When I first introduced Rod Writers readers to Cyclone Racing’s Equipment’s newly built 32 Deuce at the end 2011 (More commonly known as ‘C’Deuced’.) All was seemingly well. Well, almost. The car ran like a dream, but she came with a stubborn steering gear mechanism. Truthfully it had been giving us grief since the day we rolled the 32 out for her 1st drive.
We had lived with its quirks for 2 years, but enough was enough. I can handle a tough steering box, but suddenly locking up was a whole other story. Not to mention a little scary.
After a night of cruising, I decided that a Tommy’s Burger would be appropriate for closing down a fine evening of street rodding. Standing idle in the parking lot, I started to pull into an open parking space, then out of the blue, as the car went forward, the steering shaft said in its own way; ‘”fine but i’m not moving.” Whoa! After invoking a little friendly persuasion, she relented. I didn’t feel confident about driving her anywhere from that point on. I made a call. “Bring the trailer”. I hung up, walked to the counter went ahead and ordered.
Yes, I was happy with my burger, but way upset about my steering. That was mid October. Parked for a month and aproaching the holidays I felt i’ll get to it when I got a chance.
While hanging at the orphanage ( The Garage), Ozzie walked over to it and took matters into his own hands. He wanted to see what was up and started undoing the mounting bolts ( five instead of normal three ) I joined in. Looking at the way this F-100 box was installed in the 32 chassis made me think a bit. Now we just had to figure out how to get it out of such a tight confine. 
With our breakfast pal Dennis around, we put our heads together, almost quite literally. We determined that the sector shaft would have to be moved inward toward the block and that would allow enough room to get the angles we needed to clear a block oil filter and left engine mount. Good thing we did then as the mount was broken!
Once that gear was on the bench then came the real work. Looking it over it was determined that we’d use a steering box procured from another Hot Rod pal, Mike Wasser, It only cost me $75.00 big ones and we spent another $125.00 on a N.O.S. worm gear and shaft that was originally from Robert H. Loud Ford in Pasadena. We bought bearings races,seals,shims,gaskets and a steering wheel adapter to boot. (Still haven’t been billed for it, but will know soon enough). 
While putting all of this together, Ozzie laid it out on the bench, set the lash using the shims/gaskets and put a slight drag when rotating the shaft. The cover was left loose for the sector and a mast was procured from another pal John Byron. We now went to mount the whole enchilada in the chassis and found that the shaft with the 40’s era mast was just not going to work with the F-100 box. Ok, time to improvise…
We opted to shim the mounting surface of the box against the inner frame rail, this cured one or more of the problems. Once lined up we locked it down…
Incidentally, we forgot that the wires that run along the frame rail were now wedged against the horizontal and vertical walls of the inner frame rail…Ooops! Good thing we stopped tightening when we did! So now we had loosen the whole deal up again, pull the wires which now needed to be disconnected at the butt connectors, pulled them out and around the sector shaft and routed over the top of it.
Once again we tightened it all up and this time we hoped for good. Upon wondering around this speed emporium, we located some 1 & 1/2″ exhaust tube about a 5′ length. we needed 3′ and this would work out nicely. We made up a shaft stop for the bronze bushing and backed it up with a PSI radius rod teflon bushing. All worked very nicely. 
With everything back together, we took her out for a ride. Grabbing a few gallons of gas on the way to lunch with Oz. We headed toward the world famous pastrami joint ‘The Hat’.
C’Deuced drove great as ever and I was glad to get back behind the wheel after a two month separation. (even though the steering was now 2″ closer to me). As we pulled into the parking spot, it glided in with ease.
Again this all worked out with friends and I thank them all for their help!
Onward! to the Purple 34 Roadster! Need to fix some bushings that have needed attention for a long while now. But hey! Thats Hot Rodding!
Hey Kevin, So glad you got the steering fixed in C’Deuced. Next time I’m over, I will want to take it for a real drive – maybe to the Broiler. Wadda you say?
I believe that this car is about all the positive things there are in hot rodding. It looks good, drives well, and its something that draws people together. Its been my privledge to be a passenger this car, and to call you my friend.