My '49 F1 finally arrived from CA at 6AM today. The driver rolled it off the semi and it would not start - dead battery. From the tools in my Honda I removed the battery and headed off to Auto Zone. Now 8:30 am and installed the battery, turned the key the and 5.0 V8 leaped to life with quite a roar as the exhausts end under where it sit. I mentally added exhaust pipes and muffler to my list. I left the Honda at the parking lot and started to drive home and THAT was quite an experience as the truck weaved all over the road. I was not use to the amount of steering slack and when I hit a pot hole matters got worse. Thankfully it was fairly early and traffic was light, so I was able to drive the drive the two miles to my home. My truck has the original steering box, nothing up graded.

I do have a good shop not far from me and feel comfortable they can do the work, but my question is what work? Is there a cure for "sloppy steering"? Your recommendations would be helpful when I meet with them next week on making this vehicle safe (seat belts, turn signals,mirrors, working wipers, etc) and safe driving (steering, exhausts, properly working engine/trans). Once we have taken care of these items, I can look on "comfort" up grades, if there is enough $$ in my original budget.

After talking to folks at a body shop and the my shop, I have decided to keep the body "as is in primer", the rat rod look, like you see in the picture.

Thanks, Jeff

 

My truck had serious steering issues and was difficult to keep on the road at speeds above 50 mph. A spring and alignment shop increased caster with shims and repaired a defective spring in my stock steering box. The shop also discovered that my king pins were installed upside down. My truck handles so much better now I can hardly believe the difference!

The shop making the repairs was the THIRD shop that looked at my steering issues, so be aware that not everyone that does steering and suspension work really understands our old trucks.

Good luck, and welcome to FTE! You have come to the right place for support and help with your Fat Fender Ford.

Jim

 

Hi, welcome to FTE.
As Jim mentioned - there is more to the sloppy steering than just the steering box.
The areas that contribute to the road weaving effect are:
Leaf spring bushing wear
Leaf spring hanger bushing wear
Broken leaf springs
Worn pitman arm ****
Worn tie rod ends
Worn Drag link ends
Steering box wear
King pin wear
King pin bushing wear

Add all the slop in those areas and you've got what we call 'drunken monkey behind the wheel' steering.
Take the time to replace all the worn parts, and these trucks handle pretty good for their age.

Tom

 

Congratulations on getting your truck. I think most of us can relate to that first ride with a worn out steering system, and that's what it is a system. On mine I was just like you thinking oh darn, how can I drive this thing. I started with king pins, then steering box, drag link, pitman arm, steering link ball, tie rod & ends. spring bushings and pins, new front bearings/races and a few other things like cab mounts and Castor, adjustments(done with shims If I remember) and toe in. I did these things one at a time as I knew nothing about any of it until I learned it rite here on FTE, and each and every thing on this list made a noticeable improvement, and in the end my steering is good. Of course it will never be like a modern cars steering, but I don't think Id want it to be, I like the feel of the original design. Each of us have there own preferences of what they want there truck to be, some like bone stock, others super smooth ride, power steering, power brakes, etc, then there's me stock body, brakes, steering, suspension with a little upgrade on the drive line, but I love it. So I would suggest making it safe, put a few miles on it and figure out what YOU want your truck to be, then go for it, no matter what you decide on I promise you that you will love every miniute of building it and driving it. First step is to buy a shop manual, and master parts manual if you can, then Rock on my friend.

 

Congrats on your truck! I'm in the same boat with my 49! Don't feel comfortable going over 30mph in mine right now! I'm debating if I should upgrade the stock suspension or go IFS?

 

Welcome, My 49 did the same before I tore it completely apart. I rebuilt the complete stock front end but I haven't drove it yet. There are many ways you can go with it. Depends on how much money you want to spend.

 

Hey Jeff,
Welcome Aboard! I can't believe no one has pestered you about
pics. We can't possibly give good advice without seeing your
truck....

We had to drive our '50 F1 home 10 miles from South Austin when we bought it...
White knuckles..... The steering wheel could move 6 inches with no matching movement
in the truck....

I would go through the brakes carefully too! Does it have the original single chamber
master cylinder? I'd go with a dual chamber design so your brakes don't all go out at
once with a leak. Decent Mirrors? 3 Point Seat Belts? Emergency Brake?

A lot of guys swap in a Toyota Power Steering unit (because it fits perfectly)...power steering is nice.

Ben in Austin
1950 f1

 

Hi Jeff. Welcome to FTE. A few posting recommendations for you.

1. Always tell us what year and model you need information on. Kudos to you in getting that right in your first post. Just don't forget in the future. The easiest way is to add it to your signature block.
2. It helps to let us know where you are from. Again good for you in that you have added that to your profile already.
3. As Ben said we always need pictures. If there are no pictures it didn't happen.
4. And to make your life easier learn to use the Forum advanced search tool. There are many years of great information on here (with lots of pictures). Try it yourself with the word "STEERING". I think that you will be surprised.
   
   

Good luck,

 

To add to Pete's suggestion for using Advanced Search be sure to unselect All open forums, then select only our forum. Before clicking search, first click Go next to Save Search Preferences - then click search.

 

Welcome. I feel your pain. When my '51 was delivered it too had horrible steering and brakes. So it went to my buddies shop 17 months ago for a Mustang II front end with power rack and pinion and firewall mounted PS booster and MC. He just promised it would be done the end of February.

I am surprised that you were able to find a shop that even knew what king pins were much less how to determine if they were in right or not.

Later!
Mr. Ed