The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Steering box rebuild

Greetings. I’m rebuilding my 1957 1/2 ton manual steering box. There’s a couple of things I’m not sure about, and I haven’t found anything in the search area.

The worm bearing adjuster looks as though the bearing race should be replaced, but I can’t tell if it requires replacing the whole adjuster. Is the race machined into the adjuster?

I have two bushing in the kit. I need a shorter bushing for the side cover that fits the sector shaft. It looks like the right diameter, but it’s too long. Can I cut it down to length?

Looking at the late '55 shop manual, the worm gear bearing race is part of the adjusting nut, it's the way the other years are also. https://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/sets/72157632210242370/
Yours will be very similar to the one shown in the manual I linked. If the sector shaft only has one bushing on the long side, then the second bushing will need shortened to fit the cover, just be sure it's not needed on the long side first. When rebuilding my '41 box, I was buying bushings at my local bearing distributor since they were standard sized, I added a second bushing to the long side to give more support out on the seal end, it really tightened up the movement at the seal.

Thank you for the great info. I’m looking for a new adjuster. Jim Carter shows one do I’ll call them.

Larry