For all of you who have attempted to rebuild or are planning to rebuild an early (1960) manual steering box, you are probably aware that the gaskets are no longer available. There are three gaskets on the unit, one large and two small that are identical. While cleaning the small end plates, they reminded me of the steering box on a Triumph TR3. I measured one of my TR3 steering box plates and found that they are the same size. I decided to order a couple of gaskets from The Roadster Factory in Pennsylvania to see if they would fit. The gaskets arrived today and they are identical to the ones used on the MK2 Steering box. The large gasket will still need to be cut, but being able to find the other gasket saves a bit of time. The alternative is to use a modern gasket forming sealant. I may do that for the large gasket.

 

I am in process of rebuilding (actually cleaning it up) a 17.6:1 manual steering box for our MK2. See my separate post on why I am changing from the standard box to a quicker ratio box.

In tedwone's post he talks of the gaskets. We made ours out of material with the same thickness (approx. 0.010").. But here is my issue in reassembling the box.

Upon disassembly the worm gear from the box, we found on the blind end of the shaft 3 shims of .005" thick and two gaskets. On the shaft side, we found 4 shims .005" each and two gaskets. Prior to disassembly, the box turned freely.

All the ball bearings are in good shape as is the rest of the components. But upon reassembly, with the same number of shims and gaskets, the worm gear gets locked, it cant be turned when start to tighten the end plates. So this should mean we need more shims/gaskets until when both end plates are bolted down, the worm gear should turn freely. It appears that we will have to add a whole bunch of shims/gaskets to get to that point. I would think by replacing the shims and gaskets to as found, the shaft should turn freely.

So something is wrong. We have now several times have the worm gear out and gone thru the impossible task of getting it back together will out all the ball bearing falling out. We are at a loss as to what is wrong. I am fairly certain it is being assembled correctly with all the parts in the right order. Here is plate from the parts manual of the quick ration box.

Help anyone?

 

Are you aware that there are two sizes of ball bearing in the box and these have to be put back in the same places. This might be causing your miss fitting shims. I have not worked on the Burman as my car has the Adwest but others have talked about the two different sizes of ball bearing and what a pain the box is to work on. The Adwest is a piece of Urine in comparison.

 

The two different size ball bearings are for the PAS steering boxes. I too though that initially, but both the part number plate that I posted and what came out of the box verify all one size. Great catch but not in this box.

Below is the part numbers to go with the plate I posted.

Thanks

jjsandms

 

As Cass wrote, there are two slightly different sizes of ***** and they alternate: large, small, large, small, and so on. I think the larger ones carry the steering loads between worm and nut, while the smaller ones separate the larger ones such that the tight surfaces are all moving in the same direction minimising friction.

 

As I just posted, all the bearing that came out are of the same size, and the part number book confirms. I wish that was the issue but in this quick ration box it is not. I must be doing something wrong. As they say this aint rocket science.

I'll keep looking at it,

Thanks

jjsandsms

 

EDIT:
Forget all this what I said, I have my head up my *** today, I see it's just a standard box, none of what I said applies.

I bet if you took a micrometer (not a Vernier calipers, they're not accurate enough) and started measuring the *****, you will find that the small ones a few thou smaller.
I would be very surprised if they weren't.

When I did my box I measured the ***** until I found a large ball and locked the micrometer, that enabled the smaller ***** to slip through.
Those went into on tuna can as marked small and another can for the large ones

Use a good sticky grease to hold the ***** in place on the "worm"

Set the shims up with out the ***** in place.

Perhaps someone was in the box already and without knowing and just replaced the ***** with all the same size.
It may work, but the different ***** in altered sequence help keep the worm from binding.

EDIT:
Looking at the diagram, it doesn't look as if the ***** recirculate, so perhaps the ***** are all the same size, I would measure anyway to be sure.
Still though, it's much easier to set the shims up with out the ***** in place, and once that's done, disassemble and add the *****.

 

Looking at the service and spares manuals, it does seem the recirculating ball manual steering boxes don't work how I've always assumed they did. The only mention of ***** alternating in size is for the power assisted version.

 

Yes and the quick ratio boxes, which I have, are even different from the standard box. Very interesting on the 2 floating end bearings which each get 10 *****.
I'm going to have to make some shims
Still not sure why. I have to add as what came out is going back in?
Thanks
Jjsandsms

 

Found the issue. The workshop manual does not address the quick ratio box specifically and my inattention to detail upon disassembly.

Turns out, even though the workshop manual for a standard manual steering box says there are 10 ball bearings at each of the ends of the worm gear, 9 is the correct number for this 17.6:1 box. When I took the box apart I had already read the manual and upon opening it up, all the ***** fell out so never really checked how many were in the race. Wrongly assumed it was to be 10.

Also the parts manual says there are 30 ***** total, but does not say how many go in each race and in the roller nut. So correctly it is 9 in each race and 12 in the nut! I did take some detailed photos upon disassembly and it does show a bit of spacing between the *****. With 10 there is none.

I assembled the box this way and it is perfect, just had to take out one .005" shim, probably due to my gaskets being a bit thicker than the originals.

Turns out 10 ***** do fit in the race (as I found out) but cannot ever work as the the shaft ends never touch the *****. There is no way to tighten the race to allow the ***** to seat around the shaft. I kept looking at this and this had to not be right. So a light went off and went with 9, amd perfect!

Thanks and now to think about when to install on the car.

jjsandsms