Modern Steering for the Model A Ford

About These Directions

These are generic directions for installing an F100 steering box in a 1928–1931 Model A Ford. There may be some minor problems due to frame sagging or other frame or body tweaking that will be unique to your specific vehicle.

Remove the Stock Steering Unit from the Model A Ford

Cover upholstery.

1. Remove the floor mats and both the bottom floor board and the front floor board.
2. Disconnect the leads off the battery at this time. This is a good time to clean the battery posts.
3. Remove the brake and clutch pedal. Be sure not to lose the spring washer that is between the two pedals.
4. Remove the starter completely.
5. Remove the Model A Pitman arm from the steering box sector by removing the locking bolt on the Pitman arm. You do not need to remove the Pitman arm from the steering drag link.
6. Remove the light switch from the stock steering box by snapping the bale wire off the light switch and pulling off the light switch toward the front of the car, while watching for parts dropping out of the steering box such as the spring or the C-clip that holds the spider in place.
7. Remove the two bolts holding the stock steering box to the frame.
8. Move to the inside of the car and remove the clamp that holds the steering column to the gas tank or, in some cases, the clamp will be to the windshield frame. The steering assembly will now drop down. Slide the steering box sector out of the frame and proceed to pull the whole steering unit out from the floorboard area. Two people make it a lot easier than just one person. Taking out the steering wheel to the passenger side of the car may make the unit easier to remove.

Getting the Steering Column Ready for Installation

1. Remove the horn rod by removing the C-clip at the bottom of the horn rod, also removing the spider and the spring. Save these as you will need them when you assemble the new unit.
2. Remove the horn rod from the steering column.
3. Remove the nut holding the steering wheel onto the steering shaft. The 1930–31 steering wheel is held on with a half-moon key and the 1928–29 is held on by splines.
4. A friend is helpful here as the steering wheels are normally on fairly tight. After you get the nut off, have your friend hold the steering column upside down with the steering wheel suspended in midair and, using a rubber mallet, hit the back of the steering wheel (not too hard), driving it off the steering shaft. Sometimes you may have to resort to other means to get it off, such as a puller.
5. Loosen the clamp at the bottom of the column and steering box and remove the column from the steering shaft.
6. Install the column over the new steering shaft and over the new spacer (the new spacer is already on the new steering box), but do not tighten the clamp as this clamp is only tightened after the spark rod is adjusted by turning the steering column.
7. Install steering wheel. Do not forget the half-moon key on the 1930–31 models. Tighten the nut.
8. Install the horn rod and then install the spring, spider, and the C-clip. This is much easier now than when the steering is back in the car.
9. Steering column is now ready for installation.

Installation of the Modern Steering into the Model A

1. Having a friend help with the installation helps but is not absolutely necessary.
2. Put the steering wheel end of the column in the driver's door first to make it easier. Work the steering box through the area where the pedals were and, by twisting and turning the box, it will go through the floorboard area. You just have to have a little patience.
3. One person on the inside of the car and one on the outside by the engine compartment will make it a fairly easy installation. Watch your fingers.
4. The person in the cab holds the column near the clamp to the gas tank as the other person puts the sector through the hole in the frame, and then the clamp can be put around the column and the two screws installed but not tightened. Do not put the rubber in the clamp yet.
5. Start the bolts through the frame and into the new steering box. Do not tighten yet. You may have to elongate the holes a little due to sagging or bending of the frame over the many miles the car has traveled.
6. If the sector shaft is tight through the frame, you may have to enlarge the hole a little. Use a die grinder and enlarge the hole if it needs it.
7. Install the rubber now at the clamp by the gas tank and tighten the two screws at the gas tank clamp loosely.
8. Now tighten the steering box to the frame by tightening the steering box bolts.
9. This next step is optional, but the author does it. There is another hole in the new steering box for a third mounting bolt. There is no hole in the frame to match this hole, so you will have to drill a hole in the frame. Do this after all other mounting bolts are tight.
10. Install the old Pitman arm and the locking bolt; tighten and do not forget the cotter key in this bolt.
11. Install the starter. It may look like it won’t fit, but work with it; it will fit.
12. Install the old light switch.
13. Install the brake and clutch pedals, but do not forget the spring washer that goes between the two pedals.
14. Install the floorboards and mats.
15. Fill the steering box with either 90 or 600 weight gear oil. Now turn the steering wheel back and forth a little to bring any air pockets to the top of the box and then top off the steering box.
16. Adjust the spark rod by turning the column until you have proper spark advance and retard. Now tighten the clamps at the bottom of the column and also the clamp at the gas tank.
17. Reattach the battery leads.