42 ford truck steering

does anyone know if a 1942 ford truck steering box will fit on a 1940 ford frame without modifications? I found a really good one cheap- but I don not want to buy it if it will not fiT Thanks-Jack

 

According to the orange bible, shaft is 2--3" longer, so not really. It would be possible to press off the worms and put the good worm on the '40 shaft...a good original box might be worth doing that.

 

I have both a 40 and a 42-47 1/2ton box and columns, only difference visible is the 2" longer shaft/column.

 

......Hello.......37 to 41 car and half ton truck are the same......not sure about the big trucks.......42 have a longer shaft....

 

'37-48 car and '37-47 commercials all use this box...there are quite a few shaft lengths.
The other semi-critical dimension, much easier to adapt though, is the location of hole locating lock collar...a quick drill'ntap will fix that. The parts catalogs charts these dimensions...there are several same length as '40 but needing the collar transplanted for the different column drop locations.
To get good original gears in this case, better than available repros, you could press the good worm gear off of the long one and on to the shorter shaft. The extra length is too much to be acceptable for use as is.

 

Cool!! Thanks for posting Bruce Lancaster. Good info.

 

,,,,Never done this,,but if the gear box is good, I would be inclined to shorten the shaft and us a Heliarc'd fish-mouth sleeve.

 

Equally good way with good welding, then copy hole location for the lock collar, just a small standard thread there.
Pressing worm off is easy, pressing it back on more challenging. Taking apart the steering box enough to get worm out is probably simpler than field-stripping a blender.