I removed my bushing by carefully cutting nearly all the way through using a hacksaw then peeling one edge up with a sharp tool to tear the last bit and allow the bush to drop out, i then put the housing in the oven to warm it up and the new bushing (in a food bag) into the freezer, after a couple of hours cooling and a few mins in the oven the bushing gently tapped into place, and then some very patient work with a reamer and bobs your uncle nice snug fit takes a while and you cant go at this like a bull in a china shop but theres a real feeling of satisfaction when you assemble the box and turn the wheel and think, yeah, I did that! ________ Masturbation Movies
Hommade Bushing Reamer It is a simple thing to get an old drill bit and tape a bit of wet/dry 1,000 grit (or finer) abrasive paper to it , wet with thin oil and use this in a drill motor to ream out or " size " bushings to a selective fittment . Just remember to wash out the SWARF& abrasive paste residue 100 %when you're done . Like the man said : there's no feeling quite as good as looking at a job well done and thinking " I did that " .
Nate, I went by the book on my worm bearing and sector shaft adjustments and it feels awfully tight. With the sector loose I adjusted the worm gear till it had about 1.25 lbs. pull. The shop manual said between 1 and 1.5 pounds. You said about 10 oz.s. Then I did the steering wheel centering thing with the degree wheel and set the pull at 2.25 lbs. The book said between 2 and 2.5. You said not too tight or I would run through a Catholic church. It feels too tight to me and, even though there is only one Catholic church within miles of here and I never get near it, I think I can safely back off a little. I noticed too that right in the middle of travel it was a little tighter than it was anyhwere else. What's up? Gater
It wears more in the center than it does to either side so this is why you set it up with new parts , tighter than you do with used parts... Use either my spec or just bearly run it to zero lash @ dead center as it'll get tighter as you turn . If you keep on top of the adjustment , it'll normalize in a year or two , depends on how much you drive it . I hope this helps .
Thanks again, Nate! I can't wait to get on the road for more than a couple of miles at a time. My insurance policy is suppose to be done this week so I can actually drive it without that fear. Of course, I will still have the fear of some numb nuts running into me. Gater
I would hate to think of a deer hitting me again. I doubt it would dent my truck like it did my Camry but it still wouldn't be pretty. At least I'd get meal out of it cause if the hit didn't kill it I'd run down and choke it to death for hitting my truck. Gater
Fun thread~ All this has me thinking I save a bunch of time (not $$$) and just order a rebuilt column from CP... Gater, how much time would you say you've put into your box rebuild? If you hit anything, it was probably the crack about the Catholic church!!! LOL!
Zig, I guess I have spent more time on here asking about the steering box than I did working on it. I go at most of my projects slowly cause I have found that, if I don't, I can wreck an anvil with a rubber hammer. All in all I am glad I did it myself. Even though there are some on this forum that I respect very much who would rather do ever bit themselves, even to the point of sawing out the bushing and cooling and heating and honeing, I like to cut corners where there is any chance that I will screw something up. I could just see me cutting into the housing and having to order a whole new column after all. I meant no disrepect to the Catholic church either. You see there are not many Catholic churches in Upper East Tennessee. This country was settled by Scotch Irish and English who were predominately protestant. I guess I was grown before I realized how many Cathoics there were. I still can't get over all the fuss when they install a new Pope. To me he is just another man. Again, no disrespect. I really never get near the closest Catholic church. It isn't on my beaten path. It is a cool steady rain here today so I am putting the column back in and making sure everything is just right. Insurance man hasn't sent me the ploicy yet so the test drive will have to wait a little longer. Gater
Okay, I got it all back in and looking good but I made one mistake. I need to confess here. While I was putting on the finishing touches I thought to myself, isn't the horn wire suppose to come out on top of the steering mast? Why is it coming out the bottom? Well, on the type steering I have there are 4 bolts at the top of the box tha tyou have to remove to get the worm gear and all out. I reinstalled it on the bench and didn't pay attention to the position of the wire hole. To fix it I would have to remove the steering column and break the good seal that I have on the 4 bolts. Needless to say I ain't gonna. At least now I can show off that I still have that little retainer that holds the wire tight to the mast. I feel better now. Let the chiding begin! Gater
Good time on that steering box install ! . I don't quite follow you on the horn button wire ~ it should come out an oblong hole on the mast jacket . if it's not , you can gently tap the upper bushing & contact Ay. out and run a fish wire up from the hole , out the top , attach the horn wire's bullet to the fish wire and thread it back in again . some years have a little loop support _inside_ the mast jacket to hold the wire from rubbing through on the work shaft , look in there with a flashlight and run the fish and horn wires through it , if so equipped . The upper bushing is _very_ delicate and hard to find any more so be -gentle- with it and tap one side , then the other , like that so it doesn't cock and jamb as you try to remove it . I know there's many on this list who , like me have a frayed horn wire where it comes out the mast jacket hole , causing the horn to toot uncontrollably and don't want to take the whole mess apart , no problem ~ get some heat shrink tubing that just fits over the bullet connector and slide it over and up inside the column , heat the exposed part so it collapses and hols firmly in place ~ mine has been working fine for some years now...
The brass bushing at the top of the steering column stayed intact during my rebuild of the steering box. The hole where the horn wire came out has a metal clip that screws into the steering column and holds the wire in place. I done good on the frayed wire that comes through that hole cause I already thought of the plastic heat shrink tube and had put it in place before putting the column back in. Yes, I meant fuse block when I said terminal block. I was worreid about having burned up my houn and had word grasping problems. The wire from the horn goes to the fuse block but there is not fuse at that point. It is at the very bottom of the fuse block and just looks like a place for them to connect to one another. Don't know why. I will trouble shoot as you said above and see what happens. Thanks again, Gater
With tears in my eyes... I'm sorry Nate, but I guess I'll be the first to admit~ I do toot uncontrollably. I don't need a frayed wire to do it, although if I had a CAT scan, I'm sure that's all they'd find!
By the way Gater- I thought your writing was a hoot! I wasn't giving you grief about the Catholic church comment- I just thought the way you wrote that was great. I'm a fan of not just passing on info, but putting it in a fun form to read! I take it you'd do it again if you had to? $$$ are few and far between, but even worse is waisting time on something I'd have to redo because it was beyond me.
job satisfaction Its amazing what can be done with a few hand tools, you dont always need presses and stuff, just a bit of time and patience and a few marbles, take your time doing jobs like this and just before you swing that lump hammer THINK! what can i break if i hit this? there ar'nt many jobs on these ol' trucks that i have come across that the home mechanic can't handle ________ Simmering Food
I would agree but the true beauty became clear to me when i was flying down a country lane in the south of england the other week and turned a bend and lo and behold an original old AD was coming the other way! i slowed down rapidly just to get a slightly longer look at her and an older gent and his missus were in it pottering along and it was like one of those movie moments where things slow down as we passed, i gave him the thumbs up and he kindly responded and time sped up again and i nearly had a head on with another car whilst watching her disappear in my mirrors, it could have been the mid 50's, great few seconds, ________ MARIJUANA STRAINS
