The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop CPP Power steering Slop

My advantage here is my black 58 has this upgrade. These are those same tie rod ends
and they used the original steering arms. My hope is to grind the bottom side of the peened arm and press the ball stud out.
and remove the steering bar at the same time.
These tie rods end will fit down in there.???

Yes Sir, just slide right in place.

Here are some pics of the 1958 with the upgrade. And the tie rod end I have for my 59.

You may need to do more that grind the bottom side as I believe there is a chamfer that the ball stud expands into. I bleive the guidance is to drill a hole in the center that will allow the metal that is deformed into the chamfer to fold into the hole as you press the stud out.

WICruiser, Yes, thank you. I had planned on doing that.

I believe the ball pivots have a straight shank that's peened on the back side. It will probably be necessary to taper ream the holes in the steering arms to fit the taper on the bolt-in tie rod ends. Victor Machinery Co. should have the proper angle taper reamer for that job.

www.victornet.com

Jerry

It was PITA for me, even after the grinding and the drilling.

I don’t have a proper press, and the job was ALL that my loaner ball joint press wanted. I think it took a combination of vigorous beating plus the press.

What WICruiser said about drilling the stud to allow the peened metal to move. AND you have to use a punch that's smaller than the hole you drilled. OR use a drill big enough to take out the peened metal from the chamfer.
I was able to do the ball stud removal with a ball joint press. One trick is to have the steering arm completely loose and clamp the frame of the ball joint press in a vice so you can put some torque on it. If the steering arms are installed in the truck, it's going to be harder to do that with the positioning of the press. Here's a shot of pressing the new ball in place. That rusty chunk of metal is to support the end of the steering arm which was smaller than the hole in the press. It also is relieved so the stud will go thru the arm.

I must have been lucky that day. Mine came right out and the new ends slide right in. There was no taper on the parts from Brothers Truck.

Same with the tie-rod ends that I got. Straight shank that matches the steering arms on my '51.

Yep, straight shank. Matches the steering arm eyelet. I got the steering arms off and drilled a small hole
through the arm eyelet (center)and kept getting bigger till 1/2 inch. The ball stud came right out.
The new tie rod ends and steering shaft are on!!! Driven. No taper.

Pics..that steering bar will not flex like the old one.
I think I`ll ask for help and do a home toe adjustment ,just for the ride to Jeffs.
I drilled out the ball studs with the smallest battery drill. On the bottom side of the arm there
is a center peen mark. There is the score. Thing gave me the most problem was a cotter pin! While I I was under there with a camera ,I took a pic of
the M-20 and Hurst comp shifter /and driveshaft I put in. That setup has over 6,000 miles on it. Still real clean.
Works good. It`ll cruise at 65mph.

This conversion I would not hesitate to do. Once that stud is cleanly out , the design
of the tie rod end makes for a perfect fit in the original steering arms. As you tighten the nut down it feels like
that unthreaded part pulls down in the arm. Making a tight fit. It also seats down in a recessed
groove at the top of the arm.

I have a new steering box from CPP. I`ve put on 2 of these on before and encountered things I`d like to avoid this go around.
The pic is their instruction sheet and problems are with #6 and #9. See attach.
6. How can I "steer" the box to find center when all thats there at this point is a 3/4 30 spline shaft?
9. Would not it make sense to mount the rag joint before attaching to the frame.
Both of these instruction ask you to do it when the box is mounted. Leaning over and down is far away on a 58/59
Ive been putting this off due to my health is not what it was a few months ago. I`d like to make it easy as possible.
It`ll bad enough one armed lowering and raising that box into position at the same time putting the bolts in the frame and mount.
On my back. So any shortcuts would be great. I would like to just ...disconnect battery.
Losen column and lift out of the rag joint. Remove steering box and rag joint. Install new box with rag joint
attached and centered. Make any sense?

On instruction #6, what that doesn't say is once you turn the steering shaft all the way till it stops moving (either left or right), place a mark on the shaft and housing. Then turn it all the way in the other direction while counting how many turns it takes to get to the other stop point. Once you know how many turns it took to get from one end to the other, divide that number in half. Then turn the steering shaft back the original direction that many turns and stop. Remark the steering shaft and housing to indicate that is the steering gear center position. If it was me, I would jot a note down to help me remember how many turns lock to lock and how many back to center so if the gear gets moved, you can easily run it through to get it back to center before connecting up to the steering shaft.

On your question about #9, unless installing the rag joint to the steering input shaft interfers with getting it mounted to the frame, it should be just fine to install first IMO.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

Thanks Dan. I guess then to turn the shaft and not mess up the splines I would put the rag joint on
and turn with it? I mean I get marking the shaft for center and all. With splines on one side and a flat spot on the
other side of the shaft. Pliers or a wrench won`t do.
agreed on #9.

Yes to using the rag joint as a turning aid! Just no need to fully install and tighten it down to find your steering center point. Depending on how the rag joint ends up alignment wise, after you mark your points, then you can pull it back off and reposition it the way you want it to look. I'm with you on not wanting to do too much on your back on the floor pushing that gear box up and in place - Blah! You could use an undersized diameter long bolt slid part way into the upper gear to frame bolt hole. When you get it up high enough, push the temp bolt through and into the frame to take most of the weight of the gear off your arm while you work on getting more correct sized bolts in and started. Be safe and post some pictures as you can please.

thanks Dan!!!!!!!

I can take pics tomorrow. Today I just got the pitman arm off and the column loose/raised from the
rag joint. Gonna try and see if someone can help me. I can strap the box and have it lowered down to me.
Also gonna try and leave hoses connected while lowering the box so I can catch/drain fluid more better.
Looks like there is enough hose to do this. I can guide while lowered.

Fresh in mind. The old box came down easy enough. Setting steering center on the new box is much better
with the rag joint on. With my 327 there is not much room there so to make it simpler ,I took the exhaust flange/pipe
off and gave me more room to get the new box in. Hoses had to be disconnected before the old box taken out.
Ive driven the truck and that was most definitely the problem I was having. Truck would wander like a toe out too far.
Too much play to get it holding straight.

So you are saying the new box fixed your problem?

Yes, the difference was great. I have the old box still under warranty. I have it as a spare .
Having 2 trucks using the same box. Makes sense.
But if you recall this video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mY7zKwWeH0
This actually got worse. If I did not have another 58 with a proper power steering box. It would be
hard to compare. That box was on the truck when I bought it years ago. I put in a different steering column.
Its the same box but from a different generation I suppose. Maybe made better or just a good one.
That truck (Black 58) handles very well. I drove the one I worked on today about 20 miles. Marked improvement.
The rag joint turns by hand like the video about 2/3 less play. I also went to more lengths to heat shield the box.

Since you have gone to power steering you may want to consider increasing your caster. That stock 1.5 degrees is not enough with power steering lot of guys have made a bigger angle and it improved handling.

Thanks. I dont think I want these trucks thinking any more modern. Or changed much.
I like the old feel .
Power steering was offered in 58 ..I think. Drum brakes work great.
327 instead of a 283.

When installing the CPP power steering, doubling up on the caster angle to 3 degrees will cause the front wheels to return to the straight ahead position while coming out of a turn just like the truck did when it had the original manual steering box. 5 degrees is where I found the sweet spot on my '49 3100. Your '58 may respond differently, but I would bet that it would be similar.

Oh, turning is great. No problem there. Before the truck felt like exactly what was happening.
Trying to drive a truck with too much steering play.
I recall a old truck converted to a pecan shaker...well that was another time.
How hard is it to change the caster angle?

I have welded two stock caster shims together to double the caster angle. I have also bought 5 degree caster shims from a spring shop. I had to modify the spring shop supplied shims as they had no small dimple nor pimple to secure the shims in place like the original shims.
When I did this, I had the spring shop make me some new u-bolts a bit longer than stock to account for the added thickness of the extra caster shims height. It's a good idea to change those stock u-bolts anyway.

Yeah, for me thats getting too far away from original. Everything is fine now. No sense complicating things.
I drove it the past 2 days, everyday stuff. Its not as tight as my 58 but close. probably the difference between
the truck and a panel/van feel.
My 58 has a CPP box. Nascar driver Jeff Kendall drove that truck. He scared the ....
out of me. Just an incredible driving and shifting truck. I can promise I would never drive it that way. WOW!
These two have CPP steering boxes and IDIDIT columns. My third a (1958) will have an original steering column/box.

Do have pics of the whole setup? Do you know what length ididit column you used?

I am planning to do a PS conversion on my 58 or 59 in the next year or so and would be interested in any thoughts/gotchas you would have.

I believe it was a 30 inch column. I can take pics of anything you think you want to see.
IDIDIT is pretty straight forward Getting the old one out is probably harder. I`d be happy to help.

I was estimating that 30" was what I needed, so that is nice confirmation.

What did you do for the lower mount since it isn't hard mounted to the steering box anymore?

Oh, so the "D" shaped shaft of the column mounts in the rag joint. Rag joint sits ontop of the steering box shaft.
There are 2 set screws that secure the "D" shaft. Clamped... around the steering box shaft.
Here the 2 I did. 8 cly makes it tight in there. I used the original ram horn exhaust manifolds on both.
aside from that they really fit good.

I will have to look at that kit closer. For some reason I thought it moved the steering box and an intermediate shaft with u-joints was needed.

Thank you for the pictures, that is very helpful.

It slides right down. perfect fit. www.ididit.com/i-25047973-1955-59-chevy-truck-tilt-floor-shift-black-powder-coated.html?q=
Looks like alot are out of stock.
I was able to help them out a few years ago. During their assembly process they had a weak spring
for the horn button plate. A brass floating pin that the spring would compress and stop making
contact with the plate. No horn. Took me awhile to figure it out. Told them about it.
They sent me a T shirt. The last one I got ,the black power coated paintable one was fine.