Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

awhile back I was asking about excessive play in the steering of my 37 115 Club Sedan. The other day I jacked up the front end enough to lift the front tires off of my garage floor. I was going to adjust the box but there was virtually no room for adjustment. I placed one of the steering wheel spokes at the 6:00 position. When turning the steering wheel from that point it moved about 4 to 4.5 inches before the wheels started to turn. I'm not sure where to go from here. The center crank bearing was replaced about 200 miles with no effect on the sloppy steering.

You will have to remove the pitman arm from the steering box sector ,then take the cover off and pull up the sector and remove a shim or two under the sector. Then reassemble and test the play in the center or high spot of the steering wheel travel. Its a good time to put a new seal at the pitman arm side. It is a bit of a time consuming job. There may be a better way to figure out how thick of a shim to remove, but I don't know of it,maybe someone else does.

There are heavy springs in the ends of the drag link. In the early cars they sometimes break causing lots of play.