The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Front End/Steering Repair

Some time ago, I was pulling up to the curb in front of my house and misjudged and hit the curb pretty hard with my right front wheel (my truck is a 56 half-ton). The result was that I now have quite a bit of freeplay in the steering and my right front wheel is pointed way off to the right while the left front is straight. The truck wanders pretty hard to the right now and if I want to keep it straight, I have to have the vertical spoke on the steering wheel at the three o'clock position.
I know how to address the freeplay in the steering. My question is where do I look for the trouble with the wheels. I see nothing bent or damaged. Just that the right front is pointing the wrong way.
Thanks for any help.

just keep looking for the bent part. Just how hard did you hit it anyway? I would find out what you did to it before I drove it very much, it sounds like you could have done enough damage to make it dangerous. Maybe the tie rod ends slid down due to the clamp sleeve not being tight enough? Whatever the case if it was the wheel it would have a horrible wobble, you ruined something.

I'd suspect tie-rods too if you don't see anything bent.
Jerry

I've been driving it for months since this happened. It's just a nagging drift to the right and freeplay in the steering wheel.
Mr. Wilson, do you mean tie rod ends? I believe they're original to the truck and should be replaced anyway, so I might go ahead and do that.

Wouldn't do much for tire wear either. What about the steering arm angle off the steering knuckle?? Are they both the same angle now?
John

Look to see it the tie rod is level. It may have bent upwards. The other place is the steering arm attached to the backing plate at the wheel. Yours may be a different shape than original.

Good question. I'll check that. And tire wear is mostly the reason I want to deal with this now.

Thanks Sweet, I'll check the tie rod, too.

Seems as it is, you'd have a toe out situation, causing the tires to wear on the inside edge more.
Something somewhere is bent. John

I just got under there and looked at the steering arms on both sides. They look the same to me. I also measured the distance from the end of the steering arm to the tire on each side (the only quick measurement I could see to make). Both measurements are the same. I know it's a rough indicator but it if either of them was really bent I think I'd see it in that measurement. Anyway, I just ordered new tie rod ends and king pins and will be replacing those items soon. I was planning to do it anyway, so I might as well do it now. Once I have the steering arms off I can lay them out side by side and see if one of them is bent.

and once you have the wheels and hubs off you can see if you bent a spindle .... they have been known to break

Bill

I thought about the bent spindle also, but to bend one that much it would probably break.......
John

ah, so there's 'probably' no need to check it, just keep driving until something does break

Bill

He's going to be doing king pins so he should get a full account of what is going on with it all.

John

I'm betting my two cents that the spindle bent.

Mitch

I'll let you all know what I find. I'm not driving it for now. I'm looking at new tie rod ends from LMC Truck. They're tapered and I was wondering if anyone could tell me if these are a direct fit for the holes in the steering arms. The LMC site says they're a match for my truck but I thought someone here might have some experience with it.
I just went through all the old threads about making this conversion, so I know about grinding off the peened end of the old ones, drilling out the chamfered end of the pin, etc.

Paint the threads that attach to the tie rod ends before you remove them. It will get you close to the original alignment during installation. I bet the spindle is bent also.

Great idea. I was wondering about the best way to go about getting the same overall length for the tie rod with the new ends installed. The paint is a great idea.
Might as well rebuild the drag link, too. In for a penny, in for a pound.
If the spindle is bent, I suppose it'll be noticeable when I get the assembly off, wouldn't you think?

Before you take it apart, you can get some good information by mea suring the camber of each front wheel. On a flat surface, use a level to measure how much each wheel leans out at the top. You measure this with the associated wheel straight ahead. It should be somewhere around 3/8" . If they are really different then something is bent.

OK, thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try. It looks like I won't be getting around to this for a couple of weeks. But I've already started spraying all the bolts with PB Blaster and hopefully won't have any difficulty getting everything off.

One nice thing about straight axles, only have adjustment for toe in and out (tie rod) and caster (tapered shims between axle and springs). I don't know if they ever talked much about camber, for it they'd have to bend the straight axle itself (cold). They use to do that on those F#@d twin I beam front ends for adjustment.

John

They definitely had a special tool for doing that on the straight axle Chevy cars. The question is how does it get bent?

Out of the 3 adjustments, camber is probably the least important, unless it is way out.

John

I have seen sector/pitman shafts twist from a hard wheel hit.
If the steering wheel is not centered while driving than play can be expected. Steering box gears are made so there is no play when the wheels are straight ahead, box centered, and have play when off center.

I just installed the replacement modern tie rod ends from LMC. They are a direct bolt on with no reaming required. One of the simplest things I've done to my truck yet. They have a very slight taper but fit right in the holes where the balls went.

Mitch

On my truck the leaf spring eye had broken on the passenger side. The spring was still hanging on the perch because it had kind of wedged itself up in there. The drivers side wheel looked fine put the passenger side wheel was moved forward about 1-1/5. I only noticed it because the passenger side wheel did not look centered in the fender. Just a thought.

Joe

I went back and read my original post and realized I was wrong about something. I took the truck out the other day and it does not actually drift to the right as I had said. If I let go of the steering wheel, it will stay straight, but the vertical spoke on the steering wheel is in the 3 o'clock position and there is a fair amount of freeplay. If you put the wheels straight ahead, the drivers side wheel points straight ahead while the passenger side is a bit off to the right. As I said, I'm pretty sure this is a result of my bumping the curb when pulling up in front of my house. I'd say it was a good jolt but nothing catastrophic. I was going at a crawl when I did it.
New parts come in from LMC Truck tomorrow. Can't start on the project till a couple weeks, but I'll report back. Thanks for the suggestions.

I just wanted to ask if you can remove the backing plates on the front wheels and leave the brake assembly intact when replacing the tie rod ends and kingpins. I thought I read in the manual that you can do that and just hang them out of the way with wire. Has anyone done this? I'd rather not disassemble the brakes and have to refill and bleed, but if I have to, I have to.

Yes you can hang the backing plates out of the way with the cylinders attached. I think the shoes will need to come off and if that is the case you will want to zip tie the wheel cylinders so they don't eject the pistons.