Charles57

I have a question regarding the front suspension and steering on my 1957 Corvette. I have a stock front suspension and steering gearbox on my car, and I plan on rebuilding both units this year. I have a complete C1 front suspension unit, complete with cross member, that I managed to acquire via Craigskit.

I have seen instructions, I believe on this forum, of mounting the cross member to an engine stand and to perform the rebuild of the complete unit. Once I complete the rebuild on my donor unit, I plan to unbolt the old unit and swap units.

My questions is this:

Is the steering gearbox reasonably accessible for removal for overhaul, once the suspension cross member is removed?

My car is a nice car, but not a totally original machine, so swapping an identical front suspension set up is not something I think will hurt the car's value.

Any advice or comments on swapping cross members and suspension components for a C1 Corvette will be greatly appreciated.

mi58v

Now I know there are many people that are far more qualified to answer your questions.

I will give it a go from my knowlege of my 58. Remove steering wheel, hubs and all the goodies inside. Unbolt plate and seals from firewall. Detach pitman arm from draglink. Loosen and then unbolt the three bolts holding the steering box to the frame. Watch to keep the stop and the big spacer from falling. Carefully raise the box up so the pitman arm can clear the frame. Slide the box and column down and foward. I did it by myself but having a helper would have been a blessing. Since mine is an early 58, the column needed to be painted interior color so extra care was needed during the install. My car was also up on the lift when I did it. Removing the cross member with suspension is easy but heavy. Just remove about a hundred bolts. Hope this helps. I have no opinion on swapping crossmembers. I'll leave that for the more knowledgeable.

mi58v

Obviously you will also detach all wires from the steering column and unbolt the column support from the lower dash. Hell, I'm getting old and forget things. Mike

MidShark

Charles, I'm not so sure that it will make much difference having the cross member out when removing the steering gearbox and shaft. According to this thread that I linked to below, the gearbox has to be turned and pulled out through the grille opening, so I'm assuming that at that point the upper part of the steering shaft hasn't cleared the firewall yet. I think the frame is what would prevent the box from dropping down as far as the removed cross member. I don't know what else you have removed as of yet, but you'd have to remove the fan shroud, radiator, and grille, among other things.
I think it's a fine idea to rebuild another front suspension unit and swap them out. At the very least, your car won't be sitting around partially disassembled for quite as long. I have the body off of my '57 right now, soon to be dropped back on, and I plan on slipping the steering box and shaft through the grille opening shortly after. I had no engine in the car when I removed it, so it was a breeze.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...al-how-to.html

Edit: Charles, after looking at my chassis and body this morning, it may well be that you could slide the gearbox and shaft straight out and drop it down to get it out. The only question is whether it has enough room to slide almost completely out of the firewall without hitting the valance on the front.- Rich

OC-1

57 had the brake drums riveted to the hubs so check for that.

Steering column can come out easy enough. don't recall if it came out the grill openng or the bottom. Front Xmember irrelevant to steering column removal.

Check to make sure the replacement parts are from a vette or correct year chev as parts looks similar but different. Check Tom Parson's posts for differences.

third arm and spindles sometimes gets mismatched with incorrect year parts.