Last week Major's steering went slightly and went everywhere bar where it should. So, based on Saturdays successful day, heres a bit of a write up for those who haven't done it before. First up, jack the front of your bus up and pop it on axle stands, first gear selected with the rear wheels chocked. Remove the front belly pan to access the front draglink bolts, which is best removed out of the way - you'll probably need a balljoint splitter to crack the seat on the taper. Next up, remove the steering damper from the steering arm followed by the fixed & adjustable track arms (only from the steering arm) again you'll need the ball joint splitter. Move out of the way! On top of the steering arm is a bolt, which will have a tabbed washer - bend the tab off the bolt & undo/remove the bolt - the steering arm can now be removed and cleaned! Next remove the grease nipple On the bottom of the steering box is a domed cap, gently prize this off with a screwdriver or something similar taking care not to damage the top of the recess it sits in. The pin can be pushed clear, and taken out of the way Next step is to remove the two bearings from inside the box itself - Bentley suggests using a slide hammer, we was wary of this so made a bearing puller using some threaded bar and an adaptor that sat inside the bearing with a step with the same diameter as the bearing outer. Using locknuts on the top, we wound the puller downwards, as suggested, till both bearing pulled through
Rebuild is a reverse process - first off ensure that all of the recesses, bosses etc are clean and free of debris.fi Next step fit the bearing, the top one sits with 1.5mm protruding whilst the bottom sits flush (as stated) - using the bearing extraction tool, it also serves to refit them. The stepped adaptor is used to pull the top one down & bottom one up into place, smear both with some grease to ease fitting There are several seals and washers that come with the new kit - make sure you know the correct way of fitting them - you need the new pin, the wavy spring washer and a bottle jack Smear the pin with some grease, pop the spring washer on the pin and push it up the steering box bearing hole - once the pin is in place, support it with the bottle jack as it will assist you. On the top end pop the flat washer sits on top of the top boss - then a u shaped seal sits on the outside of the boss itself - followed by the larger one of the two caps - this pushes on and gently tapping it home, will see it seated. You now need the round seal, push this over the pin, down to the bottom followed by the small steel shim washer - this is the last part to fit. We refitted the steering arm and nipped the bolt up to hold everything in place - remove the bottle jack and put it away. Fill the bottom cap with a blob of grease and tap into place. We then refitted the grease nipple and pumped some grease into the steering box till it showed signs of being full. Swivel the steering arm to and fro several times to check its free - it will be as its obvious if it was not when you was building it back up. Replace the fixed & adjustable steering arms, steering damper and front draglink and tighten all of the bolts up including the one on the steering arm itself. Check and double check everything is replaced as it should be and check again! Road test time
Here are the bearing pullers needed If anyone wants one making up, we will gladly make one & forward it on!
Good write up, There was a new pin kit included with my bus when I bought it, but on initial inspection I cant feel any play on the pitman arm mount, is there something I'm missing - like is it the play/wander felt more when driving it?
We found our play by looking at the arm & pin whilst my Dad turned the steering wheel slightly, they play was evident as you could see the movement in the arm itself, Pony suggested this method!
When refitting the bushes, should the hole in the bush line up with the grease nipple hole or doesn't it matter what angle the bushes go in at? From your last picture in the second section it looks like you have the hole in the bush about 45 degrees anticlockwise from the nipple hole. Am sure I read elsewhere that the holes should be in line, but couldn't find that other write up when I just looked for it. If any one could give some confirmation on bush hole positioning before I embark on doing mine that would be appreciated. Thanks. Nick...
When we took the old bushes out, they didn't have any holes in them. The new ones did and line up with the grease nipple hole - although the pics don't show it (the top one is lined up as is the bottom - we realised the bottom one wasn't after we took the picture ) but they both are lined up! The top bush sits 1.5mm proud of the top boss and the bottom one sits flush with the bottom of the cup. The road test afterwards (we also readjusted the steering box too) proved to be bang on & on the way home I did some a road checks, b roads & dual carriageway - it drives much better!
Thanks Mork - will make sure mine are lined up too then Looking forward to getting mine done and (hopefully!!) having stable steering again - just need the weather to sort itself out by my day off on Thursday so that I can spend the day laying under the van doing it! How long did it take you to do yours? Nick...
zed it looked like the Yankees had machined the notch all the way round, you could see where the cutting tool had been!
Crazy yanks again - what were they thinking! Jesus Christ! Perhaps it was a murder atempt? lol You were damn lucky the steering went a bit wobbly and led you to discover that.