The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline wonky steering

OK.... if I read this in another post, I wouldn't believe it. If it didn't happen to me I wouldn't believe it.
I have '47 pickup daily driver. Because I use it as a "modern" truck I keep it well maintained. The steering and brakes are in excellent condition. The other day as I was making a hard left turn from the driveway onto the street the front wheels straightened out, as usual, but the steering wheel was about 40 degrees out of position. ie going straight down the road but the steering wheel is NOT centered. I thought this is impossible. I drove another couple of blocks and the steering was totally normal. No wandering, no shimmy. Normal except the steering wheel wasn't centered. I have a pretty good idea how steering components work so I thought this is impossible.
I turned around to get back to my garage and made the hard right turn into the drive way and saw that the steering wheel was back to the normal position. In the garage I checked all the steering components and everything was normal and tight. As far as I know, all the steering components are splined so impossible to move. The only thing a bit unknown to me is what goes on inside the steering box. Are the gears in there splined ? Is the worm gear splined to the steering shaft ?
I know this all seems dubious but this really happened. Can anyone offer up a suggestion as to how the steering wheel can move in relation the front wheel position without any apparent catastrophe ? This is makin' me crazy !! 

Did you experience a loss of time?
Aliens perhaps !
( sorry)

Sounds like the steering wheel slipped on the steering column shaft...

Mike B

I agree,,,,,, it does have elements of alien presence.

Nope.... the steeri ng wheel is tight and , as everything else, is splined to the steeri column and can't move.

I'll bet the ball tracks have fallen apart and it's spitting balls out into the case. It's a recirculating ball design which transmits the force from the steering shaft worm to the nut that engages the sector gear. Once all the balls are all gone between the worm and the nut the wheel will just spin.
It's time to open it up and repair it before you don't have any steering at all.
Here's a pic from the service manual.

Klhansen...... thanks very much for your suggestion / insight AND included photo ! It just HAS to be something inside the steering box cuz everything external is tight. And after reviewing the photo gallery of your work truck, I'll take anything you say to the bank ! ! Your restoration work is really impressive and I'd recommend any / all readers to check out your photos . Really cool stuff.

Thanks for the comments on my photos.

On your steering gear, it's not that hard to rebuild. I had mine completely apart. The info in the shop manual will get you there (and back together.)

I had a similar thing happen on a 49. The problem was caused by one of the caster shims slipping out of place by about 3/4".
This shifting was due to it being a replacement caster shims that I bought from a spring shop. The hole in it was too large to be captured by the center bolt which holds the leaf springs together, allowing the caster shim to shift out of place. It occurred during a sharp turn. It was a real head scratcher until I saw 3/4" of shim sticking out.

Carl's experience would sure be a cause. The whole steering system should be checked.

I've checked over the steering pretty closely...all except the interior of the steering box. That looks like a nasty job to pull out the steering column. I didn't notice any loose caster shims and don't see how they could come out. But I'll take another look.

47 chev,

Just in case you decide you are going to go ahead and rebuild your steering gear box, check out this Original Chevy Steering Gear Rebuild Booklet.

Rebuild kits are also available from a variety of online vendors. Good luck on figuring out what's going on.

Make sure you didn't break a leaf spring on one side. That would throw the steering wheel off suddenly.
Jack the truck up and support it jack stands under the frame or at the front crossmember, letting the front axle to hang freely with the tires off the floor far enough so that you can get a 2x4 under it to use to pry up on a wheel to see if you hear any noise from loose or broken parts.

What does it feel like when you turn the steering wheel lock to lock while stationary?
Can you make a sharper turn turning right vs left or vice versa?

Carl...... I jacked the truck up and the only thing I noticed is that the steering wheel, from centre to full left lock is 2 1/2 turns but centre to full right lock is 1 3/4 turns. Maybe that's normal. Maybe it's always been like that. Or maybe it's a clue as to what's goin' on. 😕
ps. with the wheels straight the steering wheel is in "normal " position ie 2 spokes horizontal.

Just curious to what stops the steering wheel from turning more in each direction. Does it hit the stop on the axle both ways?

If you had equal number of turns right and left previously, that's definitely a clue that something went wrong inside the steering gear. The worm may have "slipped a tooth" so to speak if the balls were being spit out of the nut. Or it's always been that way.
ADs originally came with steering stops that bolted to the king pin wedge bolt, but most trucks don't have them anymore. Probably because whoever changed the kingpins way back when neglected to put them back on. On the rebuild instructions for the steering gear, it cautions against letting the nut with the recirculating balls go all the way to either end of the worm, even by gravity as it will damage the ball retainers. That may be what happened to 47 chev's steering gear.

Bill..... yes the wheels hit the stops in both directions.

Kevin...... I doubt the steering box has ever been opened. Not by me or the original owner. I read the rebuild instructions and , ya, they're pretty adamant about taking care of the balls. A bit daunting actually but I suppose I'll have to get in there.

As I said, after returning to the garage the steering wheel was back in its original position. With the front end on jacks, I can't reproduce the problem. I'm an old man so maybe it was all in my mind.