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Steering box rebuild


Barry

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I'm restoring a classic Mercedes at the minute. I guess the best way to describe the steering would be something similar to driving a hovercraft. I have renewed every steering arm and balljoint including idler and pitman arm, rebuilt the entire steering column with every bush, bearing and knuckle. Now I am stuck with a sloppy steering box. Proper old school hydraulic steering box, not a nice modern rack and pinion system.

Does anyone have a reliable person who can rebuild steering boxes with no faults first time? I just don't have time to tear it down and spend 3 days looking for parts. If they don't rip me off on price, well that would be fantastic.

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1 hour ago, desertdude said:

Too much slop in the worm gears ?

Yes. But I haven’t got time to look into it, I have too many projects on the go. I should post some of them on here. I need someone to fix this and I will say ok I will pay you cash. 

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1 hour ago, Barry said:

Yes. But I haven’t got time to look into it, I have too many projects on the go. I should post some of them on here. I need someone to fix this and I will say ok I will pay you cash. 

Doesn't it have an adjustment nut to eat up the slop like old land rovers.

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12 hours ago, desertdude said:

Doesn't it have an adjustment nut to eat up the slop like old land rovers.

Unfortunately not. The only adjustment on it is for steering torque. When the gears inside are gone, that’s it. 

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"Steering torque" is Mercedes-speak for excessive free play in the steering box.

The adjustment you see is actually to remove steering slop, but if the gears are too worn, taking up the slack in the straight ahead position might cause the box to bind at or close to full lock. Anyway, try adjusting the box and see what happens- with some luck you might be able to remove the slop without causing binding at full lock. 

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1 hour ago, treks said:

"Steering torque" is Mercedes-speak for excessive free play in the steering box.

The adjustment you see is actually to remove steering slop, but if the gears are too worn, taking up the slack in the straight ahead position might cause the box to bind at or close to full lock. Anyway, try adjusting the box and see what happens- with some luck you might be able to remove the slop without causing binding at full lock. 

Thanks for that. Every days a school day in this trade!

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That's what I was going to say, If you go too much the steering gets stiff and you need to go back a little. 

I used to do it all the time in my older Land Rovers, Every few years needed to be turned a little bit. 

Om the last one I had it had gotten to the point it was fully tight and it couldnt go any further so after that it was going either going to be a rebuild or a new box. But before that time came I ended up selling it.

 

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I’ll have a play with it after the weekend and see what happens. Hopefully it works. It can be a pain in the arse sometimes working on these old cars. The parts just aren’t available and you have to work with what you’ve got. And if you break something? That’s a whole new story. 

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