Re: 41 110 club coupe Suspension and Scary first drive

Posted by Packard Newbie On 2017/11/8 13:59:19

Hi Chevmn56,

Haven't been 'in here' in a couple of days and just noticed your post. Like Howard stated, I have had my steering box out twice and this last time, I took it to a steering rebuild specialist and they redid it properly. Now, when I move the steering wheel an inch, I can see the wheels move. First off, I don't know how similar the '41 box is to the '39 version, but on mine, I was able to take an inspection cover off the top of the steering box. If yours has a similar cover, that will probably tell the story. The sector shaft wheel that interfaces with the worm gear has open-face, ball, thrust bearings on either side. In my case, these were disintegrated and with the balls floating around in the box lube, a ball would get jammed in between the sector wheel and the worm gear, locking the steering altogether, so I certainly know what you are talking about, re 'scary first drives'!!

One thing to consider, if you remove the steering box (again, speaking only of my '39) it will come out the bottom if you take the steering link off on the inside end. It then provides just enough clearance to pull the whole assembly out the front of the car. I made up a little custom press with 4 bolts and a small piece of 1/4" plate steel to pop the steering link apart. I could get very close to 'feeding' it through the steering linkage without disassembling it, but not 'quite enough'. Once the link was disconnected, it was a piece of cake. For what it's worth, I am up here in Canada and the steering house charged me $400, all-in for the rebuild. I did search all ends of the earth to try and find the original bearings (I was able to get the numbers off the races and broken cages) but came to the conclusion that they are simply no longer available. The steering house guy agreed and apparently customized a set of '39/'40 Chevy bearings that ARE still around. PM me if you want any additional info or photos of the press I made, etc. Good luck! (and you won't believe the difference in handling once you get this resolved!!)