Hot Rods 1956 Ford power steering control valve removal tool

Hi ,helping a friend as he needs to remove a power steering control valve ***embly that has issues from the tie rod. He said a pickle fork will not work. Will a conical pitman arm removal tool work on this. And if so what size tool needed. See there are Aluminum and cast steel ones. Will either work or will the Aluminum model be too weak for this. Thanks

 

Put a big hammer on one side of the Pittman arm where the valve stud goes thru the hole and hit the opposite side with another hammer. Never used any other technique to remove them in my 44+ years of working on these old cars.

What it does is flex the hole just enough to pop the stud loose in the hole.

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Yes hear you as I have done that on other things. Have not dropped one of these so first time for me. Guy had car restored and somehow power steering control unit is not operating correctly. Thanks for the reply.

 

oh, they never worked properly, and leaked all the time, also.

I also use the two hammer trick, learned it at the junkyard in the late 70s.

 

Mine has not leaked in 13 years. I installed what were called quad seals that were sold in Central California by a fellow who has p***ed away. Ed China (TV show) put in these seals on a 56 Thunderbird without taking the control valve off the car. The manual has an excellent description and exploded view of what and how to do it. I don’t remember a tie rod problem.
It’s power ***ist for sure and doesn’t act like today power steering.

 

My dad taught me that, man I miss him

 

If the 2 hammer trick doesn’t work give me a call. I had to get a tool for popping ot Mini ball joints. It’s made from forging, and works equally well for ball joints, tie rod ends, or any other thing where you can get at the stud end. Be a good chance for you to catch up on the whatever…

 

Hi all, My friend believes the ***ist is not correct. Why I do not know. I do not believe it is leaking and has some mechanical issue when it operates. Maybe not re***embled correctly. Going to attempt the 2 hammer trick. Then if not possibly Dave I will see you. The oil pan needs to be swapped out also. V 8 engine. When the car was being restored somehow the car slipped off a jack and the pan got dented up. So while the ***ist is off I will help him swap out pans. I located one for him this spring. Guess that is a bit tricky to R and R. I know from my days as a line mechanic at a Ford dealership you had to loosen oil pan sneak in and drop oil pump then pull everything out. Of course on a lift was easy back then. O. K. thanks for the help. Will post when we get this going. And Dave we are holding our own. Getting thru rough waters.

 

This is the tool you need.

 

Mine was completely ******ed turned out the pin that locks the travel stop had come loose and the stop unscrewed that meant that not only was there no pressure on the ball stud but that the shuttle could move beyond the oil feed drillings. Mines a 62 but I’d imagine they didn’t change them much.

 

Yes looking at that conical puller. Contacted the owner and he thinks when the unit was reinstalled there were not enough turns made on the adjustment?? He also believes it shimmys when driving down the road. My understanding everything was rebuilt up front so? He also thinks he has the wrong tires for it. Wants to go back to the original spec tires. Without driving it myself who knows. Will check it out tomorrow morning. Great guy but chose I believe wrong folks to restore it. Thanks.

 

Hi, well No way is that unit coming off the steering pitman arm? He had a bottle jack on an angle pushing up on end of unit stud and car raised up off the ground a bit. It is almost impossible to get a good strike on the pitman arm to jar the unit off. Tried several times. He is ordering a pitman arm puller like the one someone showed above. I used c a pry bar to put more of a load on the unit to help possibly help the tapered stud. Just no way. O.K. His other issue is folks doing work for him dented the front of the oil pan pretty good. Cave in the first 2-3 inches of the front of the oil pan. I purchased him a replacement one last fall. So when we get this steering issue straightened out I will attack the oil pan change. Looks like alot of fun getting that ****** out. It is the 292 V8 engine. Had the engine and transmission rebuilt and car has been sitting as he is bummed out with these problems. I have had worse projects. Thanks for the help and tips. Willmreport back when we get anywhere.

 

I've removed stuck rod ends with an air chisel using a flat faced tool. Put pressure on the rod with a pry bar, then used the air tool to shock them out. Worked great for me when there was very little access for a hammer or a fork tool.

 

Pans are actually very easy to remove. I take the sway bar off but it’s not needed by the manual. You just need to have the connecting rods in the right place. Loosen the oil tube nut at the front and unscrew packing nut on the pump at the rear. I believe it’s a 1” open end and I use a thin one with 1” on both ends. When going back together I install 2 short stud at the rear. I believe it’s a they are 5/16”.

 

This is the tool I've been been using for 40 years. It has 3 threaded adapters to fit the stud ... depending what you're working on. Works every time.

 

Thank you for the tips. Writing down procedure for pulling down pan. This will be after we get his steering issue corrected. Now my fault for listening to him with his issues. I just looked up a tutorial on these control valves. He bought a rebuilt unit and installed it. There are no adjustments to the control valve I am seeing except if you rebuild one and the adjustment nut over the spring has a 100 inch pound spec. So why am I pulling this off? He keeps telling me he needs to adjust the control valve one more turn then what he has so that would be a toe issue. Am I correct? There are no leaks in the control valve ***embly so why remove it? And I will bet he has not thought or touched the steering box adjustment. I need to talk to him and nail down and get a better answer as to what he thinks his issue is. Now have to be sure he had the front end rebuilt so no slop and if it was aligned. This is looking like my fault for not asking more specific questions and just listening to him. He trusts people to do work for him but do not think he is checking their work. Thanks for the help on this.

 

***uming the control valve is the same as mine there is as you say no adjustment in it. When ***embled the ball stud should have 60 thou of movement. This is the distance the shuttle moves to direct the oil flow into the drillings. The only adjustment is external and that is how far it’s screwed onto the link. My Merc gives a specific length from the control valve ball stud to ram mounting bolt.

 

You do have to have the steering column, steering box and drag link centralised to the factory spec before you even consider adjusting toe. The amount of time I hear people complain about difference left to right on off topic Land Rovers and how terrible they are only to find nothings centralised and they’ve got one tie rod screwed all the way in and one all the way out because they’ve not started with the basics.

 

Well you may be right on the money on that. I am walking in on this job so flying blind and trying to ask questions to ascertain his problem. Guy is not a car guy so difficult getting answers out of him.Found there is a specific puller for the control valve. Snap on sold them but out of catalog since 2001 as another forum member has told me. Pickle fork will damage the control valve ball socket so I am stopping and regroup on this. Reached out to a co worker from our days at the Ford dealership we worked in. Most guys sold it gave away this puller years ago. I am going yo research the correct procedure for doing alignment on this car then I can make sense what is needed. The typical tir rod puller sold today looks correct but the bottom shoe end will not fit between the pitman arm and cylinder body. Cannot get under ***embly to drive taper stud off arm. Oh the joy. He had the motor and transmission rebuilt and other things done and nothing but trouble since. He never asked for help during this so I am going in cold.Thanks for your replies appreciate it. Trying to keep him afloat on the project. He is bummed out.

 

I am going to guess that the control valve is similar to the ones on 1964 Fairlanes, that said, I bought Front End Service Kit at Harbor Freight. The Control Valve as well as everything under the engine was oil covered so at least it wasn't rusted. I had a couple of pickle forks but after fighting the dis***embly for longer than I'd like to admit I gave in and bought the tools. I should have done it sooner. I rebuilt the control valve twice (the second time i chucked the spool valve in the lathe and polished it). It wasn't leaking when it left my garage.

 

Yes, He bought a conical style one at local NAPA yesterday. Identical looking to many others you see but the ( shoe bottom of puller) will not fit under the space between the control valve top and pitman arm. All are too thick yo get in there. I decided to ask more questions before I chase my tail on this. He said guys who did the work replaced what was needed! So who knows on that. I need to go backnand checkout everything under there. He believes he ended up about 1/4 short of adjusting the control valve spacing so that iscwhat He is trying to accomplish. His manual statesx11 inch spacing from control ball stud centerline to LH spindle con. rod. I can buy that but his symptom is this. When he sent the car out for alignment shop did not have the correct adapter to do alignment and said it should be fine!! He now tells me when he went over a pot hole or railroad tracks at about 45mph he gets a wobble that stops when he slows down to around 25. I asked if his steering box was ever adjusted and got a huh.. Me thinks he has something loose under there and not a control valve issue. I will get over to the car soon and do a real good look see and check his free play in his steering box. Wow talking about chasing your tail. Tough pulling answers out of him to get to the bottom of this. He is not a mechanic or well versed.. We have been friends for over 40 years so just trying to get him on the road. Again I thank the forum for all your input.

 

There is no 'correct adaptor' needed, this is a very straightforward alignment using standard tools so anything they said or did is suspect.

The steering linkage on these cars is nearly bulletproof if kept well-greased. The recommended service interval however was every 1000 miles! Even so, they could take considerable neglect before failing. I once dis***embled a 200K-plus miles ball-joint and the machining marks hadn't even been worn off.

With that said however, there's several serious flaws in the design IMO. One is specific to the power steering cars and involves the idler arm. Ford used a rubber bushing at the idler and used it as a 'torsion spring' to pull the steering back to center. These would generally fail by 100K, sometimes less. The current problem here is the reproductions fail even faster. These are a PITA to replace, Ford had special tools for on-the-car replacement, lacking those I'd recommend removing the entire center link for access. You can do it without the Ford tools under the car, but expect some major cursing before you're done... and maybe some shed blood. After having two repo bushings fail inside of a year, I converted to manual steering which permanently fixed it. At one time MOOG made an 'improved' replacement that I believe used a spring and cam arrangement that permanently fixed the issue, but it's been out of production for well over 50 years. I will grant that this was many years ago and maybe the newer reproductions are better... but this bears looking at regularly.

The other flaw is the worm gear in the steering box. Ford used tapered roller bearings for it to ride on, with end play/preload adjusted with shims. But for some reason Ford machined the inner races directly onto the worm gear, then hard chromed them before final finishing to size. The problem is this plating will crack and flake off, allowing both excess play and 'notchiness' when turning the steering wheel. Replacements used to be all-but-impossible to find as the gear is welded to the steering shaft, which are year-specific because of different shaft lengths, but you can now get full rebuild kits for them. Some involve cutting the old gear off your shaft, but some shaft/gear ***emblies are available. AFAIK, the new gears don't have the hard chrome finish on the inner races so long-term durability may suffer. The other fly in the ointment is Ford used both a 2 and 3 tooth sector in these, all the kits are for the 2 tooth version.

Good luck!

 

O.K. Thank you for this info. Appreciate it. Getting schooled on the mid 50's Fords. Guess we were lucky back in the day. I remember taking a puller off the tool room wall. By the 1970's the front ends were wearing out but you just got new parts and done. One of my jobs was to realign the twin I beam setup on the trucks. Big U clamp , a plate and a bottle jack and a torch. I would heat the beam and my mentor would jack on it and check the machine. We had a customer constantly coming in for alignment. After so many times the damn beam yielded like wet spagetti. And yes a snow job on the story he got when he went in for alignment. Have a great shopmdown the road we will use. They do great work.

 

Hi all, got over to car this afternoon. Everything in the front rebuilt and new. I checked idler arm as they can be new and bad. It is O.K. What I did find is that he damaged the ball stud that fits in the control valve and attaches to the pitman arm. When you rotate the steering wheel back and forth for free play the left wheel will move but the right front wheel lags. You can see the looseness in the ball stud in the control valve body. He must have damaged it when trying to remove it with a pickle fork. So looks like a repair to the valve ***embly or replacement of entire unit. Still cannot get the unit off the pitman arm. Will not budge. Without that Snap on special conical puller at a loss. Thanks for the help. Appreciate it.

 

I'd just replace it, no telling what other damage he may have caused internally.

Since it seems the ball stud is junk and the valve ***embly is probably junk heres how I'd handle it..

Pull the steering linkage, pull the Pitman arm off of the gear, lay the Pitman arm on its side on something heavy- anvil, piece of railroad track etc, smack the opposite side with a big hammer, guarantee it will come out. Done this numerous times on an anvil when nothing else worked...

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I used this puller to remove the control valve stud from the steering arm on my ‘55 Mercury. I found the tool on Amazon.



I may have ****ed it up a bit by using an impact wrench.



But, it did work! No damage to the ball stud and only a bit of a dent on the thin metal cover.

 

As stated earlier I rebuilt my controller off the car 13 years ago using the Ford manual. I set the centers to 11” as specified. Last week I replaced both bushings on the idler arm when I saw the rubber in them squished. The one on the frame mount I did off the car. The one the tie rod underneath. (Jacked up 8” on stands)
I made 2 tubes and used all thread to “screw” them out. I found an old sparkplug socket was slightly smaller than the bushings to do the pushing out of their respective fits. I measured where they were originally and put the new ones on the same spot.
I aligned the front end with a standard magnetic hub tool and the tires on wax paper. Castor was within spec and the camber on the left was off and the manual said how thick a shim was needed to correct. Tow-in was the hardest because I wanted the steering wheel straight. I did it with 2 wheel/tire plates and 2 measuring tapes from Longacre. (Race car tool supplier). After every adjustment I drove around my block trying to get steering wheel perfect and it took a few times.
Once you get the controller off it’s not hard to do this but it is time consuming.
Below are the 2 tubes. I used roll bar tubing left over from my son’s dirt car.

 

Did you have any trouble installing the new bushings? Were they NOS or new production? When I did my idler arm bushings, the old ones came out easily with threaded rod and a couple of sockets. But, putting in the new bushings proved to be a big problem. While installing the long bushing in the frame mounted casting, the bushing seized half way in and started to bulge. It (and the shorter bushing for the center link) turned out to have a slightly larger outside diameter. I ordered a replacement set from another supplier, but those bushings had the same larger diameter. To fix the issue, I ground the bushings to meet the old bushing diameter spec. Fortunately, I saved to old ones!

Not sure why the bushings would be made oversized. Maybe many power steering cars have had those bushings replaced so many times, oversized bushings are now needed.

 

No mine went in easier than I thought using an all thread. It was a 3/8” course thread and as I was doing it I should have found a fine thread.
Originally the car was an AZ vehicle all its life so absolutely no rust. After I lowered the car 7 years ago I brought it to an alignment shop and they said they replaced the idler arm but I had my doubts.
My bushings came from Concours Parts in Carson City Nv. I used the forged arm that was there.

 

My first set came from National Parts Depot. The second set from Concours Parts. I guess it was just my bad luck!