1953 STEERING BOX REBUILD
 

Hi folks, I have to rebuild the steering box on my stock '53 F100. I installed a new column shaft and worm gear, but the sector shaft and gear are funky. I cannot adjust it to get rid of the play in the wheel and the box leaks badly. I have found rebuild kits online and the prices vary considerably. Does anyone have recommendations or tips? Thanks.

There are a couple of really could posts on this subject (these helped me greatly). You can find them using the advanced search function. Usually a could set of pictures could help us help out determining what"funky" means.
I just rebuilt a couple of these with good success and found it less difficult than I was warned.
Let's start there and see what we have and how to get you started!

Doc

I don't know if any photos would help. Right now, the truck is in one piece and the box is bolted in place. The steering column shaft and its worm gear are new. The old one had about half of its spiral teeth broken right off. It's amazing that I had been able to drive it at all back in the day when it was my daily driver. The extreme wear on the old shaft worm gear suggests that the rest of the internal workings in the steering box are probably pretty badly worn as well, but that damage is not as visually apparent. Anyway, I did not replace the sector shaft or the gear that fits on it. The adjuster on the side of the box is in as far as it can go (so much so that the locking nut has little thread to grab onto), and I still have an unacceptable amount of play in the steering wheel. The box leaks fluid from almost everyplace that could leak. The drag link, king pins and tie rod ends are all good, So the problem, as far as I can tell, is in the steering box. The rebuild kits usually include new bearings, sector shaft gear, paper shims, and oil seals. It sounds like this is what I need to stop the leaking and give me some adjustability as far as steering wheel play goes. I did an advance search on this site, but found nothing that could tell me about the relative quality of different rebuild kits, the best price, or any tips and/or tricks that could help me out. There is a ton of stuff about fitting the truck with other boxes and power steering, but I found nothing for the stock rebuild.

Get new parts.
Remove the steering box.
Disassemble and clean all parts that will be reused.
Install new parts.
Make sure each adjustment is made in order as you assemble.

If you don't understand something, ask questions.
Good luck, a steering box rebuild is not that difficult.

Bought a complete rebuilt box from Mid Fifty for my 53. Perfect match, perfect fit. I replaced every other moving part in the suspension as well. Made a difference.

Ok,

If you need to talk-please PM me and I will walk you thru what I did and the order of operations I took. I can even send a few pictures. The initial shims that are used to take up slack is a huge factor (and for me new races/bearings) My sector shaft gear was fine but the roller bearings had failed (broken) to replace the gear seemed daunting but was not all that bad a job really. The bushing is usually fine for that shaft but the seal does fail (part of your leak) that and using the wrong fluid! Gear oil will run right out of these boxes!
I found the job as a whole just a bit fiddly-and then at the end you understand how the thing works and that you need only make tiny movements of the adjustment screw. If you have adjusted yours that much indicates something is amiss.
Part of the "fun" of these ole trucks is figuring out all of this old tech from the other fine folk here at FTE and rebuilding them! I have learned so much from others on this site!
Doc

Doc, can you tell us what you used for lubrication oil in the steering box. I did mine in my 50 but i use regular gear oil and as you said it slowly seeped out of my box. I recall reading some posts about the type to use but if you could share your's it would help me and anyone else who stumbles across this post in the future. Modern day lubes are way different than the stuff of old and it's bitten me more than once (ie transmission)

In the 1970's, I used to buy these boxes in junkyards, rebuild them (using genuine Ford parts), then sell them at swap meets.

What I would suggest is to replace the (2) 81T-3576-A sector shaft bushings, (+ the gasket and seal) as these bushings are the usual cause of loosey-goosey steering.

Most of the following parts are available NOS .. but I only listed sources for the sector shaft bushings, seal & gasket.

If you want sources for the other parts, I'll edit them into this post.

1) B-3552 .. Steering Shaft & Worm Upper Bearing Cup / 1948/52 F1/F3 & 1953/56 F100/250 / Obsolete

1) 8A-3553-A .. Steering Shaft & Worm Lower Bearing Cup / 1948/52 F1/F3 & 1953/56 F100/250 / Obsolete

2) 68-3571-A .. Steering Shaft & Worm Bearing / 1948/52 F1/F3 & 1953/56 F100/250 / Obsolete

1) B6C-3575-A .. Sector Shaft / 1953/56 F100/350 / Obsolete

2) 81T-3576-A .. Sector Shaft Bushing / 1953/56 F100/600 / Obsolete

GREEN SALES CO. in Cincinnati OH has 14 = 800-543-4959.

NOS PARTS LTD in Waxahachie TX has 16 = 972-937-2201.
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1) 7RC-3581 .. Sector Shaft Cover Gasket / 1948/52 F1/F3 & 1953/56 F100/250 / Obsolete

NOS PARTS LTD has 16.

GREEN SALES CO. has 217.
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1) B6A-3591-A .. Sector Shaft Oil Seal / 1948/52 F4/F6 & 1953/56 F100/600 / Obsolete

NOS PARTS LTD. has 12.

GREEN SALES CO. has 32.
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1) B-3593 .. Steering Gear Housing Cap & End Plate Gasket / 1948/52 F1/F3 & 1953/56 F100/350 / Obsolete

I had heard of guys using corn head grease (you can get it a tractor supply, or John Deere) wasn't sure about it up north in Michigan. However, I have since found it stays loose enough even in our cold weather.

I post that helped me was

• started by 3twinridges I then posted a bit about my two rebuilds where I received a great deal of help from Numberdummy! They work fine now!
• start here: Late 50 F1 steering box and tree rebuild
  

I'm getting ready to get ready to do mine. CMW has the best price I've found, so far, for a rebuild kit - $259. I'm guessing that since these aren't a high demand item there's probably only one supplier and it seems CPP is the one. However they sell what appears to be the same kit for $295.

IMHO something like STP or Wynns works, flows well but doesn't leak so badly. Personally, the last time I filled mine I used Lucas Hub Oil, for the same reasons.