Having sat for so long before I bought it, the steering box in
Old Rusty was badly damaged by rust caused by water ingress. I bought new
bearings etc. and converted the pitman arm bushings to roller bearings,
but the first time I drove the car I could tell the steering was dreadful.
It was just so heavy, it made it difficult to manoeuvre. In the meantime
though, I had bought a Hudson steering box cheap at the Essex swapmeet,
on the offchance I could do something with it. I knew Hudson steering had
been used in the USA and was recommended by Rumbleseat of the flathead
forum. I could see the Hudson box would not fit my rhd chassis without
a lot of work due to fouling the steering. So as I had already rebilt the
Ford steering, I left it in place and put the Hudson setup on one side.
When I pulled the engine and trans to fix a trans leak, I decided
to see if I could make it fit.
Here's the business end of the Hudson steering box. This was a
UK spec RHD model. Year unknown, but I'm guessing 37 or so. I bought it
cheap because it did not have a pitman arm. I eyeballed it carefully and
had a feeling the Ford arm might fit. My hunch paid off, because once home
I tried the arm and it did fit. Ford and Hudson both bought their steering
boxes from Gemmer so a certain amount of commonality can be expected. A
LHD box in a LHD chassis is virtually a bolt in, but my problem was the
box fouled the starter. Note the impeccably tidy workshop.
The only way it was going to fit was if the flange was removed
and a new flange made to allow the box to sit a bit further outboard. Here's
the box in my trusty vintage Hendey lathe, The part sticking up has already
been machined, and is the part that once had the flange on it. Here I am
turning down the column mast location to allow the Ford column shroud to
fit.
The hole in the frame was made oversize using a hole saw. The strengthening
piece on the inside of the frame was cut with the next size up hole saw
for extra clearance, and to allow a little room for weld fillet. here I
am offering in the new metal that will become the bottom half of the new
flange.
Here you can see how tight a fit it is. Lower bolt touches starter
just before the big adjuster nut. I positioned the box so it just cleared
the starter and tacked the flange in place.
Fast forward, and here is the flange completed, and welded 360
deg both sides. I had to borrow a reamer to resize the outer bush because
of shrinkage during the welding process.
The critical lower bolt was replaced with a countersunk torx headed
screw, and everything was finally built up and fitted.
The internals of the Hudson box were in beautiful condition.
Overall view shows a nice tidy installation.
The box sticks out from the chassis a bit farther than the Ford
box, plus the shaft is a bit longer. The Ford Pitman arm fits in the correct
orientation.Brake pedal is very close to the column, as it is about a half
inch to the right from where it was with the Ford box.
That said, everything bolts up ok.
I cut the two shafts and welded the top part of the Ford shaft
to the Hudson lower part. I tried to think ahead and get the wheel aligned
before welding, but it is a bit out. As the drag link is non-adjustable,
I'll have to live with it. The brake pedal was tweaked to the right a little,
and after this pic was taken, the pedal pad was slimmed down a bit as was
the accelerator pedal pad, to avoid hitting both pedals at once. The stator
shaft and horn push still need modifying to suit the new box.
Footnote: I've driven a few miles on the Hudson
steering now, and it is very good. On a good winding B road you can really
get in there and press on. a lot of work to be sure, but well worth the
effort.
Mart.
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