The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 1953 3600 - very hard turning steering wheel

The much earlier posts re: 3600 Steering and front end were helpful in trying to narrow down and resolve my issue without "overkill" .. Drove my grandkids down our long drive during the holidays at maybe 5 mph. Turning the steering wheel to get out of the garage and navigate our drive was a bear. I need to renew my old LA Fitness membership🤗. The steering box can be purchased and replaced by myself probably, but I wonder if binding elsewhere could also cause the issue. King pins, tie rod?
At my age I may want to have a local garage that takes in classics look at the front end if the issue goes beyond the box. Thanks for any feedback :^)

Tom, my 3600 was hard to steer when I first started driving it. What I did, fill the steering box with gasoline, let it set for a couple days, then worked the steering wheel back forth and then pulled a lower bolt out, letting the old grease/gas drain. I actually did this little exercise a couple time. Then I filled it with this. I did eventually rebuild the tierod ends, drag link and king pins. After all that it drives almost like it has power steering if you're moving at all. The steering sector flush and fill with 00 grease was an improvement, the rest was icing on the cake.

added in edit, be sure the tires have max air pressure recommended. Jack the front up and turn the wheels from lock to lock, checking for any binding, be sure to grease everything.

Good Luck

RR

How wide are your tires?

First thing to do is jack up the axle and support it on both sides with jack stands, with the tires a few inches off the ground. If the steering system is set up right, you should be able to spin the steering wheel lock to lock with just a couple of fingers. If not, start looking for tight spots one at a time- - - -king pins, drag link, tie rods, etc. You should also be able to grab either front tire and turn the wheels lock to lock with very little effort. Too-wide tires, or wheels with too much offset can also increase steering effort- - - -sometimes dramatically. An imaginary line drawn through the king pin, and another through the vertical centerline of the tires should intersect somewhere near the surface of the road. Wheels that increase the track width must scuff the tires across the road surface, instead of making a pivot point where the rubber meets the road.
Jerry

The skinnier and taller the tires, the easier it will be to steer and at all speeds assuming all the previously mentioned parts of the steering system are in proper working order.

Without doing anything else to my truck other than installing 16" wheels instead of 15" wheels, and tires with a tread width of about 5" instead of 9" made the truck easy as pie to drive at all speeds. Prior to this it was impossible to steer at low speed and hard to steer at any speed above 10mph.

New shocks made handling perfect.

One bolt to remove the steering arm and you will know if it's in the column/box or front end.

I use 215/85/R16 tires and love the ability to easily steer at any speed.

I also have the 215/85/R16 Tires on my 3604 , it made a huge difference in steering! So much easier to steer at very low to no speed.

Thanks Dusty, RR and everybody for your input and help! I'm sorry for not following the thread after popping the question way back. Finally catching up on everything now and wanted to thank all the folks who responded with very helpful info and advice.
And thanks to Dan who moved this to the (proper) Drive line forum.
I hope this reply goes out to the thread and that all the guys see it.
After a busy year with family etc i 'm finally getting back to the '53. Almost done if I can tackle the door realignment too.
Maybe a drive-in sometime in the near future 😁

Oh hey, you are very welcome. Looking forward to seeing your finished project.

My 53 3600 is also hard to steer, I will check out some of these suggestions.

Tom - I'll 2nd Dusty's comment "Looking forward to seeing your finished project."

Ya gotta post some pictures man, otherwise how can we share and appreciate that great big grin you're sporting!