decoupe
(deceased)
I bought a manual steering box from a 71 2800 e3 which I then took apart, thoroughly cleaned and bought new seals. I've run into a problem reassembling that has me baffled (not that difficult I agree). There are three sets of identical needle bearing sets in races pressed into the castings of the top (1 set) and case (2 sets) which result in a bearing set at each end of the shaft and one in the middle. I have installed the needle bearings into the races (with a film of motor assembly grease to hold them in place) and the top needle bearing set slipped onto the shaft with no problems.
Unfortunately, the shaft will not slide into the lower two races with lots of wiggling but no extremes of force (ie ball peen hammer) applied. This makes no sense to me as withdrawing the shaft was effortless and the needles dropped out of the races freely. Given no new parts are in this assembly and it had 100k miles on the original assembly it should be easy to insert - like the top was.
Am I missing something here?
http://s54.photobucket.com/user/decoupe/media/Steering Box/IMG_3374_zpscf1629e4.jpg.html?sort=4&o=0
Unfortunately, the shaft will not slide into the lower two races with lots of wiggling but no extremes of force (ie ball peen hammer) applied. This makes no sense to me as withdrawing the shaft was effortless and the needles dropped out of the races freely. Given no new parts are in this assembly and it had 100k miles on the original assembly it should be easy to insert - like the top was.
Am I missing something here?
http://s54.photobucket.com/user/decoupe/media/Steering Box/IMG_3374_zpscf1629e4.jpg.html?sort=4&o=0