Bradford Steering box? Sorted

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 12:58 am

Im having a lot of trouble rebuilding the steering box...
To me, there should be no steering wheel play...
I have rebuilt 1 box, no play...
Rebuilt the main rod, and rebushed.
King pins etc all rebuilt...
I had no play inthe box then after atound 300 miles play in the shaft ...worn at the top... wear is on the shaft not the bush.
The Factory spec allows for 1/2 inch play on outside of the steering wheel when worn and needs factory service...I can find no reference to the factory service proceedures.
From another similar thread http://jowett.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=168 there is referance to owners (and me) using grease instead of the factory heavy gear oil. This tends to leak, hence the use of grease. I wonder if this is the problem??? There are heavy loads at the top of the shaft, forcing the grease away from the sufaces, where as heavy oils if the box is full would tend to stay there ???

Consultion with club members and others suggest, rebuilding shaft by hard chroming/resize to bush and re bushing....????
This is not cheap...
12/1000 canbe taken off the shaft and then rebush to size....???
In theory an undersized shaft has a smaller contact area that would dramatically increase wear rate and loading therefore even less lubrication...I dont see it as a successful method.

I have measured and looked at needle bearings with a hard chromed shaft but there is not enough meat in the housing to do so at the top.

I think to be successful a good oil seal at the bottom of the shaft is going to be necessary, and the correct oil used???

What Do u guys do to rebuild a box?
What compound for shaft bronze bush?
Do u have play? and how much?
How long does it take before play appears?
Anyone done a rebuild and have no play appear for a significant time period and what did u do?.
Anyone use altenative steering boxes and if so what?

This is a critcal area for saftly and performance (like brakes) often I believe, far to under rated....
We NEED to have a working solution. As far as I know the issue has yet to be successfully addressed.

The worm drive and pin are fine...It has been suggested in a previous post that if the worm drive is worn, this could be turned down....thu to do so re harding the worm surface must be a reqirement.

Steps

Post by **Forumadmin** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:58 am

Grease is often put in a Jupiter rack rather than oil. The disadvantage of grease is it holds any grit in suspension whereas oil allows the grit to sink out of harms way.

This might explain the wear, although I would suspect either incoreect bearing material, too hard or not oilite, or poor alignment of components.

I think you are expecting too little play from the design, unless you intend using the Braddie in competition! You need to master the sawing action comensurate with such vehicles.

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:36 pm

Grit is not the problem...parts are 100% clean on assembly..
Dry roads, milage done over couple weeks, dity driving.

"poor alignment of components".... machining is spot on.

"incoreect bearing material, too hard or not oilite,"...good possibity

So what is the recomendation of shaft and bush, for the application?

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:05 am

Just back from a machinist, metologist...
Hes considering several alternatives...from phosphor bronze bushes, hi tech low temp metal spraying ...bronze/stainless/hi boron metals etc etc
Hes also of the thought that grease instead of the corect heavy oils is most proberly a great part of the wear problem at this stage.
Way out of my league. lol
So far have spent nearly $400 NZ trying to sort this out.

Hes take a box away, going to chat to some of his colleges, and get back to me in the next few days.

Hes also going to look into the best method to fill head combustion chamber in..see post
http://jowett.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=768#768

Post by **Forumadmin** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:38 am

300 miles is a very short lifetime. My guess would be the wrong bearing material, unless the shaft has become hot and lost its heat treatment.
I do not know what material was originally fitted; but Jowetts probably used an oilite phosphur bronze. Before fitting these would have been soaked in oil for a week.
Remember, it is the hard material that wears in a bearing.

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:24 pm

The orginal box had no bearing/bush it was just the cast case
The shaft I had a hardness test...it to was nothing special..mild steel.
The worm pin is hardened as is the worm. These sre fine...well the pin gets knocked out and turned nearly 90 deg to an unworn spot...
Thats gives an extra life to the pin,where as turning 90 deg gives it a final life.

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:28 am

I have now reemed out the shaft hole round.
Had the shaft cold metal sprayed with Al bronze and groud to fit the housing size..a little over the std 3/4 "
MP 982 deg C
Adhesion 3000 psi
Denisty 7.1 gm/cc
hardness 144 knoop 100 118-128 HB
Cost $200 NZ

This procees doesnt put heat into the shaft and mess with the hardness etc.
In the bottom put in a neoprene "O' ring as a oil seal.
reassembled and filled with 80/90 oil.
It has been in the vice for a few days now, each time I walk past I turn the steering shaft a heap of times.
As yet there is no sign of a leak anywhere
Time is preventing me to put in the braddy a try out, and I do not see time coming avalible for a couple weeks

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:57 am

Its now installed in the van..huge difference.
There is a faint 'lump' 1/4 turn from center /left...adjusted so this can be just felt...there is no play, and steering free and light, thu believe caster needs setting to increase self centering of wheels a liitle.
Backing off so the lump cant be felt, less than 1/16 of a turn on the adjusting nut, there is now less than 1/2 " steering wheel play and drives nice.
So far very pleased.

Keith Andrews · Post by **Keith Andrews** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:33 pm

How to remove and replace the steering.
As bradfords are all slightly different, removing without touching anything else is a very tight fit. I have the process down to 45 mins from parking up to driving.
Removing
Jack up the front
Remove steering wheel nut, and use puller to remove steering wheel so as not to damage pin and worm.
loosen indicator switch bracket and lift off the end of the column.
Remove the felt 'bush' out of the top of the column.
Remove dash bracket, and cones...place cones exactly as they came out, and when replacing use longer screws.
Remove steering rod from pitman arm..use a puller or splitter otherwise u can damage the pin and worm.
Remove pitman arm with puller, again use a puller so as not to damage pin and worm
Pull the shaft housing up out of the steering box about a foot from inside the cab.
Undo the steering box mounting bolt.
This is where it gets tight and may need a couple taps with a copper hammer to get past radiator mounts and steering box mount....have someone hold the shaft inside the car high, lift the steering box, twist and drop out under radiator...at the same time sliding the shaft most of the way out of the outer casing being held inside the cab. U may need to drop/lift 1 side of the number plate to clear it.
I do not remove the outter casing from the vechile as I have several spares and reuse the existing one. ..If this is not so in your case, remove it.
Replacing
Slide outter casing thru fire wall
Feed shaft up into casing from under
Doing the reverse of above locate steering box in mount and slide bolt in.
Slide casing down, smear a little rtv silcone around the top edge of where the casing goes into the steering box...not the end, u do not want a big seal inside as this will make next time removingspliting the 2 very hard.
Replace dash mount ..check u have the cones the right way around, they are cut at and angle to sit right with the angle of the dash.
Drop indicator bracket over the column.
Re oil the felt 'bush' and fit to top of column.
Smear steering box shift worm pin and worm with 90 grade diff oil, and Drop the steering shaft into steering box...tighted up the steering box mounting bolt.

Fill the steering box with 90 grade diff oil, turn wheel a few times to remove any air trapped under the worm.
Back off the adjusting nut, and bolt on the steering box top cover...leave 1 bolt off (this one should have a grease nipple..it is not for grease when Braddfords where serviced a grease gun with 90 grade diff oil was used) With a oil can with 90 grade diff oil top up thru the remaining hole, and replace the bolt/grease nipple and tighten down.
Spin the steering wheel a few times, then screw the adjusting nut down till just stops, back off 1/4 turn. (front wheels are still off the ground).
Adjust the nut in turning the steering wheel till a slight resistance or 'bump'/drag is felt....back off just till there is no bump. this could be as small as a 1/16 of a turn of the adjusting screw. Tighten lock nut, recheck.

Center the steering wheel/steering box.check the steering arm in the box is still sitting fully in the worm
Position the end of the pitman arm (end that the steering rod to the wheel goes in) at a slight angle so it is vertical with the center of the steering box., and push up onto the splines...replace castle nut so it doesnt fall off.
Connect the rod to the wheels to the pitman arm...the wheels should now be facing straight forward and steering wheel in the center.
Tighten steering wheel bolt, position the idicator switch and tigned bracket, tighnen up castle nuts on pitman arm and steering linkage rod and put in new split pins.
If there is any new drag introduced, this means a linkage, king pin or something further down the sterring system is faulty...there is another similar thread in the braddy section that covers this.
Any drag bumps further down beyond the pitman arm will cause damage and very fast wear of the steering box over only several 100 miles.
Check everything is tight..nuts bolts, linkages etc, drop the front wheels and u are ready to go U may find a final adjusting nut adjustment of around 1/16 turn will be required on road testing. If a drag if felt back off, no drags turn in, chances are this will result in a faint drag...back off again, at least u know in this latter case u got it right on installation lol
Do a wheel alignment..not the string method, put it on a wheel alignment machine!!!!...If u think u have been getting it right for the last 50 yrs with a string, do so, then put up on the machine...u will be suprised how far out u are.
If the wheels dont self center, this is caster out.
see below

NOTES:
Steering wheel play
There should be no free play in the steering wheel...but we are dealing with parts that have had 50 yrs of use...Idealy there should be no bumps when adjusting...if there is a bad one and free play to more than 1/2 inch on the outter edge of the steering wheel, this indicates excessive wear in the worm and or worm pin....or side play due to wear or bad machining of the shaft inside the steering box. the latter can be seen/felt from the bottom part of the shaft and steering box, just above the pitman arm. There should be no movement here.
Another possible cause is the bearing/ races/ seats at each end of the worm are worn faulty...check these before hand.

Steering end play
This is lateral movement of the main steering shaft felt when pulling up on the steering wheel...there should be none.
This is best adjusted before putting the new steering box into the car, in a vice.
with the column steering box, and steering wheel assenbled, and the end plate of the steering box off.
Between the end plate and the steering box there are some shims, 10/1000 and 3/1000. Play with adding removing these...test each time by pulling laterally on the steering wheel for movement till no play. Then take up any further tollerance till a drag can be felt by spinning the steering wheel. When a drag is just felt, then remove 1 3/1000 shim...bolt up end plate and check.
I have found that althu the box is full of oil, these shims compress enough to prevent any leaks, so there is no need for a gasket or gasket sealer here.

You can also set up the top adjusting screw at this time...BUT once in the car it will be differant...doing so at this time one can establish worm/pin/bearing race wear, defects, before installing in the car. Back off this adjusting screw at least 1 turn before instalation of the steering box in car car and just as above then.

Caster
This part is from info from posts by other here, and members of our Nth section NZ Club.
The caster is not adjustable. out of spec is caused by springs out of spec and or worn shackle bushes, or the axle bent over time.
I am cureently investigating this area and camber.
1/dont even consider heating and bending the axle...this seriouly weakens it and is a potentual death sentice to u or others on the road PERIOD!
2/Shims...there is suggestion in manuals to add wooden shims, again I shudder in horror at this practice.
3/From my Hot rodding background a guys with early ibeam rods, steel made to fit are a posiblity....needs further investgation
4/There are approved specialists who bend, with specialist tools, the axle on large trucks with simlar set ups. Again will investgate over the coming weeks.