16:1 worm gear reassembly question

[Miranthis]

I have my 16:1 worm gear apart and cleaned. The end screws for the clip that holds the two recirc channels on blocks the balls form leaving the ball nut. Does the center screw that holds the recirculation tubes on to the ball nut separate the ball bearings into two halves, or do all 54 ball bearings circulate along the whole ball nut through both ball guides? If they are separate halves, is it possible to put too many in one side, or will only enough fit?

 

[Dave999]

half balls in 1 tube half in the other and absolutely none in between, any that escape would just come out at one end or jam against the threaded end of a ball guide screw.

2 ball guides..2 seperate circuits....

me doing rebuild here, with ballnut off worm

Manual steering box rebuild - Mopar Muscle Association UK


key part


5) grease ya balls

6) push 50% into one circuit and 50% in the other
push 20 or 21 balls into each circuit well greased
glue the other 6 or 7 into each ballguide with grease
press in ballguides making sure not to loose one of your balls the wrong way down the threads out of the circuit.
7) put on ball-guide clip

And make sure you put the ballnut on the correct way round, you do not want to convert it to Right Hand Drive..teeth of nut and sector are trapezium shaped.. they should mesh perfectly..

sector in right hand,correct way up...teeth facing left
fit ballnut to teeth, it only goes 1 way.... screw worm in to the hole facing you, spline end in your hand.

 

[Miranthis]

half balls in 1 tube half in the other and absolutely none in between, any that escape would just come out at one end or jam against the threaded end of a ball guide screw.

2 ball guides..2 seperate circuits....

me doing rebuild here, with ballnut off worm

Manual steering box rebuild - Mopar Muscle Association UK

Nice write up. Thanks! I used an old sector shaft to insert the 1812 needle bearings in the case (mine is an aluminum LHD box), but used a Deep-reach 3/4 pipe clamp to press them in instead of using a hammer. When properly greased they pressed in easily. I used a standard vice and some soft blocks to put the bearing int he sector cover.

 

[Dave999]

I made use of what i had at the time hammer and old sector into cast iron worked ok.... but as you say better ways of doing it

took about a year of collecting photos of parts, using the scale of the known dimensions of those parts and measuring the photos, applying a scale ratio to work out if it would fit.

the australians thought their 16:1 was unique, and it is to a certain extent. The worm shaft is 1/2 inch shorter necessitating an extra long steering column

The americans said that their stuff was only LHD and it would not work in a RHD case.

I only had 1 steering box and i needed it to steer

Firmfeel were unable to confirm if any of their kit worked in a RHD case

eventually i bit the bullet, sent firmfeel £400 and.... well.... what arrived worked out OK a nice set of parts

A RHD 16:1 steering box that worked with the standard length steering column.
with longer sector support needle rollers

what i should have done is built 10 boxes and sold them to Australians who were at the time willing to spend $1500-2000 on a worn out original 16:1

but instead i posted it all over the internet, i was so damn pleased with my discovery, hence some other enterprising people made a bit of money...

ah well you live and learn

but since then my Ebay search for RHD steering on US ebay has turned up 2 or 3 worm screws for sale in the US for little money, ( someone stole the wrong part off the production line back in 1968) with the RHD part number, that the current owner doesn't' know what to do with. Needless to say they were converted to LHD and used to rebuild some LHD steering boxes for LHD driving mopar owners.

these days when you can buy a Lares Corp 20:1 or 16:1 new its not worth it anymore,
when the grease costs you £50 and the import of the bearings and seals involves $100 just to ship. the fun has gone out of it


Dave

 

[Miranthis]

Yeah, i think I can learn a lot from the posts from the folks in the UK, AUS, and EU, but in terms of trading or sending stuff, that may not work out.

I am with you as it is hard to find info sometimes, so I want to share, but it would be nice to recoup some of the cost of the restoration...especially now that we seem to be in an asinine trade war with most of our friends and abandoning the rest... (sorry about that, btw. Only get one vote, however. )

On that note, i am trying to track down an internal spring for the inland 4 speed shifters used in 66 that even the shops just leave out and at $40 minimum order for $2-5 springs it is not cheap to just guess what the right spring is. Once I figure it out though, it adds to the knowledgebase.