backordered but finally showed up, and the ball stud I ordered was the wrong one. In my defense, the catalog I was ordering from appeared to have a printing problem. I am convinced that the part #s shown for the two steering arm studs were reversed (so I wound up with the ball stud that actually goes on the Pitman arm). The salesperson was very helpful when I called about it. The vendor no longer sold the steering arm stud separately, only in a set with the other stud. Since I already had one, though, the salesperson split up a set and only charged me the difference. It showed up two days later and all was well with the world.

I ordered a rebuild kit for my steering box (one that included a how-to booklet) and once it arrived I read the booklet all the way through, then disassembled the steering box. I was prepared for a bunch of nasty old oil to pour out, but nothing. As you can see in the photo, everything was covered in grease. I'm not sure if that was deliberate, or if the original gear oil had coagulated. After everything was cleaned, I started the rebuild by replacing the bushing and the oil seal in the box. For the Pitman shaft bushing in the side plate, the booklet says it is "impractical to replace the bushing" so you're advised to throw away the whole thing and get a new side plate. I chose to split the old bushing with a burr tool in an end drill. Pressing in the new bushings required making a suitable tool in lathe. The 50-ton cap. press at my shop then promptly died so I was forced to encourage the bushings to go in with a dead blow hammer. With that part done, I moved on to righting a wrong I made wayyyy back when I first removed the steering wheel. At first, I used the wrong type of puller and managed to murder the threads on the end of the shaft. So, I currently have the shaft mounted in the lathe where I will attempt to re-thread the end. More on that when I've actually managed to pull it off.

On a different note, last year I got in touch with a lady who's dad once had a 3/4 ton Chevy from a Union 76 station/car dealership in my town. She didn't have the truck anymore, but did have lots of parts that needed to go. Sadly, there were only two things that fit my truck, but happily, those two things were NOS hub caps for a 3/4 ton truck. I bought them for the cost of two new repro caps, so I was stoked. And very recently, I decided to bite the bullit and get a pair of the Dexstar 16x6 steel wheels to use on the front end of my truck. The 4" backspace means I don't have to use a 1/2" spacer, nor do I have to install longer studs in the hubs. When I received the wheels, I had to set one of the hub caps on to see how it looked. I think they are going to look great on my truck! I have three Chevy steel wheels that will get used on the rear and spare. Next, I will install hub cap clips on four of the wheels then it will be time for paint and new rubber.