Technical Model T steering question

I have never examined the stock steering gear on a Model T but I recall they have a planetary gear set placed just below the steering wheel. Can anyone tell me how many turns of steering wheel are needed to get from lock to lock? Is there more than one ratio available? I come up with strange ideas sometimes.

 

not many turns! Early cars were 4:1, later ones were 5:1. I think the pitman arm turns about 90 degrees, so figure a turn to a turn and a quarter at the wheel lock to lock

edit: I did a little more research, the one on the right is 4:1 housing, left is 5:1, so both have the same travel, the later one is just slower.

 

Thank you. I have a go kart rack and pinion for my Austin project that has .8 turns lock to lock. This should slow it down nicely.

 

Squirrel is pretty close... but it’s more like 1/2 - 3/4 of a turn. Notice in the pic above that there are radial grooves in the bottom of the steering gear case, there is a pin that rides in this groove to prevent the pitman arm from going “over center”. This improvement was made after about 10,000,000 or so cars, and prevents the driver from experiencing the steering wheel reversing direction!

 

" Reversing direction" that would be ......interesting !

 

Someone will confirm this or refute it, but the "Late" ratio steering gear can the identified by the square firewall mounting flange, the "Early" ones have a round flange.

 

There are several variations of early round columns, and I believe you are correct in that there is only one late square flange column. The gear “quadrant” that houses the planetary gears is easily swapped out tho, so always look for the groove in the base of the gear quadrants to identify the 5-1 quadrant. It is possible to cram the 5-1 gears into the 4-1 quadrant if there is a small amount of wear... but the 4-1 gears are sloppy in the 5-1 every time. I’m pretty sure that 5-1 gears and quadrants are available new these days...

 

Ain’t nothing like it! It happened to me a few weeks ago on a tight downhill switchback... lucky for me I’m used to this kinda thing

 

Now I have to find a steering column.

 

I got to delve into the steering gear on mine pretty early....to figure out why it could "flop". Turns out the ends of the groove were worn away, which seems to be pretty common.

I'd trust the numbers of someone who has a T currently, and can measure how far the steering wheel turns.

 

Here is my 1919 T . 1 1/2 turns lock to lock
3/4 left ,3/4 right not sure what ratio it is.
.

 

are the ends of the groove worn away? you have to steer it straight, to see.

 

The ends of which grooves ??

 

the groove ends look pretty good. The pin that the top planet gear rides on is longer, and fits into that groove, to prevent it from steering too far. The pin can back out, then it "skips" over the end of the groove...steering moves too far...it can "flop" over to the wrong side at the pitman arm, and make the steering work backwards. That's exciting.

 

I am sure it is exciting ,havent worked on my t for 3 years or more and tend to forget all this stuff . Just sold an original 27 roadster , still have a 26 rpu , and 26 touring although they both sport v8 60s now , but have all the stufffhere to put them back original if I wanted too .

 

Here are the two different ratios
Top left has 12 teeth on the gear and 12 on the spindle.
2 on right side have 13 teeth on the gear and 9 on the spindle

 

It is the steering shaft that allows the use of 5:1 or 4:1 ratio . The steering cups are all the same .

 

Thank you, wood remover for all the detailed pictures. This should be an interesting modification.for my project.