Bench testing steering columns

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

I bought a HR Column to day to get rebuilt to replace the worn one in my FE.
Aside from looking daggy, the adjustment screw appears to be most if not all the way out and it feels "tight" on turning it. I would like to confirm properly if there is a way before fitting it.

[mcl1959]

That's always a good sign that the gears are not worn. As the severing box wears out, you turn the centre screw in bit by bit to keep it tight.
If yours is all the way out it should be good. Just check inside that everything is clean and it should be fine.

Ken

[ardiesse]

Stinky,

Turn the steering shaft by hand.  It should feel perfectly smooth.  If it feels gritty or lumpy, then the steering box isn't as good as it should be.  The easiest way to check your steering box's condition is to pop the sector shaft out (take the cover off).  Then loosen the big adjuster locknut and unscrew the bearing adjuster.  You can now slide the steering shaft and worm nut assembly out of the column.  If the steering box is full of grease, you have a good one.

Things to look for:
- Pitting on the wormshaft bearing faces, particularly the rear one.  Pitting will cause the steering to feel "lumpy".  Pitting on the bearing surfaces can be repaired by a hard-chroming place.
- Pitting on the worm.  You don't need to disassemble the worm and nut to check this, instead gently rotate the ball nut from lock to lock and inspect the surface condition of the worm.  Pitting on the worm is terminal, unfortunately.

If you're really keen, refit the sector shaft back into the box and see how worn the bushes are.

If you have popped the sector shaft out, I'd recommend removing the lower oil seal and retainer.  The original oil seal is just felt.  You can either make a new seal out of cork and re-use the original retainer; or measure the seal bore and depth (the steering shaft is 1" dia.), and get a "proper" oil seal.

Rob

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Thanks for advice guys.