Manual Steering Gear, Disassembly/Assembly

Fig. 1 Disassembled view of manual steering gear assembly:

DISASSEMBLY

1. Place steering gear into a vise.
2. Remove tie rod end, Fig. 1.
3. Remove boot.
4. Using a suitable chisel, bend back staked portion of lock washer between inner tie rod and rack assembly.
5. Remove tie rod from rack.
6. Loosen adjusting plug nut, then remove spring and plunger.
7. Remove pinion seal and snap ring.
8. Rotate pinion gear shaft until pinion flat is parallel or aligned with rack assembly. Then carefully measure dimension A, Fig. 2. Record reading obtained. This relationship must be used for assembly.
9. Remove pinion assembly.
10. Pull rack from housing.

Fig. 2 Measuring & centering rack/pinion:

ASSEMBLY

1. Install rack into steering housing.
2. Carefully set rack to dimension A recorded previously. Install pinion, aligning flat parallel as shown in Fig. 2. Plus or minus 5 degrees from parallel is acceptable.
3. Install pinion retaining snap ring.
4. Lubricate, then install plunger, spring, adjusting plug and locknut.
5. Torque adjusting plug to 4 ft. lbs.
6. Back off adjusting nut up to 25 degrees.
7. Measure pinion shaft preload. Preload should be .4-.9 ft. lbs. If preload is not within specified limit, loosen locknut and adjust plug torque. When an acceptable preload is achieved, apply liquid thread lock to locknut and torque to 49 ft. lbs.
8. Install inner tie rod and a new locking washer on to rack end. Torque to 65 ft. lbs. Stake lock washer to the flat on the inner tie rod. Apply suitable grease to the inner surface of the small opening in the boot.
9. Install boot over inner tie rod.
10. Install tie rod nut and attach to tie rod end.

Fig. 3 Checking tie rod end dimension:

11. Adjust tie rod length L dimension as shown in Fig. 3. L dimension length should be 7.5 inches.
12. Torque tie rod locknut to 40 ft. lbs.
13. Install boot clamp and wire.