Technical 53 Chevy steering shaft separation

Question - The steering shaft seems to have separated from the worm gear on my 53 club coupe. I can pull the steering wheel out of the column a good 1". I'm ***uming in that the only way that can happen is they've separated. I haven't pulled it apart yet, but I'm guessing.

Can it be fixed or do I need a replacement shaft? Thx.


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The '56 P&A parts book shows the shaft & gear as one piece. Whole ***'y must be torn down. Good news is :
'53 -'54 are the same, were improved over the '49 - '52 gear. Should be fairly easy to find a good used one - look at the top adjusting screw, if it still has a couple threads showing above the lock nut, little or no play in the pitman arm shaft and doesn't crunch when you operate it, it should be OK. Every one I've ever owned leaked ...

 

they don't leak as much if you use the right lube, gear oil will run right out of them, and normal #2 grease will not stay in the ball nut like it's supposed to. #0 or #00 grease works good. It will still seep out the seals, of course. but that's how old cars are.

Take it apart, take pictures, I want to see what happened!

 

I will. I have been advised to keep the tig torch away from it, as too much heat will distort the bearing or the worm gear. I may just source a replacement column and rebuild. No sense in fixing a $100 part improperly.

I've been informed that this separation is pretty unusual. Any comment?


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Yours is the first for me ...

 

With that said.... would there be any other explanation for being able to pull out the steering wheel and still have steeeing?

 

I've got what appears to be a reasonably decent 53 box and column that came with a steering wheel I bought for my 48. Column is rather ugly but I think the shaft is straight and the box seems to be tight. I decided I wanted a 53 Belair steering wheel in my truck and this setup came up cheap.

 

If there was a lot of slop in the box to begin with as far as the worm gear adjustment went. the worm still might work the sector gear without any issues. do you seem to have slack in the wheel when you go to turn in one direction or the other at times?

 

I rebuilt the entire steering with the exception of adjusting the box. It actually steered great.... little slop. But I can't have the steering wheel pull out of the column!


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I find this more odd after reading ........

Does your steering wheel also rotate in one direction as you pull up then the other way as it goes back down ? Bad shaft bearings would be the culprit. Is it possible some where in time the shaft was cut and another end was added by using some type of coupler that's hidden in the steering tube ? and has come loose ? Keep us posted with what you find.

 

My guess is the shaft is no longer pressed on the worm gear. It's sliding up and down the gear. No steering change when I pull the wheel.

 

As you can see by all our replies and your guess. There's only one way to find out. Dig in and see. There are no easy way's out when a problem needs solving. Of course you can just replace the whole steering box out. But that would be like cheating on a test and getting an A and still know nothing. If I sound hard it's because nothing is easy in the beginning. It just get's easier with time.

 

I don't do easy. I do once, right, the first time. Even if it costs more money or time.

 

^^^^^ That's the fire I like seeing

 

Lol. It's not fire. I've gotten old enough to know that the best way to be lazy is not do the job twice or be cheap.