The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop steering box........vertical alignment

most things done now its time for the steering.....i have some play in the steering.....anything i should know about the steering box before i break it open.......about a quarter turn of steering wheel before it makes contact and will turn....and are these trucks known to have the front wheels turn in to truck....not a toe in which i have aligned but the tires that touch the ground are in more than the top of the tires which are out more........so if your standing on the side of the truck and facing the hubcap the tire on the ground is inside more than the top of the tire.......the king pins seem to be fine.......everything tight except steering box.........ive always done my own alignments and was hoping not to have to bring it done and have it done via computer............

i thought the camber was off but it seems to be ok.......

Butch,

I think the geometry you are referring to is 'camber'. It is usually set when the axle is made and not changed. It isn't a easily adjustable setting. Have you measured this camber dimension or are you gauging it by eye...my guess is that it's fine.

The adjustment commonly set would be toe in/out and caster. These can be set with the turn of a wrench or the insertion of a caster shim. Camber on a straight axle requires a very large press affair to actually bend the axle near the eye.

Stuart

If you've been doing your own alignment, how are you setting the caster and camber? I've always had to bend the axle to do that. The sector gear preload adjustment will take up some slack, but 1/4 turn sounds like you've got some serious wear issues there.
Jerry

I just did a steering box on a 36. One of the bolts that hold the 2 halves together is excentric. You loosen all the bolts & turn the excentric one moves the gears closer together to adjust the backlash.

The 41 doesn't have the eccentric adjustment.

Joe

The '41 has a bearing preload adjustment, and a "lash" adjustment. Get yourself a cheap fish scale, and follow this procedure:

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1941/41csm229.htm

thanks for the help guys......perfect link waldo53

thanks again waldo53 for that link..........well i decided against bringing it in and having it aligned....i figured once they got into it.........if parts were needed i would be raped with big buck pricing..........so i took your advice waldo53 and started in on it.........and guess what i found.....the previous owner must have installed the wrong draglink.........i had a extra one sitting here in the shop and it was a tad shorter and original for the 41 chevy........so i put it on ....layed my straight boards on each side of truck.......ran my lines....dialed it in...(it was off by about 5 turns) lowered off the hoist........drove it down the road...problem solved....took the hands off the wheel.....straight down the road...another job off the check list...thanks all

Way to go, Butch!