Hi Folks....
I'm looking at finally doing something about my 41's sloppy steering... and the only thing left is the steering gear (box?). Who's had experience with rebuilding these? I wouldn't mind doing it myself if I can come up with parts, but I'm not opposed to just sending it out. Any tricks of the trade in removing it? What do you look for in opening it up? What parts should be replaces and where did you get them? Who have you had good experience with in sending them out? I'm wishing I did this while I had the body off. Oh well.. maybe during the next ground up resto! ;)
Don't know about a good rebuilder but I wanted to check that you'd gone through the adjustment procedure in the factory service manual... If not, then you might want to do that first as it could just need a shim removed or other simple adjustment.
Years ago I bought a steering box rebuild kit from PlyDo for my '41. I remember that they ended up having to mix and match the bearings. One was the same as used in the 1940 model and the other was the same as used in the '42's and later. I forget which was the top one and which was the lower one but I do remember they were different.
As for removing the box and column, it can be done with the car on the ground if you unbolt the steering column from the dash and allow it to go as near to horizontal as possible to let you withdraw the box and the inside steering rod.
I had a machine shop remove the old bearings and install the new ones. As I recall it was not a major project.
Jim Yergin
I would try Lares Corp for a rebuild, if you're not interested in doing it yourself. I had them do my box (granted, it was on a 74 Camaro) and the PS pump for the same car and they did a great job. www.larescorp.com