Hello all,
I have a question for the experts. My 51 is still sitting on an 83
Silverado frame (that is bent) and I need to move it into the barn so that
I can actually do some work on it. The problem is that part of the
steering linkage is broken and the local chevy dealer does not even show
the part that is broken as being available. A friend at work thought that
the disk looked like something off a Ford.
At the top of the (power) steering box is a yoke that attaches to a
flexible rubber disk (could this be a rag joint?) that is connected to
another yoke, then a u-joint, shaft, another u-joint to the steering
column. I'm not sure how much of this is original and how much was jury
rigged to connect a steering column through a 51 firewall to a 83 steering
gearbox. The flexible rubber disk looks like a large washer (3 3/8" outer
diameter) with 4 equidistant holes through it (plus the hole in the middle)
and has an odd shaped metal piece that bolts to it. The metal piece bolts
to two holes opposite each other and when the steering wheel is turned the
metal piece strikes two shafts that come out of the other two holes. It
looks like the rubber disk reduces vibrations, etc when going in a straight
line, and the metal shaft takes the pressure off of the rubber disk when
turning the wheels.
I bought a new rubber disk at FLAPS but without the metal plate (which
was mangled beyond repair/recognition) the rubber disk tore out the first
time I tried to turn the steering wheel. I only need to have this work
long enough to move the truck into the barn. When I put the 51 body onto
my 54 3600 frame it is entirely possible that I will have to use something
else (?) and so I don't really want to do anything that will be very
expensive. Does anyone on the list have any idea of what I am talking
about and how to go about repairing this. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
BobK
51 3600 5-window (project)
89 F150
98 RAM (hers)
99 HD Sportster
Arnaudville, LA
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