VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Sloppy Steering

My 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster Woodie has sloppy steering. I have to constantly move the steering wheel left and right to keep it going straight. Any idea on what is causing the issue and is it something that is difficult to fix?

I had the same problem. I went under the car and had my lovely assistant turn the steering wheel back and forth and watched each connection. On my 39 it was the rubber bushings in the pitman arm were completely gone.

Dave

Steering is a complete system with lots of connected parts. Dave's recommendation is the only way I know to diagnose the problem.

You do this investigation with the wheels on the ground. You need the resistance at the tires so load is applied to all the joints.

The two most common problems are a worn out steering gear and bad pitman arm rubber bushings.

As others have indicated, the rubber bushings on the Pitman arm are a likely suspect. Just went through the same thing with my 48 Fleetmaster. The bushings are cheap. The difficulty level depends on whether or not any bolts are frozen and if you can easily separate the fittings. I ended up having to replace one of the tie rods and some of the hardware. What looked like it should be easy ended up being rather difficult because things didn't want to cooperate in the disassembly. If everything comes apart for you without much persuasion, then the job is pretty easy.