Featured Technical TECH: Steering Box Rebuilding for Early Fords/F1/F100

Today's tidbit has to do with steering wheel Woodruff keys.

Ever wonder why Ford used a flat bottom key?



When using the light rod on 32-39 Fords, the standard key will protrude too far in and pinch the rod.



Where the flat bottom key will let the rod slide right through and turn freely



Either style key works fine on 40-48 wheels, but the flat bottom key must be used on the earlier applications utilizing the light/ horn rod.

 

Just found this excellent thread ! " I have built 500 of these boxes" "I'm not an expert" My ***.....
If you are not an expert , no-one is... Great work and excellent pics +follow up how to do things right.
Thank You Sir.

 

The reason I said, "I'm not an expert" is that I am self taught and continuing to learn. I still run into issues with steering boxes that I haven't encountered before. Or, if I did see it before, I didn't realize it was a something that needed to be addressed. Each time that happens, I get a better understanding and make changes to my processes, tools, fixtures, etc.

Recently I figured out a different adjustment process that cleared up some previous mysteries. I told my wife and she replied, "You've been rebuilding steering boxes for how long? And you are just figuring this out now?

You know the old saying...the more learn, the less you know...so yeah, I'm not an expert yet.

 

So here are some pics of the two worm gears I have, number 1 and number 2. Number 1 sure looks cleaner to me, but they all have some scoring on the flat surfaces (pointing to it in the second picture) I'm not sure if that's wear that I should be concerned with or if that's just how they're machined, neither are pitted up badly like the example ones.

The other thing I noticed just now is that my #1 example on the bottom of the last turn of the worm is flat, where as #2 is beveled quite a bit. Not sure why they're different? I'm really out of my element here. I also notice that #1 looks seated on the shaft really cleanly on the end where as #2 looks like it may have been hammered on.

Any expert opinions would be very valuable here. If I could use one of these as-is it would make my life so much easier, as new worms are still not available for 2 tooth Model A and I'm not comfortable driving my car now with as much play as it has. But I don't want to waste my time and my NORS sector shaft using an old worm if I'm going to regret it later. It's a stocker, I don't need it to be perfect but what I have now is really ****.

 

The worm to use is No1 for sure! The bearing races on No 2 are gone.
The grooves you see on the flats are just machining marks. The sector does not mate with those surfaces, only the beveled faces of the worm.
Again, No 1 looks like a good candidate to use in a rebuild. No 2 can go to s****.

 

If the shaft is still good on number 2, I’d keep that. Use a die grinder and cut through the worm 99%, but not into the shaft. Then use a chisel and split it. It might be useful down the road.