I concur, the message is authentic.
Ahhhh. The magic adjustment screw. A few turns restores nearly 60 years of wear.

Have the steering box rebuilt. 61-64 boxes fall into the "orphan years". They are too new for the Flathead era ( which has a lot of support).....Too old for the post 64 modernization. (Some of that stuff was used through the 80s and beyond)

I have looked into this. The solution for the steering box is to send it to a shop that specializes in rebuilding these. It's a major pain in the butt, That's why most need rebuilding. The gear box and Column shaft is one piece. On top of that the Column Tube slides into the steering box assembly. It's a one piece gear shatf....a shift tube....and finally the housing tube. Bill I'm sure will post a picture.
The assembly has to come out as one piece. The Column Tubes are removed from the assembly.....this leaves the the gear and the steering shaft assembly......this is what you send off.
About a month and 800 or so bucks later you have a factory new gear. Now is the time to repair the shifter tubes that tend to wallow out at the shifter.

All the Magic Nut does is make the wheel harder to turn. It's only purpose was to set pre load...That's it. Tightening it down on a worn box only ruins parts that otherwise could have been rebuilt.

 

Another issue with these trucks.....

Rust in the front cab supports cause the cab to settle on the steering gear. On extreme cases it will begin to cantilever the steering wheel into the seat! Basically the steering gear is supporting the cab. In this condition they can have extreme wear.

Make sure your front cab supports/mounts are in good condition.

 

Fill up the steering box with the appropriate grease - and start saving for a r built box, or to have yours rebuilt.

 

thanks for all the helpful info above...I appreciate it! Dave

 

Have the alignment checked