Balls ...Manual steering box

C

chris varming

Member
Gentlemen, have any of you tried to renovate a manual steering box? - I have just stripped one and to my surprise I found that in the main nut there were twenty-seven 5/16 balls - according to the manual (57.30.07) there are only 26 balls and also in Haynes they mention twenty-six balls. Counting and re-counting I came to the same number: 27 (twenty-seven).
Now, I have a number of manual steering boxes as spares and I opened up a second box - Guess what: 27 balls! - My question: is it so that we Danes are equipped with an extra ball or what? (No funny comments...) - I have re-installed all 27 balls and it seems to work. - Have any of you faced this problem? - Regards, Chris Varming
 
Interesting, there must be some logic to leaving one out.

On the P4 front swivel/kingpin which supports the weight of the car on a very small bearing the manual tells you to take one ball out - doesn't explain why though.
 
The Haynes manual will just have copied the Factory manual word for word, and it wouldn't be the first time I've found errors in the Factory WSM, so it could be just that, a typo.

(Might be just for you Danes though, a spare, 'cos it's so bloody cold there. Went there 30+ years ago, just thawing out now......)
 
Thanks Harvey - I knew you would come up with a perfect answer - sorry about your trip to DK 30 years ago, I never realised it could be THAT cold but I'm glad that your ball has thawed up - it might be usefull one day..... :roll: chris varming
 
Hi
I think this is a characteristic of all uncaged ball bearings . I reenmber from my cycle and motor cycling days there was "always room for one more ball" in the wheel bearings , which you DIDNT install. I stripped and rebuilt a Rover P3 steering box , it had one more ball than the parts list quoted . All the balls were ground into funny shapes . Luckily the last person to rebuild it and added the " missing ball " had used some really crumby balls ; the worm and nut were not worn .The rebuilt steering box worked perfectly without all the slop which had forced me to rebuild it .
The same genius fitter had also added an extra ball to the king pin bearings .
So I would believe the parts list in preference to the Haynes manual ; and re install the number of balls the list specifies .
Cheers
RV W
 
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