When you change the steering column on an ole truck,
you also have to change the steering
gearbox...because they are one piece on the ole
trucks! Normally, folks change the steering to
power, then have to change the column because the
old column "went away" with the power steering
swap.
You can change just the column, but it's not
simple...you have to cut off the old column (inner
shaft as well as outer tube), and spline the shaft
to accept a proper steering shaft coupler, then add
a seal of some type to keep out dirt and keep in the
lubricant. I did this to one of my 59s back about
20 years ago, and just recently have been making
another steering gearbox with a short shaft to
replace it, and have as an "extra". On this newer
one I used a short piece of the original splined
shaft from a newer manual GM steering gearbox, and
ground flats on it as well as the end of the
original truck shaft...then welded on a "double D"
tube as a coupler. The fun part is putting the
bearing on after welding on the coupler :)
Note that this requires diassembling the steering
gearbox, and having confidence in your fabricating
abilities.
The mid 70s vintage truck/van steering wheels fit on
the 54-59 column with just a little bit of work to
get the turn signal cancelling cam and horn contact
where they belong...I expect you could go the other
way too. However, the newer wheels/columns are a
bit larger where they meet, so the early wheel will
look a little funny being smaller than the column
(at the turn signal switch area). A bigger wheel on
a smaller column doesn't look too bad, though, I
have one set up like this in my other 59.
I personally think the original steering wheels are
a couple inches too big...which is why I changed
mine to a later model steering wheel. After a
while, you get used to the added steering effort to
turn a smaller wheel :)
Jim F
59s in AZ
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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