1959 Ford Prefect 100e wandering steering

[Lottie59]

Hi new member and thanks for having me
I have owned Lottie my 59 standard Prefect 100e for 5 years she is standard ..I have noticed recently that her steering has become more wandering at slower speeds..The front tyres are worn on the inside edge almost cone like in shape probably only covered 200 miles..Ball joints steering mechanism seems fine the car has always been MOT and serviced..Any ideas thank you..

[Ambleton]

Sounds like it could be the steering box.

Im not familiar with the 100e but steering boxes are ussually shimmed or adjusted internally so the preload is within a certain range to eliminate any slack...

If you have slack then it sounds like it either needs adjusting or, if it's too far gone, rebuilding.

[kimducati]

If both inside edges are worn, particularly at such a low mileage, it sounds like the tracking is out - both inside edges normally indicates toe out.
As to why, it could be a build up of wear in the track rods, idler and steering box, or it could have had a whack (heavy kerbing, etc.)
Either way, check it out for slop in the joints and / or tracking asap, before you kill the tyres.
Kim

[52classic]

Have a look at www.ford100e.org That'll make your car easier to look after in future, As others have said, wear on inside of both tyre treads suggests toeing out and the track rods are adjustable to fix it. However, I'd say it is more likely to be worn track control arms. 100e and 105e are really unpleasant to drive when these are worn, you get the feeling that the car is tramlining.
Steering box is adjustable, although even small adjustments can make the steering go quite heavy.

What tyres are you using? I changed mine from cross ply to radials last year. 'modernises' the drive quite a bit but I shopped around for 80 profile to keep the period look.