Play in drop arms

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agroman
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Posts: 103
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:47 pm
Location: Truro, Cornwall, UK

Play in drop arms

Post by agroman »

Having reassembled the steering box and fuel tank and replaced the drop arms, I found that I had about 1/4 - 1/2" free play at the bottom of the steering drop arms. I am sure it was tight when I set up the box on the bench! Top end is tight and there is no free play in the steering wheel. To avoid taking the tank and box off again I was able to remove the bottom plate on the steering box in situ. Plenty of oil on the casting and block but a lot less work. I have removed 1 of the 2 gaskets that were between the 2 faces. This has removed most but not all of the free play. There is now a little end float, but hope this is the best compromise without major reconstructive surgery to the steering gear faces.

Now how to refill the box with oil. The manual says pour oil into the middle of the top nut so that it runs down the worm threads. Given that there was still some oil here following initial rebuild I think this doesn't work, def not to refill box completely. So I removed top cover and screwed up nut until I could remove the ball bearings. Then removed the nut completely and refilled with oil and rebuilt
1958 Dexta with loader crying out for TLC. Now getting some
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Bensdexta
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Posts: 2666
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:59 pm
Location: N Wales

Re: Play in drop arms

Post by Bensdexta »

There is a simpler if slightly more tedious way; I used my 'diurnal' pump technique - remove steering wheel nut and and fill up the centre shaft.

Wait a day till the oil has gone down through the ball bearings, then repeat. Mine took 0.8L of EP90, and a week to get brim full.
See here:
http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/phpbb ... 88&p=31741
Bensdexta - 1961 working for a living!

shawnee
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Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 11:44 pm
Location: Georgia

Re: Play in drop arms

Post by shawnee »

I heated 90w gear oil to 250 F., poured it slowly through the vent hole took total of 10 minutes.

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