My wife is the primary driver of our new '66 F-100. She has a shoulder injury which makes the slower turns a little difficult. I realize that without power steering, parking lots and turning while moving slow is a bit tough. But it seems a little extra tough on this truck. Anyone have any thoughts on what might cause that or any tricks to make a non-power steering truck a little smoother? Thanks.
-Tony

 

I would say it is probally your tires. There is a huge difference between running 7.00X15 and and most radial ie 235x75x15. I have had this problem with the steering before. most radials have a wider footprint than the older bias ply or a good radial of the same size the sidewalls have more give and make the truck harder to turn also make sure you have gear oil in the stearing gear box. Makes a little difference not much. I have bias tires on my F100 and as long as the truck is moving a little it turns great.

 

Maintinence helps immensly

Do the cab mounts sag? (LEADING CAUSE OF MANY WOES
Are the king bolts greased and not galled?
Tie rods greased?
Center link greased?

All these compound the steering effort.

Jim covered the tires and steering box.

Garbz

 

I agree. Sometimes the overlooked simple things can cause major problems.

John

 

I will check all of these items one at a time. Sorry, but I don't know what "galled" means when referring to the king bolts. Can you explain? Thank you.

I am currently running 235x75x15 radials. So I will address that as soon as it is time to change the tires. The current tires are a few years old anyway.

 

By galled i mean they were not maintained in the past and had no grease. the bushings
will start to break down and scour the king pin the buildup of silicon bronze and oil acts like weld.

I run 235 75 R 15s on my 64 with no problems.

Garbz

 

Galled= Mating surfaces that are scored to the point of causing drag when they work against each other. Connecting rod bearings become "galled" with operation at low Oil Pressure or Low Oil Volume etc.
Kingpins that are neglected, or severely worn, becone Galled scoring the bushings they ride in, and the drag causes more effort to be applied to steer the wheels.

Another cause of dificult steering can be people who think the preload adjuster on top of a steering gear box is for adjusting gearbox play when it gets worn, But it's Not.
It's there to adjust preload tension of worm gear mesh with a sector gear. When over tightened the steering box becomes difficult to turn.

This common shade tree error usually is resolved by replacing the steering gear box because worm gear generally galls a sector gear due to too much preload tension. That ends up needing to completely overhaul the steering gear box as an end result.

FBp

 

Thank you for the detailed description. That is very helpful. I am going to look into each item one by one. I'm sure I will have more questions as I go .

-Tony

 

these old trucks are fun I know bridgestone used to make a raidal tire called the Vsteel in a 700X15 I am not sure if it is still out there or not. it was a great tire for these old trucks a little pricy but you got the all the good qualities of the raidal and the steering of a bias. then again last time I put rubber on mine they were only 75 each for the bias ply

 

Great info in this thread! I have a current situation that may be a by-product of some or all of the causes mentioned here about stiff steering.

I bought my '64 during warm weather last year and thought the steering was pretty defacto for a manual set up. However, as the weather got colder the steering became much stiffer. I expected this condition, but not as much as I am dealing with at the moment, which includes the truck not wanting to completely straighten out after making a turn, I have to correct the issue by giving the steering wheel a bit of a yank in the opposite direction. I checked the king pins by jacking up the truck and tested the front wheel(s) stability for any play...both checked out as being solid. So, I am now wondering if this "extra" stiffness if due to the cold being mixed with old grease, not enough grease, galling, steering box or a combination of things? Anyone care to take a stab at this for me? Thanks!

Also, I should mention that PS and a new tie rod/rod ends are going on the truck next weekend. This should eliminate the stiffness symptoms I've mentioned. However, I don't want this "masking" of the problem to lead to something more extreme in the future with the front end. Are my concerns warranted?

 

I had the same problem after mine sat for a couple of months. I try to start with the simple things first (about all I can handle some days). It turned out that the front end needed a complete lub job. A couple of the fittings were plugged and took some time to really get them filled. Once done it made all the difference in the world. That is where I would start, at least it is the easiest and cheapest.

 

Makes sense and the first thing I am hoping is the cure...thanks!

 

if a good lube job dont take care of it you can check the kingpins to see if they are gallded by jacking up front end and removing draglink and turn spindle assy by hand and make sure it moves freely you can also drop tierod if you can not tell for sure wich side it is but if one side is bad its best to replace both king pins also if the steerig colum has a ujoint make sure it turns freely while you have the draglink loose. also it is best to always best to jack up front end so theres no weight on tires when you grease yo

 

sorry ran out of time to finish{ jacking up the front end allows grease to penetrate into all parts better}

 

Payner

With the amount of work you are doing, I would do a king bolt job while it is apart for the PS job. They may still be the original pins and bushings.

My 64 had so bad bushings in it i could move the tire in and out about a half inch on top. They apparently never received attention since new, and i had to really wail out on the pins to get them out of the axle. Even the bore on the axle was buggered form years of wobbling, and i ended up with some slop. I eat spindle bearings on that side of the truck.

New king bolts and correct hone make a huge difference.

Garbz