Steering problems - 1948 Dodge D24

[Bruce48D24]

I am hoping to get my 1948 D24 Custom Club Coupe road worthy again for a tour in April. This was a very dependable car until a number of years ago, it suddenly developed sloppy steering, for no apparent reason (no collision, or hard bumps occurred - that I know of). Now I have to turn the steering wheel 8 to 10 inches before the wheels turn!

I checked the bolts that mount the steering box to the frame, and they are tight. I have tried to shake the tie rods and pitman arm with the car jacked up but with allthe suspension still connected - and did not notice any movement. I have also tried turning the adjustment screw for the worm and roller, with the suspension still connected, to no avail.

I am now ready to pull off the pittman arm from steering arm and try the worm and roller adjustment again since I located a spare pittman arm for that procedure, as outlined in the shop manual; and check for "end play" of the steering shaft.

I also have a steering box and column off a 1950 Dodge for extra parts or shims - it looks the same except the mounting bolts look to be in a different position.

Has anyone else experienced this or worked on this problem before? Any advice as to how proceed to fix this problem?

Thanks for your help.

Bruce

[mackster]

hi bruce! welcome to the forum. Please repost this to get proper response under the car fourm. right now this post is on the technical archives, and very few people cruise this side of the website. hope this helps...

[Plymouthy Adams]

so by the post I gather you have not determined if the problem is from chassis components from that of internal to the steering box. To have that much play, you have to rule out suspension..if you can observe the pittman arm while the wheel is being turned and it is stationary..then inside is the culprit. The large steering wheel for that model will have a bit of normal travel but your's is surely amplified...if you can go off center with the steering and go say 1/2 travel to either direction, stop and if you loose the slop in the wheel, then your worm and gear are shot at the centering position, all to common..adjusting the unit to remove play at the center position usually results in very hard steer as you turn left or right once adjusted to remove backlash at neutral. Try this approach and try to determine if its sloppy all the way thorugh which could be a faulty lower bearing. If just detected at center/neutral position, it may indicate you need to replaced the entire box...

Just last week our member olddaddy mentioned a shop that he sends steering boxes out to for repair with exvcellent recommendation..

Edited January 28, 2010 by Tim Adams