I was on my home about two weeks ago when the steering shaft went right through the bottom of the gear box. Left a big glob of grease on the pavement. I don't know why it would do this. Doesn't the shaft have some kind of a keeper on it to prevent it from screwing itself down too far into the gearbox?

As you all probably already know, a rebuilt gear box for my '64 runs about $500 plus the core charge, and since my box has a big hole in it, there goes the core charge, another $130.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law knew someone who knew someone who has a few old Ford trucks saved up out in the woods, and he was able to pull a steering box off of a '64 for me. I am going up there to pick it up tomorrow morning. At least we will be able to use the truck again.

What should I do with the "new" steering gear box, if anything, to keep it alive as long as possible? Should I take it all apart, clean everything meticulously, and put fresh grease in it?

A second, sorta related question: Does the steering shaft have an upper bearing? When we took the piece off the steering column that holds the turn signal switch, the steering shaft just flops around. Is that part the only upper bearing?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

'64 F100 longbed styleside

 

Buy a rebuild kit from one of the part catalogs and go through the "new" one. The kit will have all the shims, seals, and bearing you need to tighten it up like new. You'll also be able to see if it may suffer the same fate, read core. Your old one sounds like the housing suffered some sort of massive stress that cracked it. Did you run into a curb that you can think of or maybe drop off a curb? After a while the turning of the armstrong power steering stressed it a lot more and the housing failed.

The upper bearing is under all turn signal switch and wiring. Looks more like a bushing that a bearing though.

 

I appreciate your suggestion, that is what I will do. I figure it's already been used about 100K miles, and is probably due for a rebuild.

I have not had any incidents with the curb myself, but I just bought the truck a couple months ago, so this may have happened before I got it.

By the way, what kind of grease goes in it, and how much?

 

90 wt gear oil and fill it to the fill plug once the gear is installed in the truck. Sounds like the end cap fell off the old box. Make sure you set it up with the correct preload and endplay or it could bind on you and that isn't fun either. Imagine making a right turn and not being able to straighten it out when the turn is completed. Yah been there done that, up over the curb and onto the lawn almost into a house.