Poking around the garage recently (and if you saw my garage I look like a hoarder). This “part of a part” has been hanging around for a long time - largely b/c it’s middle is a nice 3/4" piece of steel rod that will come in handy for something…some day.
Any old timer mechanics will recognize it - at least as part of a part. (And would have sent it to scrap a long time ago). It came out of an old vehicle I had. Asking to name the specific “vehicle” is not fair - I’m sure it was a part/design used on many makes and models … long ago … when vehicles were far less safe in their designs than they are now. (IDK specifics as it was made before my time). But naming the part of a part should be easy.
I hope that is tongue in cheek humor… I remember removing a Steering Wheel, unbolting the Pitman Arm, and two bolts holding the Steering Gearbox to the frame and it slipped straight out of the steering column… It usually took longer to get the car on the lift, remove the horn ring and pop the pitman than practically any of the other stuff.
The R-ball was a very dependable system and the usually it was the idler arm that wore out the most frequently…
I am not writing about any other steering system, not rack and pinion, not electric steering, nor any exotic system, only the good old recirculating-ball. However, I will admit that perhaps the “Fog-of-Age” has dulled the hassles, but I don’t think by much…
Old tractor…'57 DeSoto…or just about anything else made from the Model-T thru about 1968 - ? As of '68 no more solid shaft steering. I mean, seriously? Can you imagine tooling along - at basically any speed - with that thing pointed at your chest? Well, of course some of you can b/c you’re just that old. I can, but just b/c I owned a vehicle older than I was.
So anyway, this one did happen to be from a '64 Ford F100 - an old step-sider rust bucket that I got way cheap (but it needed work!) for hauling fire wood while I was broke and in grad school and heating with a wood stove.
The safety inspection people in VA deemed it too worn out - and it was. Good call (tho’ I’d driven worse). I found a decent one at the junk yard. Took the original apart, probably more to see how it worked than anything else. IDK where the rest went, but I’m not throwing out the steel rod.
And yeah…it’s the whole reason that I actually own a steering wheel puller.
The fat spiraled end is the “worm gear” and is inside of the box. A bunch of ball bearings roll a square-ish rack-like gear up and down. The skinnier end has splines where the steering wheel mounts.
Step-side bed - just where the fenders/wells are outside the side walls of the bed. If mine wasn’t all rusted out (body, not frame), it looked like the pic.
And PS. If anyone happens to need a photo-copy reproduction of a '64 F100-350 shop manual, I could never bring myself to throw it away. I’ll send it to you!
A 64 F100 in pristine condition would bring a pretty penny as a classic collector car today I expect. I can definitely see the practical value of that little step at the front of the bed.
I would have kept it to fix up but way too much body rust and it was only 2WD. A decent body and 4WD, and I’d have it looking like that pic … or be working on it. It eventually went to scrap. I didn’t really want to get rid of it, but in addition to the solid shaft steering it had no seat belts - was just never equipped with them. It was as bare bones as you could get. And by '99 I had 2 little kids and a wife working full time. So I couldn’t ever use it, and it was too rusted out and bare bones to sell. It lives in my memory though. Heated my house via firewood hauling for a good 4 or 5 years.
No, not really. Now my perspective may be different as a professional mechanic, but the older a car is, the harder it is to work on. A steering shaft that runs from inside the box to the top of the column? A coupler at the box or rack is so much nicer.
Ever replaced a clutch on a car with a torque tube? How about a front crank seal made of rope?
Not being a professional mechanic, I am sure you have seen and done things that I’ve not even imagined… But I remember helping a friend back in the '60s replace the front crank seal while lying on the ground in the middle of winter in New York… He ordered this “special” tool from J.C. Whitney that included a threaded spike to screw into the old seal and pull it out and a “wire trap” on a wire to pull the new seal around the upper half of the crankshaft. That “wire trap” was like the kids toy, a Chinese finger trap.
Additionally, we had a lot of postings recently about how often to change the oil; do you remember that J.C. Whitney also sold a “Permanent Oil Filter?” I do not know if it was a washable unit or one that just let everything pass, I did not buy one. But they has so many wonderful, amazing tools, devices, etc for the vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, tractor, mower, etc…).
We’ve also had a lot of postings recently about the best tire and keeping those tires property inflated especially now that it is getting cold and the cold reduces the tire pressure. Here is the perfect tool for everybody to keep in those tires at the proper pressure. It also gives your tires that nice “high octane aroma…”
Just remember to carry a spark plug wrench in your glove box… L L . . .
As a pro mechanic, I like parts of old vehicle and parts of new vehicles…
What I always hated was V belts on vehicles, you would have anywhere from 2 belts to 4 or 5 belts, with or without A/C, W/ or WO/ air/smog pumps, alt amp size, w/ or WO/HD cooling and then remembering what belt went where…
Non VVT engines are easier to build as well OHV vs V6/8 DOHC engines…
A 3 speed vs a 8 speed transmission is way easier to build…
But rack-n-pinion and struts are way easier than gear box steering linkage and SLA suspensions…
Probably a farmer that had to take one apart that came up with the first rag joint
Speaking of stuff staring you in the face- we had this little snowmobile when I was a kid that had the spark plug staring you in the face. I kept envisioning this plug blowing out and getting embedded in my forehead…
Growing up in CA where every car had a smog pump, those were the worst. 5 V-belts on an engine, and you had to figure out the order in which to tighten them otherwise you’d never get them right.
My truck is 4WD, but I could like it just as much if it was 2WD, at least living here in San Jose. 4WD was pretty handy in Colorado though. As a kid our family’s main ride was an early 60’s Galaxy and it had no seat belts either. My dad worked at a very safety-focused business. So important was worker safety, they had a huge sign posted above the entrance saying how long it had been since the last worker died or had a serious injury accident, generally none in the last 3-5 years. So he installed seat belts in the Galaxy . No retractors, they just lay there on the floor of the back seat. Later, when I drove my high friends around in that car, as a practical joke the guys in the back seat would press on the seat belts with their shoes to squeeze the front seat riders up against the seat … lol …
I’ve never had to replace anything steering related, so no opinoin about single shaft vs jointed shaft, but old vs new, I do prefer the ease of disc brake servicing to drums.
L . . .
L . . . L 
L . . .
L . . .
