My 1939 Ford Standard Coupe - The Restoration

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This shows the gearbox opened up and the steering column tube removed. I've cleaned out most of the old 600W grease. You can clearly see the worm portion of the box. It is smooth without any nicks or pits or other signs of wear. I attribute that to the low mileage of the car.

This, of course, is the roller and shaft assembly with the cover plate for the gearbox. Again, I cleaned the old grease off and wire brushed the spline and threads on the end of the shaft.

The old 600W grease was a mix of soap fat and other organic materials. It was the best they had at the time. I will replace it with modern 140W gear lube.

 

Note: We accidently lost some additional photos that showed the gearbox's roller bearings and shaft apart. These components were removed and cleaned in the parts washer to remove the old grease and any dirt. The bearings were in good shape and were reinstalled. To allow for the minor wear, we removed one of the paper shims, which snugged up the roller bearings nicely.

Once the steering wheel came off I decided that I would need to remove the ignition lock assembly and the column tube. The lock assembly has one of those special bolts without a head. These were installed by Ford with a snap-off hex head. You tighten the bolt and when you reach the specified torque the hex head snaps off, leaving a rounded head in its place. This was to prevent a thief from loosening the lock mechanism to unlock the steering and steal a car.

At the lower end by the gearbox was a clamp with a simple bolt and nut. I removed the clamp and slid the tube up and off.

A similar view except you can see the column tube as well. The lower 11" of the tube were painted black (chassis black?) and the rest was painted the brown color that Standard Fords used.

The column has two rubber bushings:

1) Located just above the opening you see about 10" from the top end.

2) Located just inside the top open end.

These provide support for the actual steering column. The upper bushing was originally all rubber. I removed it and will replace it with a new rubber bushing.....the replacement has an oil-impregnated bushing to help extend the life of the bushing where it contacts the steering column.
The new bushing was easy to install. According to the directions, simply wet the rubber bushing (add a drop of soap if you want) and push it in with the palm of your hand. Take a round socket (larger than the oilite bushing but smaller than the rubber bushing) and gently tap it in until the top is about 1/8" below the top edge of the steering column tube.

 

I had stripped the paint off the tube and repainted it. It has about 10 coats of a brown lacquer paint. I fine sanded it after about 5 coats. It will be finished with polishing compound to bring out the shine. I will have to repaint the lower end black about 11" up from the steering gearbox to duplicate the original paint.

Page 10 of the Restoration 

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