VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 '37 MD steering box

Hello Everyone,

If you have followed my posts in the "what have I done to my car today" I was able to get the full turn, left or right, down to .060. There is no bind at straight ahead, nor what I call "drag thru" as I pass the wheel over center to the left or right.

My newest problem is related to the position of the mast jacket to the dash.

I read that before removing the steering box, remove the pitman arm and unbolt the steering box, leaving the clamp holding the mast jacket tight to the dash. With feeler gauges, check the gap at the steering mounting points and the frame, if it exceeds .031, add shim kit P/N 476612.

There were no shims and the gap was .080. I did the measurements before I took the steering box out to rebuild it.

I replaced the steering box tonight, placing it back on the frame and just for the heck of it, I measured the distance between the clamp and the dash and measured a distance of 9/16 of an inch. ( I did not think to check this measurement before removing the steering box) The gap is large enough that the threaded U clamp barely touches the bottom of the dash. Now I know that a small measurement at one point will magnify over a distance, but I am apprehensive of shimming the steering box .080 at the frame.

Have any of you '37 owners come across this same scenario ?? How did you approach this problem ??

Hopefully others will jump in and offer their guidance.

I would simply install hardened washers between the box and the frame to close that gap.

Hello Rusty,

I tried your suggestion. I went to the hardware store and found various thickness grade 8 flat washers.

After my traditional coffee night with the guys, I went into the garage and removed the steering box mounting bolts and tried a .100 thick washer at the mount point closest to the firewall to kick up the steering column and it pegged the steering column bracket against the dash panel. My thought was that was a little too tight.

I then tried a .070 thick flat washer in the same mount point and the steering column bracket developed a .050ish gap between the mount and dash panel. I think this is a more acceptable solution.

Tomorrow I will tighten the steering column bracket then loosen the steering box and see what clearance I have at the frame as I don't want to put undo stress on the cast steering box mounting points. I have some thin metal that I could create a shim, if necessary, at the mount point towards the front of the car.

Sounds like progress.

You might determine that the steering box mount is at a slight angle to the frame when you tighten up the bracket at the dash. So you might need a slightly different thickness washer front to rear. You also might want to add some type of spacer or shim to move the column bracket slightly.

Remember that the objective is to control the bending load you put into the column and shaft. Some is acceptable

Hello Rusty,

What you have pointed out is what my plan was going to be this evening. I will keep you posted.

Well a step or two back tonight. Had everything all set, bolted down. Crawled under the car and placed my spare pitman on the sector shaft to align it at center and IT WOULDN'T MOVE !!!!!

Thinking that bolting it to the frame distorted it, I tried to adjust it in the car and nothing. So I decided to take it out of the car, set it up on the vise and try adjusting it again, Only I couldn't get the the mast jacket off. Literally had to pry it off using the slit for the holding clamp to get it to move. Got into the car and tried twisting / pulling the jacket and noticed the steering shaft was turning ......

In a earlier post I mentioned that the new horn bushing needed to be frozen to shrink it so I get it in, well it is so tight that it bound the steering shaft. I will admit that the jacket needed help to install it but I thought it need help to pass over the upper bearing adjustment / retainer.

I did have a spare jacket from my "white car" with the original horn bushing in it and tried it .... it slid on ever so nicely and I could turn the steering shaft by hand, no wheel.

Oh well, .... Going to finish taking it out tomorrow after dinner.

Hello Everyone,

As I sit here recouping from knee surgery I thought I would pick where I left off with the saga of the steering box rebuild.
Along with the steering box I had replaced the exhaust manifold, but not before sending it out to get it Jet Hot coated hoping to help cut down on heat transference thru the firewall and floor. I repainted the lead pipe with ceramic header primer and paint. The part of the pipe that passes under the splash pan I wrapped with header tape. Because I had a problem with the exhaust donut constantly needing to be tightened, I created a bracket that holds the lead pipe to the engine block to take the clamping stress off the donut.

This is where I kick myself in the back side, which is probably why I injured my knee. Up to this point I had not connected the pitman arm to the steering link.

Taking a few steps back, when I had purchased the sector shaft, in its original box, the shaft itself had deep surface rust. Looking over the few extra sector shafts I had I picked the best appearing, but not the original, as a replacement. I took the wheel off the "new" sector shaft and installed it on my "best choice" sector shaft. With patience that I am not known to have I reassembled it per the instructions in the manual. It felt smooth through out the its operation, I was actually proud of myself. The original down side was the replacement bushing binding on the steering shaft.

Here is where everything went bust .. as I tried to align the pitman arm on the sector shaft I could not get the steering wheel and the tires to align in the straight ahead position. Assuming my problem was the original pitman arm, I tried what I thought to be a different spline alignment, no go.

Now I had to remove everything I had installed so I could get the steering box out. Brought it over to the work bench and took it apart thinking I had assembled it off center, but everything looked right. Its the simplest system to put together. I took the half with the sector shaft and bolted it back in the car to see where the new wheel was in relation to the front tires. As you may have already guessed, it was way off. I then took the original sector shaft with its worn out wheel and placed in the bolted section of the steering box and added the original pitman arm to it and everything lined up. So the sector shafts have a different "keyed" position as the one I chose was off , best guess, 40 degrees.

So I will clean up the old sector shaft with crocus cloth followed with 1000 grit sand paper to clean it up, replace the wheel and reassemble the steering box.

I see somewhere along the line you mentioned a seemingly tight new bushing in the steering tube. I put a new one in my 38 from Chevs of the 40s and it used to bind and squeak and would get worse as things heated up. I eventually reamed it out with a Drenel.

How about having a new key slot machined in the "good" sector shaft??

Hi Steve,

I am going to take your suggestion and check with the machine shop that has helped me in the past. My concern is there are 4 keyed slots, 90 degrees apart. If this is to work, and I'm sure they can tell me before they attempt it, that the keys have enough separation and still be strong enough not to strip.

Hi Dave,

If I am thinking correctly that is a design with key slots and a tapered shaft fitting into the tapered bore.

If it is, the interference fit between the 2 tapers is really what connects the shaft to the arm. The keys and key ways are mainly there to establish the proper timing relationship.

Hello 006840, Rusty 37,

I decided to attempt the "machine" work myself. I removed the wheels from the 2 sector shafts and aligned them with a 3/8 x 8" bolt. Layed them on a flat surface. Using a straight edge, the original key slots are located at 12 o'clock, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock, I aligned the straight edge with the original key slots at the 9 & 3 and followed it across to the "good" sector shaft and marked the area at the 9 & 3 position. Once that was done, I placed the straight edge off the flat surface and marked the sector shaft at the 12 & 6 position.

Using a cut-off wheel, I carefully cut down the required splines.

Put back together and installed it into the car and everything lined up nicely.

The final thing i did was mark the sector shaft so it had a witness mark that aligned with the witness mark on the pitman arm.