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1939 FARMALL A STEERING PROBLEM

E

Enar

Member
Well, I had the steering box apart. The gear on the steering shaft is like new. No signs of wear. Sharp edges. I did not take the gear out of the steering box, but it also looks new. Feels sharp. No signs of wear. No movement. Bearings all seem good. The tie rod ends are good. I tightened them all up as far as they would go and still work. Greased everything. The only suspect is the steering arm, but it's only worn at the edges and I was able to tighten it up OK.
I had play from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock. Honestly! Now I have play from about 5 o'clock to 9 o'clock.

So, any ideas? I think it is inside the box. Of course, it's all back together and I'd rather not do that again. Is there any sort of spacer that can be put in to reduce the vertical play on the steering shaft? Seems like maybe that moves. Any other ideas?

I may be able to start this baby up in about a week.

Enar
 
Enar; Now that sounds like a good old Norwegian name; on my old home place/farm, my dad and grandpa had Enar for a neighbor. Included is a link to this boards late offset tractor expert Hugh MacKay, among others on the same subject. And also this:

www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=farmall&th=732966



Good luck w/your project.
poke for Hugh MacKay & others advice
 
Is it a square shaft coming out of the box? Should be. We had to saw 1/4 inch out where the bolt goes through the arm which moves both tie rods. This allows the bolt to tighten down on the square shaft. Worth a look.
 
Gee Al. A Norwegian??!! I'm a Swede. My Dad was born up around the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably end up taking this thing apart again and doing some more work on it.
 
Tie rod ends seem to be pretty good. Not worn or scarred. And I cleaned them all up and greased it well. Then I tightened them up good. The steering wheel makes its turn long before the tie rods begin to move. I think it must be in the steering box.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Have you replaced the bearing on the end of the steering wheel shaft? Any play in that bearing and you will have steering play. Also, the bearing must be tightly clamped (inner race) to the steering wheel shaft. And...the outer race has to be clamped in the steering box by the big hex plug on the front of the steering box. Sometimes it's necessary to put a machine washer against the race before installing the big plug to get it tightly clamped in the steering box. It it's not clamped in there, the result is steering play. Slso sometimes the woodruff key that is between the worm wheel and the vertical shaft will get worn and cause play. You said I belive, that you did not take the worm wheel gear out. Was it tight on the shaft and no play between it and the shaft???
 
I did not replace that bearing. Perhaps I should. I did not know that the hex plug held the outer race. I'll check that. Where would you put a washer? There is not much room between the nut on the end of the steering shaft and the bearing. I thought that nut was holding the bearing. I think the worm wheel gear is a tight as it could be. If all else fails, I'll pull the front end again and replace the key.

Thanks for all your suggestions. (Don't go away. I made need you again!!!)
 
The washer goes against the outer race, not on the shaft. You need one that fits in the bore of the housing and is narrow so it does not rub on any parts of the bearing except the outer race. That is why I called it a machine washer. The purpose is that in case the hex plug is not contacting the outer race to clamp it in place, the washer will take care of that. If you have pipe thread dies, you could dress the threads to make the plug screw in farther, but most folks don't have any pipe threading equipment that big. You can tell when you screw in the plug if it bottoms out against the bearing race.
 

In a ball bearing there should be ZERO axial movement between inner and outer race.... Should be very little to no radial movement either... If there is the bearings are junk...

As I've said before, in the case of my Super A the bearing on the sector shaft was bad as stated in the first paragraph. When you turned the wheel the sector gear and shaft would raise before turning.. You could see it plain as day. The tie-rods and pitman arm would move vertically before beginning to turn.

There isn't much that can go kaput in there but what does cause a lot of play...
 
Thanks. I can measure the depth of the bearing with vernier calipers and then see how far in the end plug goes. I may have to make a washer or spacer of some sort.
 
I just bought machine washers of the correct diamteter at the hardware store to use as a shim. You should be able to find some that are the correct outside diameter and 1/4 or 3/8 wide.
 
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