[AT] Sloppy steering on Farmall Super A

[Al Jones]

The steering gear is non-adjustable.  Most of the time, a lot of the
lost motion is caused by a combo. Of worn bushings and bearings, and the
steering gear arm (coming out of the base of the gearbox) and sector
gear inside slipping on the shaft.  The gear and the steering arm are
held together by woodruff keys, and over time the keyways wear and cause
them to be able to "twist" on the shaft. Usually the wear on the gear
teeth themselves is not enough to amount to anything. Now, you can buy
everything from caseIH you need to totally overhaul the gearbox, but it
will be pricey.  If you replaced the sector gear and shaft, all the
bearings and bushings etc. you could spend close to $1000 easily. 

Here is what I would do: Replace all the bushings and bearings and seals
in the unit.  If you want to save a few dollars, take the two bearings
to a good auto parts store and see if they can match them up for you.
Next, have a machine shop weld the sector gear to the shaft, and grind
off about 1/4" of material from the inside of the bottom half of the
gearbox, unless they can machine the weld down and make it neat.
(You'll understand where to grind it off once you have it apart.) Buy a
new castellated nut from caseIH for the steering gear arm and torque it
down as tight as you can.  If that still slips, you could try Loctite on
the shaft, or as a last resort, weld the shaft and arm together.  It's
tucked away out of sight fairly well so a weld won't "look" bad.  If you
want to be a purist, you could check into whether or not a machine shop
could build your shaft up and cut a new keyway.  I bet that would be
cheaper than replacing the shaft and gear.

The bottom line is, if you can salvage the gear and sector shaft, you
will save a lot of money.

Hope this makes sense, let us know if you have more questions.

Al


-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Howard Rawls
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 9:40 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] Sloppy steering on Farmall Super A

Hey folks, I've been lurking on this list for quite a while and now I
have a
question or series of questions. Has anyone ever rebuilt the steering
"box"
on a Farmall Super A ??? My girl friend has one and I promised her I
would
fix it if it is practical to do so. The steering wheel has exactly 1/2
turn
of lost motion in it. The manual that she has says that the steering box
is
"non-adjustable", so what are the chances that just replacing the worn
bearings or bushings would reduce the lost motion to a reasonable
amount?
Are there any sources for parts?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Howard Rawls
New Bern, NC



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