Improve Cruddy Steering Gear Cover, Controls, Quadrant?

[ivaldes1]

Hi For my planned Speedster I have a somewhat cruddy but otherwise ok steering gear cover, controls, and quadrant. Any suggestions on improving the appearance of these? I suppose I can paint the whole thing white which is going to be the speedster color. I do have a brass quadrant. How hard is it to remove the rivets, pull the steering and control rods out, and change out the quadrant for my brass one?

[John Codman]

I haven't done this on a Brass car, but it is a bit of a job on later models. I have no reason to believe that it's any easier on the earlier cars. The column has to come out, the steering wheel must be removed, and the box cover has to be taken off. The quadrants must be removed which means grinding off one of the ends of the two rivets and driving out the rivets. Now you have to remove the rods which mean spreading the brass housing crimped rod supports. This will mean annealing the brass housing - perhaps repeatedly. The new rods then must be installed and the process reversed. It's not a fun job but it can be done. I replaced the rods on my '27. I would think that if I can do it, anyone can. It will never be my favorite model T repair job though...

[Allan]

Easiest piece of bling is a brass cover from an earlier box. It doesn't have to be the really early one that goes with the two piece riveted steering box.
The brass quadrant is another operation altogether. Removing the present one is the easiest part. That will also allow you to pull the rods and steering case. The case is brass and could be polished at this time. Removing and replacing the rods is not something I would do.
Then you have to put it together again, and you are faced with lining up 6 holes in 3 different components, not something I am capable of, but which is critical to a good, tight column. As the columns seem to be assembled as a a one off, each has different rivet spacings.

So, on my rebuilt 1912 column, the following was done.
I silver soldered shut the two holes on the lower side of the quadrant. I welded shut and refinished the 4 holes in the steel column tube. I drilled and tapped the rivet holes in the brass steering box and screwed brass metal threads in to fill those. Then what you have left is the two top holes in the quadrant to guide the drill, and all new material to create perfectly aligned holes to take new rivets. It is best to have a second set of eyes to help keep the drill aligned for the driling.

Hope this helps.
Allan from down under.

[DanTreace]

It can be a chore. First identify what you want the steering column and case and quadrant and rods to look like. Do you want all to be brass and replicate a '15 and earlier?

Or do you just want some brass 'bling' on the steering column?

For just bling you can strip the nickel plating off the case you have now and head to the buffing wheel and brighten it all back to brass as that is what the case is made of. Then add the repo cover. A spray paint of gold and some clear coat from rattle can, and the exposed rods can look like brass along with the quadrant. IMO, check the case to determine if it is '21 and later, so you have the long pinion and slot in the case to prevent over steering lock out. The long pinion and slot only lets the wheels go so far. Best for a fast speedster.

Or you can make an early one, as Allan says, just takes a bit of work.

shorten steering gear 50 - Copy.jpg (70.52 KiB) Viewed 1780 times

Went through two of those expensive repo brass cast quandants as miss-drilled the holes. Polished later case, repop brass cover, painted throttle and spark rods, cut short for Baklite knobs, fancy repro brass spider and wood rim

Steering gear stop in later case.

IMG_7907 (329x550).jpg (97 KiB) Viewed 1780 times

[Allan]

Dan, misdrilling the holes is what lead to me filling all but two, so the drilling made new holes all in line. No two sets of components are directly interchangeable on the early cases, leading me to believe each was an individual assembly.

Allan from down under.

[DanTreace]

Allan

Completely agree, hitting the original holes in the steering case when changing the case in a column with its quandrant is 'bout impossible.

On my faux early column, the holes didn't align, and drilled the shiny brass quadrant off on one hole pretty badly. So tried to seal it up with braze and try again, but torch got the brass too hot (ya need some prior exp. on heating cast brass) and the side of the quadrant pooled up quickly and fell to the floor.

But at least had that one as a 'template', drilled and aligned the new one to the busted one, so the new one fit OK

[ivaldes1]

Dan, what's the best way to strip the nickel off to reveal the brass? I think I will go with the gold and clear coat rather than take it apart. How do I know if it is a '21 or later column? I obtained my column from Dave Huson's hoard but that is all I know about it.

For just bling you can strip the nickel plating off the case you have now and head to the buffing wheel and brighten it all back to brass as that is what the case is made of. Then add the repo cover. A spray paint of gold and some clear coat from rattle can, and the exposed rods can look like brass along with the quadrant. IMO, check the case to determine if it is '21 and later, so you have the long pinion and slot in the case to prevent over steering lock out. The long pinion and slot only lets the wheels go so far. Best for a fast speedster.[/b]

[DanTreace]

Ignacio

For stripping nickel plate off the steering gear case, there is mechanical or chemical means. Soaking in Caswell nickel stripper (google 'caswell plating', search nickel stripping powder) or muriatic acid. Acid leaves a red brown surface that has to be removed. Or glass bead surface and finish with fine grit paper, 1000, 1500. Then both methods need polishing on high speed buffer soft wheel with a hard bar of polishing compound.

These methods need the part to be removed for reaching surfaces, so the quadrant rivets are drilled out, and the steering case and throttle and spark rods removed from the column tube. On mine, the steering case finish was about worn off nickel, a trip to the buffing wheel and got it done, using white rouge and red rouge.

As for determining the date of your steering gear cluster case, remove the top cover by backing out the tiny single slot locking screw on the edge face, and twist off the threaded cover. A padded oil filter wrench is a handy twist off tool for stuck covers. The covers are steel, plated, and the steel cover and brass case sometimes weld their threads together

Then look at the case after clearing out the grease and removing the triple gears in the cluster, and note the groove in the base of the steering case. Later cases with the 5:1 triple gears have a longer groove. The 4:1 have the shorter groove. No groove means the case is pre '21 and doesn't have the improved safety that Ford added. Important....4:1 - 5:1 gears, along with 4:1 - 5:1 steering posts (shafts) cannot interchange with each other!

late and early case with groove .jpg (43.83 KiB) Viewed 1641 times

Oil filter wrench as tool.

[TeveS-Nor Cal]

Can you machine the groove in a non-groove case? Worth the effort?

[DanTreace]

Suppose one could mill a groove, but good later cases are easy to find.

IMO, wouldn't want to add a groove to the early case that is two piece, which are riveted together, would assume the long pinion would put un-designed load on those parts, and might weaken the riveted joint, ending up with a loose steering case. That happens anyway sometimes with the riveted case.

The later one-piece is an improvement in strength with this vital part.

[Norman Kling]

This is my opinion. You might like it or not. You are building a speedster, which is not a stock Model T, so the steering column doesn't need to look stock either. If your steering column is the length you are going to use in the speedster, and it is otherwise in good working condition, Then just lube up the gears and leave it alone. You can clean up the pitting on the outside and use some filler to make things smooth and paint any color you would like. It is best to use matched parts together than to change to another type from a different year. Meanwhile, if you want a brass steering column, you can look around at the various swap meets and you might find one. Then keep those parts matched too. Just my opinion for what it's worth.
Norm