VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Steering Issue

My 1931 has a lot of play in the steering wheel and tends to wonder all over the road. I have replaced the King pins and tightened all the ball joints. I am assuming the the steering box needs to be tightened some how. Without trying to steer the car, the steering wheel itself flops back and forth about 2-3 in before the car starts to steer. How do I remove the play and tighten thingsup again? Thanks Karl

The side to side motion of the steering wheel without the front wheels turning is called "backlash". The easiest thing to do is to check out your 1931 Chevrolet Repair Manual since it give instructions on how to adjust the steering box to remove some of the "backlash". However, if your steering box is badly worn then most likely the adjustments will do little to correct the problem.

By the way, if you don't have a 1931 Chevrolet Repair Manual you can get one from the Filling Station in Lebanon, Oregon. www.fillingstation.com

I just went through the same problems this week after it wandering all over the road and shimming for years. I started by making sure the wheel bearings didn't have play in them. I checked for king pin play. Then I checked tie rod ends and steering arm ends and adjusted as per the manual. After that I tried to adjust the steering gear with no luck. I ended pulling the gear and found some repairs that had been done wrong. I had good used parts to replace the bad gear parts. After the gear was adjusted and reinstalled problems solved. There is instructions on 1931 Chevrolet.com. Go down the page to steering column and more. On that page there is adjustment instructions. That is Bill Barkers web sight and a very good one for 1931 Chevrolet information. After doing all that the car drives better than it has in over 35 years. It always wandered and steering had excessive play. If you run into other questions about this just post and some one will have a answer. Chuick