VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 Steering hard

my '53 coupe has always been easy to drive until recently. Now it is almost impossible to steer in town, turn into driveways, etc. Front End is aligned, lubricated, tires inflated correctly - even tried over inflating them a bit. What can I do to make it driveable again?

The 49 thru 53 chevs were never easy to drive at slow speeds,in fact in 1952 GM changed the steering gear ratio (slowed it down) and combined that with a larger steering wheel to address exactly the problem you mention. About all you can do is what you have done is make sure tires are properly inflated and of the correct size, too large a tire will increase the footprint and thus steering resistance. Lubrication every thousand miles and of course check the steering gear box itself for proper lubricants. If it will not hold 90 wt oil, use a light chassis grease, if you use a power grease gun to fill be cautious as it is easy to overfill and push grease up the steering column causing potential electrical problems. Worn king pins could also contribute to the problem but that should have shown up at the time the front end was aligned.

You have a frozen king pin bushing.Do the king pin grease fittings all take grease OK?..Jack up front end with both wheels off the pavement.Steering should have no resistance.Heating spindle (warm -not hot may help to get grease thru.It may be time to replace the king pins.This was a rather common problem years ago on cars that were not lubricated regularly-thats why I prefer to do my own so I can observe how the grease is going thru any of the suspension parts.And yes,check the "grease" level of your steering gear.Top off with 140 gear oil .

I ran thru an ugly pot hole in my '39 once , wondered why the steering stiffened up , Investigation found a broken kingpin . :eek: