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Manual Steering Box Rebuild

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990V8 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 990V8 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/13/2021 at 1:50pm
Penrite Semi-Fluid grease perhaps.
 
But grease in a steering box.... bizarre. And there isn't even a grease nipple.
 
Ivor
63 Canadian Ambo 990 V8 327
Lightweight V8 SIII
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tomj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/13/2021 at 11:42pm
I sort-of went through this when I got my '68 AMerican, with a 50 year old 200K mile dead box.

The grease, some special formulation, is packed into the box when new. As the shaft is turned and the gear nut moves, it displaces the grease, flowing around the nut. So you can't add it. If you get to that point, R & R.

I bought a Lares rebuild. I'm not that satisfied... a year later it seems looser than it should be. It was if I recall $150-ish. But a NEW MANUFACTURE Borgeson is $300. Wish I'd spent the money.

A steering box is one of those boring but critical things that's your major human-interface to the car you want to be fun to drive. Not the place to cheap out, IMHO.

1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tomj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/13/2021 at 11:43pm
Originally posted by 990V8 990V8 wrote:

 
> Shopping trolley

Tell me more! Does a wheel do the wogga-wogga-wogga as you push it?
1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambleman65 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/14/2021 at 12:28am
I had my dad look under the car while i moved the wheel and he said that the output shaft and pitman arm were moving up and down slightly.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rambleman65 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/14/2021 at 12:33am
Steering is fine just some play in the shaft.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 990V8 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/14/2021 at 4:21am
Originally posted by tomj tomj wrote:

Originally posted by 990V8 990V8 wrote:

 > Shopping trolley
Tell me more! Does a wheel do the wogga-wogga-wogga as you push it?
 
Smile Peugeot 205, base model, 1990.
My father's from new, 32,000 miles.
 
Rack & pinion. No power, no aircon, no injection, crank windows, just goes and stops.
If all my cars needed tinkering, I'd never have time to drive them.
 
Ivor
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tomj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/14/2021 at 11:05pm
Originally posted by 990V8 990V8 wrote:

[QUOTE=tomj][QUOTE=990V8]
Smile Peugeot 205, base model, 1990.
My father's from new, 32,000 miles.

Oh nice! I don't think we got those here. That sounds great; sounds like an approximation of AMCs bread and butter (and my '68 American -- not much to go wrong, it does what it does well without fanfare (no fanfare at all (none (zero))).

And such low miles, and I'm sure well-kept, a lovely thing. 

I was doing other things at that time, but the Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi) from that era in an equiv. stripped down state, are now very attractive to me. T

1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote First_Gear Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/15/2021 at 10:29am
Originally posted by Rambleman65 Rambleman65 wrote:

I had my dad look under the car while i moved the wheel and he said that the output shaft and pitman arm were moving up and down slightly.

If this is true the screw needs to be adjusted in the top. This holds the pitman shaft from moving up and down. It is really important to have the steering dead centered when making this adjustment and stop once all play is gone. Turn the wheel from lock to lock and count the turns and then divide them so you know for sure its centered. Turn the screw a small amount each time. 

When the wheel is at full lock there is a ton of play in the wheel because of how the gears are cut.. This is how it was designed. If you adjust it here you could damage the middle of the gear!

This is the grease that I use in my nova and will use in the rambler when its done:


This is a good description on how the box works and how to adjust it:




Edited by First_Gear - Jan/15/2021 at 10:34am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tomj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/15/2021 at 10:09pm
The steering gear adjustment procedure is in the TSM, and it's fairly precise and specific. Ideally it's done with a spring scale to get the right amount of drag but I do the tiny Gemmers in my American(s) by feel, on the bench in a vise, tweaking it to get precisely zero playin the center then locking it and checkign again.

Steering gear is one of those fussy things with subtlety. Since most steering most of the time is in the center of the box, and slop-generated wander so annoying, the play in the center is zero, ideally. As First_Gear points out the gear is cut such that off-center, "slop" increases, as in turns the box is side-loaded by mass resisting the turn.

This also means that the box needs to be precisely centered before you adjust it, by accurately counting steering shaft rotation, NOT by steering wheel position. Also in the TSM. Sometimes you have to pull the steering wheel for everything to be centered right (sometimes you'll find it off a spline or two as someone in the previous half century did some not-great work).

1960 Rambler Super two-door wagon, OHV auto
1961 Roadster American, 195.6 OHV, T5
http://www.ramblerLore.com

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