Power steering gear rebuild

[Raindem]

Hi.  I'm replacing seals in the power steering box on my 1973 Charger.  My intent was to disassemble only far enough to replace the seals in the control valve and those that come in the seal kit.  I was having trouble following the FSM procedure for disassembling the box and accidently unscrewed the worm shaft from the piston.  Ball bearings started rolling all over the place.  I managed to recover them all, along with the 2 metal pieces that seem to hold them in place somehow.

The book does not give a procedure for replacing these bearings.  Has anyone ever done this?  There are a couple plastic plugs in the piston which might be related to installing the ball bearings but I can't be sure.

Thanks

Curt

[Raindem]

Still need help with this if anyone knows how.  I've spent the last few days working on it.  I can get all 26 ball bearings installed (through the access holes) but the worm shaft will bind up and not turn, so I know something's not right.

Thanks

Curt

[Bronzedodge]

Oh boy.  I read that chapter in the FSM about 18 times, made some tools to disassemble mine.  I have heard to never allow the balls to come out of the worm gear.   There is a certain sequence to do it.

My high pressure leak was a pain, ended up buying a box from Steer N' Gear at Carlisle.  No help for you, sorry.

http://www.steerandgear.com/

And there's FirmFeel also.

[Raindem]

The sad thing is I've already purchased the seal kits, and everything else came apart just fine.  I'd hate to cave in and buy another box at this point.  Maybe I can source the piston/worm shaft assembly on its own.

[Bronzedodge]

IIRC, the balls are two different sizes, and alternate upon reassembly.  Everything need to be Larry Sheppard clean, immaculate, white glove test.  But under "Gear Reconditioning", sect (25) - The worn and piston is serviced as a complete assembly and should not be disassembled.

[Raindem]

The worn and piston is serviced as a complete assembly and should not be disassembled.

Boy, they weren't kidding!

Yes I saw that part too in the manual.  Unfortunately I was having a hard time following their instructions.  Half the time I didn't even know what part they were refering to.  Drive train?  What drive train?  I don't see that listed in the exploded diagram.  And the pictures look like an ink blot test.

I didn't know about the different sized balls though.  I'll mic them tomorrow to see if there is a difference.  As I mentioned, I can get them installed and everything back together but the worm shaft binds up after half a turn.

Thanks.

[375instroke]

Power steering pumps, engines, automatic transmissions, all that's easy to rebuild.  I'll never do a power steering box, though.  Only thing I could think of that may be of help is using grease to hold the bearings when assembling, but it sounds like you're problems are elsewhere.  Good luck. 

[Raindem]

The places that rebuild them (Firm Feel, Steer & Gear) claim that they use new ball bearings for the worm gear.  Steer & Gear says they'll put in oversize bearings if there is excessive wear.  So there must be a procedure for this.  

I mic'd the bearings and they are all the same size.  Exactly.  I fiddled with it some more today and I got it to point I've been at several times now - the bearings are all installed but the shaft will bind up after half a turn.  By this point I had resigned myself to buying a rebuilt box, so I played with it further.  I found that by just applying a little extra turning force (not much, maybe 5 lbs) it will turn past the point it gets stuck.  But then it will get stuck again.  So I work it past that spot, and so on.

With the worm shaft installed and "sort of" turning through it's range of motion I decided to put it back together for the practice.  After all, if I'm going to be using it as a core I don' want to bring them a box of parts.  When I was initially tightening the staked nut I didn't have a good hold of the worm shaft and a lot of torque was momentarily applied.  That seemed to pop something in place.  Because after that the worm shaft spun in and out without any binding.  So I decided to install the new seal kit and see how it goes.  I'm concerned that I may have damaged one of the bearings.  But everything else went together OK (I had to guess on the staked nut tightness) and it seems to operate smoothly.  

[E5 Charger]

I don't know if it's the same as a Jeep, but here is a good youtube. He installs the ball bearings. Hope it helps.
https://youtu.be/rkIhVLRnXXU