Late steering box

[Nick Salmon]

Many thanks for the replies so far. I shall tackle it in the near future and report back.

[JonE]

Nick, did you ever get anywhere with your late box? I was just comparing one against the earlier box and thinking that despite column being shorter by a couple of inches than the 'vintage' one , seemed quite useable (i.e. dash clearance with a vintage wheel) for Ulster rep. Which makes me want to try fettling one and seeing how it works.

[JonE]

Further to this, I disassembled mine and found Dennis's experiences and Dave's comments helpful in this thread. http://pub25.bravenet.com/forum/static/s...8&cmd=show
observations
1. two ball races, above and below the wormy bit in the column. Seems less easy to disassemble that bit [than earlier box] and I personally couldn't assess the movement very well here; I just reassembled with the same shims after cleaning. Nothing wanted to withdraw like on the older type.
2. cleaned with petrol after taking both side and end off. Very gritty and resorted to spraying WD40-type oil spray into bearings and 'round the back' till everything ran clean. My two teeth on the steering side arm had shallow 'valleys' worn in their original surface. [I note Dennis had these re-metalled but that his problems didn't disappear after]
3. care with the wide cork washer on the arm! It is easy to disturb the surface when cleaning down with a wire brush
4. Like [my interpretation of] Ruairidh's comments in that thread from 2016, I found the process of adjustments didn't necessarily result in obvious linear improvement, or not. I did notice that when I'd cleaned the remains of the side gasket off, it seemed tighter, so I replaced a paper gasket and didn't disturb the button with the shims behind.
5. Turning the steering wheel end of the tube with fingers alone seemed to be the best way of assessing i.e. you can really tell when it stiffens when you have no steering wheel amplifying effort. I just played around with the side plate position as well as I could aiming to get rid of the side-to-side noise on moving the tiny slack of the arm, which was presumably the tooth in the worm. When the noise goes, it sometimes becomes far too stiff for finger turning etc.
6. When it seemed about right for finger turning, concentrating on the middle section of the lever range, I tightened down bolts and then adding the steering wheel makes it all feel very easy in comparison. I've just put graphited grease in , massaging it into the bearings as well I could. (There was a dark grease in when I opened it up).
7. It was noticeable that there is a danger area at the full extension of the arm "toward the front of the car", where is catches and stops and won't return easily. I seem to remember that this is mentioned in some discussion for use in specials, and presume that this will be naturally out of range when the wheels (and steering stops) are present?
8. I'll await further comments from experts and probably open up again for further adjustment before I turn the tabs up...