Hard Steering

3

34farmtruck

Junior Member
I have a 34 Ford pick up and it has radial tires on so therefore it turns really hard. Any suggestions on what to do to help the steering and keep the tires? Thanks for any info.
 
run a little more air pressure in the front tires, what size are the radials-185-195-205 etc??
 
Use original 550-17 bias ply tires & it will steer much easier & ride just fine.Modern isnt always better.
 
Reduce the amount of caster by a degree or so if indeed it has any. Also, add up to about 40 psi. This may make it ride a bit rougher, but you can compromise this to suit.
 
I put a set of those teflon tie rod and drag link bushings in my '34 roadster some 20 years or so ago. The steering worked well when I installed them but the improvement was dramatic. The car feels almost like it has power steering except when standing still or going very slowly. My car has stock 17 inch wheels and tires. I have adjusted them several times so I assume they will need to be replaced some day.
 
34farmtruck said:
I have a 34 Ford pick up and it has radial tires on so therefore it turns really hard. Any suggestions on what to do to help the steering and keep the tires? Thanks for any info.
Click to expand...

Probably the easiest and cheapest thing is drain and refill the steering box with PowerPunch. It really makes a difference.
Anything past that is going to involve welding and machine work installing an F1 or F100 steering box.
Reducing the caster will ease up on steering effort but could cause wandering at highway speeds.
 
Last edited:
Changing from wide radials to narrow radials will make a world of differance. Most of the old Fords had 6" tires and steered OK. I changed from 8.25" to 6.25" on the front and it was like power steering.
 
Reading with interest, but how would you go about reducing the castor by a degree or so? It's not adjustable other than bu cutting and welding the wishbone.

Is it?

Mart.
 
The suggestion to go with narrow radials makes the most sense as the wide tires produce more scrub, and move the center of steering effort outboard, which reduces the pitman arms to steering effective ratio. Keeping the existing tires would likely benefit from a little shorter pitman arm to improver the ratio which ideally is about 0.95:1.
 
Rim size can affect the King pin inclination angle. This can cause hard steering plus a few other dangerous conditions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top