The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Help ? Getting really hard to turn left....

Ok 58 1/2 ton longbed fleetside. Original suspension. Steering has always been a little loose, but recently it is getting harder and harder to turn left. There aren't any problems turning right. There is wear and tear in the usual places but nothing that really stands out as to why it is giving me problems going left. I have started figuring out ways to get around going right :p , but would like to figure out what the problem is. Of course, if I had tons of money I could just take it somewhere and have it all replaced, but I still haven't won the lotto yet. Any help y'all may be able to provide will be greatly appreciated.
thanks
gatormike

Your kingpins are probably not getting greased good. If grease wont go through the fitting you have to take it out & spray it with penetrating lube & work an ice pic around in the hole. You must get grease through all the fittings.

Gatormike - First thing I would check is the lubrication of the king pins. Have they been checked lately? Two fitings on each (top and bottom). Might have to put the grease in under pressure. Easier if the front end is on jack stands - no weight on the wheels. BW

gatormike,

The first thing that comes to mind is, what have you done to find the problem. Have you jacked the front end up, crawled under it and watched as someone went turn to turn on the wheel. Without at least looking first, it's just a guessing game.

Stuart

We use to warm up the metal with a torch to soften old grease and push through new grease on old machines.

I appreciate all the help y'all gave. I greased everything that had a zerk fitting under the front end, but it didn't make a lot of difference. I did notice that the seals on the shackles are worn and there are a few other pieces that need to be replaced. Any suggestions on the best place to get replacements for the spring shackle inserts ,maybe urethane, and can I do the job in my driveway ? I have ramps, jackstands and a floorjack. I will probably have to replace all the parts soon and would rather spend money on parts than giving it to someone else to do the work. I know I'll have to pay to get it properly aligned after I'm done. Should I start putting liquid wrench on the bolts holding the steering box on yet ?
thanks
mike

If you turn the wheel all the way to the left, or as far as it will go, does it turn smooth all the way to the right? Once at the far right, does it turn hard the whole time to the far left?

I would unhook the right tie-rod and see if its one side or the other, if that didn't tell me anything I would unhook the draglink off the pitman arm. Check each wheel separate, then the gear box.

Is it a power steering box or manual? Manual boxes are easy to work on and understand. The power steering unit is a little harder to work on due to the valves and moving parts. In eather case, you might want to get that liquid wrench out and start soaking down all the bolts and joints.

King pins normally are stiff in both directions, draglink ends and tie-rods will loosen up as they wear. The grease can get stiff and gummy if it has set for awhile. With the wheels off the ground and the gear box unhooked, the wheels should turn left and right pretty easy. You should have no movement up or down on any of the joints. Each steering joint should be tight and free to twist and turn. Use plenty of grease.

Let us know what you find out, Joe.

Thanks Joe, I put it up on jack stands today and got all the weight off the front suspension. Made sure I didn't miss any zerk fittings on the kingpins and tried turnig full right and then full left. Can turn from full left to full right with one finger, turning full right to full left takes considerable more effort ( four fingers and a thumb). I also managed to get the plug out of the top of the manual steering box and didn't see any lubricant at all. Do you know what viscosity oil should be in the box and how full it should be ? Thanks for all the help from everybody.
Mike

Does it make any more noise turning left than right? The reason I ask is because I saw a gear box lateley with one bearing on the input shaft bad. When the pressure on that bearing increased because of turning the wheel one direction, it took much more effort.

When turning the other direction more of the pressure was on the other bearing.

Thanks Roy, yes it makes a lot of noise turning left but none turning right. Where are these bearings you are talking about ? In the box itself or on the steering column shaft ?
thanks
mike

The Steering box itself will have bearings in it.

When you turn left, the pressure is greater on the bad bearing, when you turn the other direction, the pressure is in the good bearing.

You will have to disaasemble the gearbox to fix it.

Thanks Roy, I have checked on-line and found a steering box overhaul kit for $140 at classicchevroletparts.com and a rebuilt box for $245. Any idea if this is average pricing for these ? Would I be able to do the rebuild here in my driveway with regular hand tools ? Thanks for all your help.
mike

I don't know about the pricing.

I matched up the bearings for a customer at work on a different gear box. Between shipping and the cost of the bearings and seals it was close to the $140.00 range. I don't think that gear box is very complicated, so you should be able to tackle it. The biggest trick is getting it out and then back into the truck. Just take it one step at a time.

Well, it worked for about a year ( only drove it when the weather was rough and the wife needed her Conv Bug )just with lubing it up and putting gear oil in the box, but now it is turning about one and a half turns before actually turning the wheels. Kinda scary when it first happened, but I managed to get home safe, not much traffic on the back streets 25MPH 5 o'clock in the morning. I read a lot of posts about pressing in bearings and reaming out the races ,etc. I don't have tools for these procedures. How does the steering shaft connect to the box, rebuild kits don't provide the worm gear, I guess I really have to explain to the wife that the honeydew projects will have to wait until I get my steering box and shaft pulled, and fixed.
thanks

Well, it worked for about a year ( only drove it when the weather was rough and the wife needed her Conv Bug )just with lubing it up and putting gear oil in the box, but now it is turning about one and a half turns before actually turning the wheels. Kinda scary when it first happened, but I managed to get home safe, not much traffic on the back streets 25MPH 5 o'clock in the morning. I read a lot of posts about pressing in bearings and reaming out the races ,etc. I don't have tools for these procedures. How does the steering shaft connect to the box, rebuild kits don't provide the worm gear, I guess I need to pull the box, I have to explain to the wife that the honeydew projects will have to wait until I get my steering box and shaft pulled, and fixed.
thanks

Sounds like you're going to need to do a complete rebuild. The shaft is one peice with the box, you're going to have to remove the whole thing to get at it. It's much easier if you take the LF fender off first. In fact, the manual tells you to do it that way. There's really nothing too special about the innards of this particular box, for the most part the bearings go in like a standard wheel bearing. There are some special tools needed to disassemble the box and to do the final adjustments, but they're not too expensive or hard to get.
Here's a link to the manual section that might help you overhaul the box. http://chevy.tocmp.com/1955truck2shop/55ctsm0901.htm

id look on ebay for a used box

Thanks for the prompt replies. I found one place that will rebuild the box by me shipping them the whole steering shaft and box assembly for about 300 bucks. Not sure what shipping would be yet from the east coast to the west coast, but this is just one thing I'm considering at least until I get the whole thing removed and see what's up. Thanks for the link to the book.
y'all take care
gatormike

The last one that I took apart that had a considerable amount of play in it had extensive wear on the the sector gears and the ball nut. Those parts don't come in the kits. Also the worm shaft actually serves as the inner bearing race on both ends. If it is pitted new bearings won't help much.
ABS in Orange, CA is a good place to have them rebuilt. Probably about the same cost as you stated.
Fred

Gatormike: With as much wear and possible damage as your box seems to have I would look for a good used one and rebuild it yourself. A buddy that really knows these trucks always says just look for a box that the sector shaft adjusting screw is sticking out as far as possible. Meaning that it hasn't been adjusted in a lot to take out wear. I think I spent $90.00 for my rebuild kit. The interesting part on these boxes is that the sector shaft bushing in the cover plate was not designed to be serviced. (No practical way to press out bushing.) The manual just says chuck it and get new cover plate with bushing installed. Not a luxury we currently have. The rebuild kit I got comes with a set of bushings that are for the other side of the shaft, which are too long for the cover plate side. Some folks bend the bushing inward to get it out, others use a die grinder to cut it out. You then have to cut the bushing down to size and press it into the cover plate. Other than this, the box is simple to rebuild with the manual. The only tool that you might not have is the load check scale. I used a hanging fish scale as the best I could.

As to spring and shackle parts, I was pleasantly surprised to walk into a local spring and suspension supply shop to find they had all the springs and shackles kits for my truck in stock and cheaper than any of the catalog venders. Good Luck,

Steve O

Thanks for all the help. I decided to get a rebuilt one and install it myself. I ordered one from American Classis Truck Parts in Texas. They got it to me in short order and I installed it without too much difficulty. They rebuild them and it comes with fluid in it already. A good deal for about $215 plus core charge of $100. My old blue truck is steering nice and easy now, almost like having power steering after 10 years grinding on that old steering box. I never got my core charge back though, they said the threads on top of the shaft had been redone and they couldn't fit the stock nut on it. All the threads were in good shape, I had no problems putting the steering nut or nut holding ptiman arm on, so I'm not sure what their problem is. After spending 30 bucks to send it back I was hoping they would honor their commitment and get my core charge back to me. Oh well 345 bucks total and it's so easy to steer now.
Thanks again for all of y'alls help
gatormike turnin' right and left in SC @ the beach.. :>

Glad you got it all sorted out. $345 isn't so bad, at least you don't have to go around in circles now that you can turn both ways.