Opened a can of worms, HELP! re: Steering box

[mofugly13]

I decided to tap the 2wd steering box I have for hydro assist today. I followed the instructions on this site:

http://ramchargercentral.com/boards/index.php?board=&action=howtoshow;id=56

Well I thought I heeded the warnings about not removing the worm gear, but after it was all drilled and tapped and sprayed out and wiped up, I decided to stick the shop vac in there one more time "just to be safe" that there were no little bits of metal left. Well, my shop vac sucked the worm gear out of the bore, and I hear a bunch of bearings fall out of place. Can anyone here explain to me, or point me in the right direction, how to get these back in, where exactly they go? I retrieved 20 ball bearings from the box, is that how many I'm supposed to have? Someone help me!

 

[85mudblazin]

I would just be easier to swap your 2wd shaft into the 4wd box at this point

 

[mofugly13]

No way, my 4wd box is sloppy and the 2wd is nice and tight. Also, I have already drilled and tapped the 2wd box for hydro assist. I figure thes balls come out whe the box is being rebuilt, so I'll probably just go buy a rebuild kit and get in there. I dunno. I'm gonna go mess with it right now.

 

[mofugly13]

Anyone have any experience with this? Pleeze help!

 

[Stomper]

I'm writing this from memory so bare with me....

Put the worm gear back in without the balls. On the drum, there should be what looks like a pipe bent in to U shape with a bolt or two holding it on the drum. Remove that pipe(it is two pieces).

Turn the shaft that connects to the steering column so the drum is as far to the front of the box as posible( away from the shaft). Now start putting the balls in the left hole in the drum, fill it, then turn the shaft so the drum starts going twards the steering wheel.... filling the hole with balls as you go....I believe there should be 4 or 5 that won't fit in the drum. Take the 2 piece pipe, hold it together and fill one end with grease(( just enough to hold the balls))....fill the pipe with the balls and plug that end with grease. Now carefully install the pipe and bolt it in to place.....I had a magnetic socket to control the little bolt.

That should get you back together..

 

[Poohbair]

White-Rhyno and myself had a similar situation happen... we decided to go ahead and tear the whole god damn thing apart to see what was in there after we made all the bearings fall out. Once we got this far, it was easier to just go get another box... So I used a good 4wd box and put the 2wd sector shaft in it

 

[mofugly13]

Right on Poohbair, I saw that post when I searched the site for some info. Of course, it didn't help me any...

Stomper, thank you. I had an old 4wd box that was shot and I had searched a bit on pirate, they mentioned the u-tube and putting the balls in alternating colors, but that was it. So I tore into the old box, and it looked like the way to do it was as you described, but I still wasnt sure on how to start. Thanks for the info that the piston has to be at the far end of the box before I started. That little bit of info probably saved me a headache or two. Thanks, brother.

 

[mxfireman]

Hope this might help you?

 

[bdozeraz]

Had a similar situation when I tried to change the seal on the input stearing shaft. I unscrewed the seal retainer and ended up unscrewing the whole shaft and bearings out of the end of the stearing box. The bearings definatly have to be installed alternating the colors. I just got some real heavy sticky axle grease and stuck all the bearings to the shaft and screwed it back in.

Brent