Jon, here's how it tightened up the steering in my '36 Chevy pickup in the early 1970s and it's still tight today.
1. Steering box- Replaced bearings and bushings, machined sector shaft housing for an oil seal and filled with gear oil. Adjusted gear mesh. Still tight and no oil leak 35+ years later.
2. Tie rod ends-Replaced those clunky, obsolete ball and socket dinosauers with Moog ES-29R and ES-29L. They are a perfect fit in the taper of the steering arms and pitman arm and have the correct threads to be a direct replacement on the tie rod and drag link described below. It doesn't get any easier than that.
3. Drag link-Replaced original forging with a steel bar threaded for above mentioned tie rod ends.
4. King pins-Made 0.010" oversize kingpins from a car rear axle shaft. The axle is tough steel so a carbide cutting tool was required. Reamed axle to a moderate press fit and reamed spindle bushings for a correct fit.
This rebuild has stood the test of time, as the pickup is a driver not a trailer queen although it won Class T-2 (1929-36 commercial vehicles) at the 1976 VCCA National Meet in Colorado Springs after being driven there from Southern California.
Please feel free to email me at
[email protected] if any more details of this would be helpful.
