VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc '37 MD steering box

Hello Everyone,

Back with new questions.

I am rebuilding the steering box and I am concerned about the bushings for the roller shaft. I can press them out and press them in, but the reaming is something that I will have to farm out.

Question 1 : is reaming the bushings required because the bushings compress during installation or, only if the roller shaft doesn't fit ??

Question 2 : There is no gasket, so what keeps the housing halves from leaking ??

Hi Dave,

Last spring I rebuilt the steering box on my 37 Master coupe. The Master and Master Deluxe boxes are different so I can’t offer a lot of direct guidance. I will share that I initially tried to do the rebuild with new reproduction and older aftermarket parts. Things did not fit well so I spent time finding NOS GM parts, especially the bushings. The results were very good.

I expect that you will need to ream the bushings unless you reuse the roller shaft and there is quite a bit of wear. Those are not floating bushings like the sector shaft bushing in the Master box.

The Master Parts List does show a cork seal that fits between those 2 parts. It looks like it fits into a machined shoulder in the main housing. There is no gasket like in the Master box.

Hi Rusty,

I bought a bushing kit from CoF's and a NOS roller shaft from a local member dealing in Chevy parts. There is too much play at the steering wheel, which I had adjusted by a restoration shop. I knew it was worn, but wanted someone with experience to adjust it. They were able to make it better.

Hi Dave,

It does take some finesse and patience to adjust a steering gear box. Fortunately I am getting pretty good at it mainly because I now understand and can visualize how the various parts interact.

Many years ago I actually built a very sensitive beam type torque wrench to measure steering gear drag. I used it to set the steering gear on a ”˜72 Corvette we owned then. It measures 0 to 300 ounce inches. It is great for these old boxes.

I laugh because I kept that wrench all these years never thinking I would need it again. I have set-up 3 or 4 boxes in the last few years. One was supposedly a professionally rebuilt box for a ”˜54 3100. The owner was pretty unhappy with the steering. In a couple of hours we had things working very well. That is the recirculating ball design so it is a fairly low friction box. .

I rebuilt my box with all new NOS parts. The only original parts are the housing and the end plate that adjusts the worm to sector clearance. It works as well as can be expected for such a high friction design. Your Master Deluxe box is a much better design with the rolling worm sector.