The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Steering Box Bushings

I'm in the process of replacing bushings on my '54 steering box. The bushings I received from the supplier are the standard 1.125" inner diameter, but the pittman side would still be a bit sloppy. While I have this thing apart, I'd like to get it tight. My question is: does anyone know if its possible to get a bushing with a slightly smaller inner diameter but have all the other dimensions the same?

You may have to take it to a local machine shop and have one made.

Hello tlorber,
A few weeks ago I went to my local Applied Industrial Technologies store and purchased the bushings I needed for my steering box rebuild and they were dirt cheap! I took in my old bushings and they measured them and ordered replacements which I picked up the next day. They probably even have the oil seal also. This is their website: www.applied.com
Here are the offices near Los Angeles:

Gardena
13723 1/2 Harvard Place.
Gardena, CA 90249-2527
PH: (310) 515-5882

Los Angeles
7545 Telegraph Road
Montebello, CA 90640-6516
PH: (323) 724-5111

North Hollywood
6908 Tujunga Ave
North Hollywood, CA 91605-6212
PH: (818) 766-8115

Good luck!

P.S. - I wish I had known of your bushing extraction method a month ago!

littlebuddie-
Thanks for the tip. The North Hollywood location is very close and I'll stop in.

Hi Again,
They did not have the exact length for the cover-side bushing so I ordered a 1" length and ground it back to fit and it worked perfectly. Also that cover side bushing seat is a little tiny bit smaller than the sector side seat so I honed the seat a bit with a brake cylinder hone and that worked fine. You might prefer to turn the O.D. of the bushing down instead of honing out the cover though. In any case, my steering has never been better than it is now in the 40 years that I have owned the truck.

Littlebuddie,

Thanks again for the tip. If I were to heat the side cover, would it expand enough for me to get the standard bushing in? Also, how hard is it to drive in the pittman side bushing?

tlorber,

BAD idea...


Stuart

Well, I would take automarc's answer for the heating question but to answer the second question, the bushing goes in smoothly as it should. There are some bushings available from The Filling Station http://www.fillingstation.com/
that you might want to look at as well.

Is the bearing race in your adjuster cap an insert or is it milled in? I was surprised to find that it is milled into the adjuster cap for my steering box.

littlebuddie