my steering

[57chevyman]

hey y'all.... what do you make of this steering setup? before you say thats nuts and its gonna fall apart, it was built at least 15 years ago , driven thousands of miles, and it hasnt failed yet.

that being said, i think it does look a bit wacky with the multiples linkages.
its a 1960s steering column, 1968 chevy truck front suspension, 1975 steering box.

The power steering works fine... but it is very sloppy....not sure if i need some new parts and bushings, or if the problem is the crazy way this is built? or both

[mr48chev]

Frank I am very honest in saying that I would not drive that truck on the road and especially not carry family members in it on the road until that mess was changed. I just flat do not feel that it is safe to drive on the roads even if it has been on the roads for years on end.

1. The welded on U joint that appears to have come out of someone's too box.



I can't see what is holding the steering box on but it can't be much and probably flexes when you turn the truck while sitting still. The box is also sitting at an angle throwing the centering of the steering box off unless they have the tie rod ends cranked to one side to compensate. I don't think any competent front end shop would allow the truck in the shop to be aligned though.
It looks like all that is holding the front suspension on is some flat bar or angle iron welded to the inside of the hacked up frame rails. I'd want to examine that very closely for cracks.

As there is still quite a bit of un-hacked stock frame rail left to work with I'd suggest looking into subframing the truck with a mid 70's Camaro/Firebird/ Nova front steer subframe as that looks to be the simple and safe fix for this truck.

Then if you like the way the column looks on the inside you could shorten the tube and shaft on the outside of the firewall so the tube stuck out only a couple of inches and the shaft about twice that and lessen the angle of the steering shaft to the box a lot.

Your call but the last thing anyone of us on here want to ever see (and hopefully never) is that a suspect part on a member's truck failed and the truck got in a wreck and seriously injured or killed the member or someone else in the process.

[57chevyman]

thank you for the reply
is the 1968 truck suspension just wrong to use? can there be any other solutions to correct the steering mess? i only drive the truck around the neighborhood 20-30mph and i have good brakes. i am going to have my mechanic take a very close look at this and see what we can do asap.

[mr48chev]

Frank, it obviously did not come close to fitting on the truck to begin with and they cobbled it together to get it under the truck with some real suspect work.

The TF frames are several inches wider than the AD or 60/87 frames and that is why they torched most of the frame away to clear the A arms.

This isn't a case where one little thing is wrong, the whole setup is done wrong with no thought to safety for the driver, passengers or those who might get in it's way if something fails.

What happens if you go to turn the corner two blocks from the house and that top U joint breaks or the steering box breaks away from what is left of the frame or the frame just breaks off where it is cut out for the box to clear and you run over the neighbor kid?

What happens if your wife decides to jump in it and run across town to pick up a piece she bought at a yard sale that was too big to put in her car and the steering fails while she is driving it?

As I said before there is just too much SUSPECT WORK on that truck and it scares me. It isn't the later truck front end it is the way it was SCABBED on the frame that is the problem.

[OrrieG]

I agree with 48. Short answer to your question is the number and articulation of the joints is not much worse than what you see with BB and rack and pinions installs in these trucks. I assume the center shaft is supported to let the double universals work. Borgsen has a great tech section on steering shaft design that might help.

Big issue is the amount of material missing at the box. I converted mine to use a 74 box and it is mounted with 3/8" plate using all 4 stock box mounts with three bolted thru the stock frame with grade 8 bolts and nuts. I cannot imagine how much force is being applied to that small section of frame left at the box. As said, when it goes it will probably be catastrophic. In my 55 years of driving I have had a wheel come off (sheared lug nuts), clutch hand grenade (stock 283 at too much rpm) blowing out the windshield, and a pinon break and seize the rearend at 80 mph. All left me with dirty shorts and an appreciation that it happened on relatively deserted roads with no one around.

Clean up the frame real good and start looking a solutions to keep/restore the integrity of the frame.

[Lowlyfe]

I can't help with the steering but what is the rod above the steering for? I have that same one in my parts box. Previous owner stripped everything off the truck so I'm clueless.

[OrrieG]

E brake rod to handle under dash

[Lowlyfe]

Thank you