Mine was pretty much a combination of all of the above. I replaced the tie rod ends, King pins/bushing. I highly recommend taking them to a shop and having them honed. My pitman arm ball that hooks to the drag link wasnt round anymore. It was slightly egg shaped. The gear box all looked good but no matter how I tried I couldnt get a consistent feel from all the way left to all the way right. The gear that is attached to the pitman arm shaft was hardened steel but the gear on the steering wheel shaft was not. They both looked good but I replaced the steering wheel shaft gear. That made a big difference on staying consistent from left to right. What I had to learn the hard way was that you need to preload that bearing a whole lot tighter then what you would think. I dont have the book in front of me but if I remember correctly you have the gear box mounted in a vice and put the steering wheel on. It should take a 1 or 2 lbs of pull to turn the steering wheel. Like I said its a whole lot tighter then what you would think. But its surprising how tight my steering is now.

 

Too bad you are far away, i shrink the axle and ream to fit new kingpin, replace spindle bushings and ream; replace tyerod ends, rebuild draglink ends all for a few hundred, parts and labor. It isn't that hard if you have tooling and knowledge.

 

Out of curiosity where are you located?

You mentioned shrinking the axle and I have been curious what stops the hole through the axle from wearing and causing a king pin problem?

John

 

I'm in Virginia.
The axle gets wallowed out, larger at the top and bottom than the center. To fix i heat the axle to red and quench in hydr oil, several times and shrink it a few thousandths. The top and bottom have an extrathick flange/forging and it'll be more wallowed than the center section, i machined a kingpin to make it about 3thou smaller, i then heat the top of the kingpin boss to red and slip the smaller kingpin into it and peen all around the boss to tighten it up, then i do the bottom side.
To ream i have an old LEMPCO reamer that does the spindles as well, it is deadly precise and aligns the upper and lower spindle bosses on a single axis.
When done there is no play in the steering, none.

 

Unless you have a very bad problem the hole in the axle should never require touching since the kingpin does not turn in the axle, and is locked in place, only turns in the spindle bushings. To check gear box: put two largish C clamps on the frame, one on each side of the pitman arm so it is locked in place. Turn the steering wheel back and forth. If you have more than an inch of freeplay at the rim of the wheel with the pitman locked you have a problem in the gear box. I defer to Ross on the lubricant in the 48-52 box, but I believe number dummy (Bill posted a while back that there is a special Ford gearbox grease not gear oil that goes in the 53-56 boxes, and that grease eventually dries out and gets packed in the corners of the box. If the box is full of the proper lube, then it may be able to be adjusted. There is a procedure for adjusting the lash in the shop manual. If the lash is overtightened the box can get notchy at neutral and stick at full turn. Ford used a very simple design steering box originally designed in the early 30s, and they do wear, especially if not maintained (most weren't). I have never rebuilt one of these boxes, I replaced my worn one with a Toyota PS box, but I believe it is not beyond DIY (some specialized tools and/or procedures may be required) but it may be worth it to buy a rebuilt box with a warantee by the time you buy all the parts. Next with the pitman arm locked you can check the rest of the parts: Jack up one wheel under the axle. place a long bar under the tire, grasp the bar with one hand and the top of the tire with the other, Lift and push in and out on the tire. If there is much free play, get a helper to do the same while you look with a good light at where the free play is located. If the brake drum is rocking compared to the backing plate then the wheel bearing is probably loose or worn, check the bearing. If the free play is at the spindle then the king pins and bushings should be replaced. If the bearings are tight, remove the bar and grasp the wheel at 3 and 9 and try moving it like when the truck steers. If there is freeplay in this motion have your helper repeat the movement while you check where the looseness is. Check the tie rod ends and the drag link to see if the connections are moving. Repair or replace any worn parts. Repeat with the other wheel. Finally replace the spring eye bushings and the pins, they are likely worn.
As said, to replace the king pins, over sized bushings should not be needed unless the original bushings have been beat out egging the holes in the spindle bosses (only the outside diameter of the bushings is oversized, the replacement kingpin remains stock size). If that has happened it would likely be cheaper to get a better used set of spindles and use standard sized bushings than to have the beat out ones rebored for oversized bushings. Take the spindles, bushings and lingpins to an automotive machine shop and have the old bushings pressed out, the new bushings pressed in and the bushings line reamed. It's not a big job for them, should be way less than the cost of a reamer. Watch, F3 kingpins and bushings are larger than F1,2. Note also that the axle does not need to be removed from the truck to replace the kingpins. Once all the worn parts are replaced you should have a tight steering truck with less than an inch of freeplay at the steering wheel rim.

 

Great information! This should be saved somewherefor the future. I will go through all these steps tonight. I have not yet determined whether I need kingpins but I am curious about one of your comments about f3 kingpins being larger. All the sets I find claim to be for f1 thru f3.

Just curious,
John

 

For BonusBuilts, F-1,2,3 all use the same kingpins/bushings, same axles, same spindles. For Mid-fifties only F-100 and F-250 share the shorter pin, etc.; F-350 and parcel trucks use a longer pin.

 

OOPs sorry remembered it wrong from a previous discussion.

 

Well I crawled under the truck, loosened the nut, pulled the lock washer off and tried to turn the screw. It turned about an 1/8 of a turn clockwise before it stopped and would not go further( dripping oil the whole time). It made no Noticeable difference in the steering play. Am I correct in assuming the box needs replacing/rebuilding?

 

Nearly all do.

 

As AX said (nearly all do) not to bad a job , although a basic knowledge of mechanics some basic tools , a complete rebuild kit , also get to know a machine shop or old machinist (the older the better) and a good fish scale are needed .