The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1941 Upper steering shaft (mast) bearing question

This is a follow up to my previous post. The upper mast bearing I got from one of the Chevy truck suppliers was a Danchuk repop and said '55-57 Chevy on it. It came with a spring and a small cup that fits inside the end of the spring: are these two parts used on a '41 Chevy truck since this kit was obviously made for the '55-57 Chevy? In my bag of old crusty parts that originally came out of the top of the steering column there wasn't any spring or cup like this: just the larger spring that went under the horn button plate on top of the steering wheel.

I still can't get any sound at all from the horn when everything is put together.

I added some photos in my photo bucket of the area around the horn button. Also on page 5 I have pictures of the bearing assembly just before inserting in the mast. I did something special which was to run my turn signal wires down the mast. I did this by placing a pvc pipe inside the mast to protect the wires. Take a look maybe send me photos of what you have if your still stuck and I'll see if I can answer any questions. Good luck. You do have to move the mast up and down in the steering box to get the right play in the button.

I went ahead and used the extra spring below the steering wheel, but I figured out that my main problem was that there wasn't enough steering shaft sticking out from the steering column tube (mast). I moved the tube back down as far as I could and then after I installed the steering wheel I backed out the nut to the edge of the threads on the steering shaft. Then I put the rest of the horn button parts on and the horn sounded, but not very well so I decided to take the horn apart and try to clean the contacts like people were saying to do. Now I'm back to the horn not working at all because I definitely goobered something up inside of the horn because I didn't know what I was doing.

Does anyone know how to repair and adjust these old Delco horns, or do I need to make yet another post with this question to get a better response?

Not sure on the horn rebuild. There is no spring under the steering wheel. You can,t leave the nut holding the steering wheel loose. If the mast is too long you loosen the clamp on the steering box in the engine compartment and slide it up or down. Is there play in the actual column. There should not be. That's the thrust adjustment big nut on the bottom of the steering box. Actualy the nut is a lock nut the center turns to adjust the play in the column. Do you have the rubber oring on the aluminum part under the wheel?

Yes, I have that rubber bumper on. I wasn't going to leave the nut loose: I was seeing if it seemed like the shaft needed to come out more, which it looks like it does. Unfortunately I have the steering mast jacket already bottomed out against the steering gearbox. It seems to me that at some point the steering shaft (mast) got pushed down into the steering gearbox too far. Hopefully I can pull it back out without changing how well the steering works. There doesn't seem to be any play in the steering so far.