Poke around Lares Corp. I'm not sure if they sell parts or just complete boxes. https://www.larescorp.com/
if you have the part numbers you can scour the big auction site?,most of the parts should be on there,did the same with my caddy,took a while but i was able to get all i needed,some stuff was quite cheap as well,especially if you are patient. Harvey
last time I looked for nos GM 266316 pitman shaft bushings, they had dried up...but looks like there might be some around again. (oops---I just bought a box of two, since you reminded me)
Redhead steering Auburn WA. These guys got a good reputation. Don't know if they have the box you need on the shelf.
I’m not sure yet. After tighten things up I either end up too tight and when backing things off, too loose What I do is snug the bottom but up so no play. Back off a tad. Axle up in the air and tighten top bolt with box centered and back off a scooch. Still leaves about 3 inches of back and forth steering wheel movement when on the ground. So just looking ahead to see where to find parts before I pull the box out.
Watch the pitman arm to see if it wiggles when you turn the wheel back and forth a little. If so it needs a bushing. This is the most common problem. Sent from my Trimline
You have to have the old bearings out for show and tell but you can buy the bearings from a bearing house. If you don't have a bearing house closer check with Kaman industrial in Modesto. It seems a bit spendy but The Filling Station shows a rebuild kit that has bearings, bushings and gaskets for 129.50 https://www.fillingstation.com/detail/6453/Chevrolet_195559_PU_STEERING_BOX_REBUILD_KIT.html Scrolling down I see the pitman shaft bushing listed https://www.fillingstation.com/detail/8577/Chevrolet_19371972_PITMAN_SHAFT_BUSHING_1LONG.html and other pieces such as individual bearings. I've found that putting in a vague item for the search and scrolling often works better than looking for a specific item on their site. I just put Steering in the search for 1959 Chevy truck parts for this search. My experience with them is they may or may order your parts in on a stock order and can be painfully slow. I use their catalog to see if aftermarket parts exist for old Chevys quite a bit though.
Good info. I have a box on my ‘57 I want to go through and another ‘55-9 box I want to go through and use on my ‘32 Dodge PU.
The bushings are steel shell, bronze lining, I think. The bearings generally don't go bad unless the box got water in it, and then you'll have enough other problems that you'd want to start with a different gearbox. The gaskets you can make, the pitman seal I don't remember the part number...it's pretty thin, and you need the right one. If you use gear oil in it instead of #0 or #00 grease, it will leak. If you use normal #2 chassis grease, it will not flow and eventually things will wear out. The kits that cost over $100 have a lot of parts you likely don't need. But I guess these days, everyone wants to get a kit to fix anything, rather than finding the problem and just fixing that.
Yes. Agreed. I wasn’t asking for a kit, but nice to know they are available. I was more concerned about quality of parts I guess if a quality kit was available I might buy it, but if like you mention I may just need a bushing, etc. I just want to get a quality item
Ive got a 55 Chevy PU that I herd down the road.Do the loose balls in the steering wear? Can they be replaced with loose ball bearings that are say a thousand,or two over size? The bushings for the pitman shaft...do they have to be reamed,or honed to size,or are they correct as installed? As common as these trucks are you would think they could be easy to rebuild to a tighter steering condition,but Ive never heard of anyone really happy with how theirs turned out.If OP does his I would love to get a up date how it went.
Another thing to consider: kingpins. When I had the 2WD front end, I experienced a lot of wandering when driving down the road. I had the kingpins replaced and the truck tracked straight and true. As far as the steering box, most of the places I checked out want your core, the boxes are getting hard to get. You may want to consider power steering from CPP, they have a bolt-in unit. It works great. As long as you have a stock engine (235 -265, 283), you shouldn't have any clearance issues. Or pick up a stock power steering unit. don
The recirculating balls generally don't wear out. The bushings do wear out. They don't need to be honed, but the one in the cover plate is short, and you have to cut down a long one to replace it Sent from my Trimline
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