VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 slop in 29 steering box

have about 30 degrees of play in steering wheel. removed the single paper gasket on the cover to steering gear housing and no improvement.Am considering milling the surface of the cover that mates to the housing. any thoughts and how much to mill? thanks, mike

Are you talking about "back lash" at the steering wheel? If so, removing a shim from the box cover or machining the box cover will not help. That adjustment is for the in and out play of the pinion shaft only. There is no back lash adjustment (the meshing of the worm with the gear) on the 1929-30 steering box. :( :( :(

Don't you have a 1929 shop manual? It talks about the steering box adjustment in the manual.

dawgh: i read the 29 repair manual and tightened the adjustment plug to reduce main shaft end play. then i removed the thick paper gasket on the cover to reduce end play of pitman arm shaft which should reduce clearance between the pitman arm shaft and the worm. seems to me the further outboard the sector is moved, the less slop in steering wheel.what ya say? mike

Adjusting the pitman arm is not going to help the backlash at the steering wheel much. The backlash is caused by the wear between the worm and the gear. The first year to offer an adjustment for the backlash at the steering wheel was in 1931. However, since the 1929 and 1930 used a gear and not a sector, you can turn the gear 180 degrees and that should help on the backlash a little. Only a few teeth on the gear mesh with the worm so the rest of the teeth should not have much wear.

You can also rebuild the tie rod ends and the drag link. That will help some with your steering as well.

thanks for the tip on turning the gear 180 degrees. will tackle that in the am. into the beast tonite.Coors for canines. mike

Check out the brass bushings on the bottom of the steering wheel shaft. I will bet they are shot.

The steering is very good on my '29. I re bushed the output shaft as, Docs popcorn said. and installed new round balls on all four connectors on the drag link and tie rods. The bicycle type brgs on the steering shaft are adjusted nicely, drove the car about sixty miles yesterday. Pleasure trip.

Regards, GAry

gary: where did you get the parts(bushings and connectors? filling station doesn't list them for the 29's . thanks, mike

I thought the Filling Station did have them. I got mine from a Model A **** place in Ohio called Snyder's Antique Auto Parts, they have a web site or call (888)262-9753
I one I chose were made to weld in place after drilling out the old worn originals. Snyder's part number is A-3311-W $3.75 each, last years catalogue. The bushing are available locally from a bearing house, bring in your shaft and steering box and they will measure everything to get you the fit you are after. I should say my local brg house provides this service.

All the best. Gary

We (old push and I) just replaced the balls on a '31. Found the old ones were 0.030" over 1/2" of the **** balls that we got from Snyders. First time that bushing with stainless tubing was necessary to get a tight fit. Then welded them it. It sure helps the steering on the old Chevys as most balls are worn egg-shaped.

Ha! Ha! Chipper, you gotta be keerful of the words you use here, It don't happen to me because I cain't spell'em right anyway! F0RD, F0RD, F0RD,Cahoneys, Huevyos,

You are rambling again Macky Wacky!

Mike: It is amazing the number of things that you can purchase from a F0RD supplier that will fit on a Chevrolet!

OK guys I understand that F0RD is ok but **** is not.

I did not type in the ****, the site changed my ****, just like a password, so is the password for the VCCA ****

Gary

When you type in the word "F--D", the site automatically changes the word to **** when the message is posted. :eek: :( :( :(

We know JYD , Now You are Rambling....., Go ahead and Tell the man that we have an electronic word cop.... she won't premit some words like F0RD (since we is Chevy folks,) and ***, ****, *&%^$#@, ******* etc. to get posted, but if the word like f0rd has an "O" in it just substitute an "0" (zero) for the "O" and you have F0RD,